EPS_340_SA-Behavioral_Learning_Theory (1)

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EPS 340 Signature Assignment: Behavioral Learning Theory Instructions : Read the vignette below and then refer to the following page which lists additional instructions about how to complete the assignment. Case Study: Behavioral Learning Theory Hans is a ninth-grader at Budwick High School, and he has a reputation for being energetic and displaying attention-seeking behavior. Whether he’s at home, school, or among friends, Hans thrives on being the center of others’ attention. One day in his Spanish class, the teacher asks Hans to stop disrupting the class by talking to his classmates who sit near him. As soon as the teacher returns to the lesson, Hans begins chatting again. After the third time of pausing the lesson and asking Hans to pay attention, the teacher feels frustrated when he begins talking a fourth time. “No has parado de hablar, y nunca terminaremos esta lección si sigues hablando! Ven, siéntate en mi escritorio para que no sigas interrumpiendo a la clase.” The teacher gestures to their desk at the front of the room to ensure Hans understands that he’s being required to move seats and sit at the teacher’s desk, removing him from his circle of friends and classmates. Hans is too far away to chat with anyone, and the Spanish lesson continues. Now facing the class, Hans scans the room and makes eye contact with several other students. Once he’s confident that the teacher is focused on the lesson instead of him, he begins making goofy faces and mocking gestures behind the teacher’s back. He gets a small thrill each time one of his classmates hides a smile or giggles. Later that day, Hans goes to math class and begins chatting with his classmates, again disrupting the lesson. Mr. Higheagle, the math teacher, sees that Hans is preventing other students from focusing on the lecture, and he asks to speak with Hans in the hallway. “Hey man,” Mr. Higheagle says to Hans, “you’ve got a lot of energy today, and I’m wondering how we can put that to good use. You did really well on the pretest for this unit, so I’m wondering if you’d help me teach some of these lessons. Would that be okay with you?” Hans agrees, and the two return to the classroom. Mr. Higheagle asks Hans questions and writes sample math problems on the whiteboard at the front of the room for Hans to work through as they explain the process to the rest of the class. At the end of class, having gotten through the lesson with relative ease, Mr. Higheagle thanks Hans for his help and suggests that they co-teach lessons at least once a week. “I don’t mind you talking in my class,” he tells Hans, “I just can’t have you making it impossible for your classmates to learn.” Hans agrees to work on being more respectful in math class and to helping Mr. Higheagle teach lessons each week. Hans finds math to be fairly easy, but he struggles with reading fluency and comprehension. He has been teased and ridiculed by both teachers and peers about his slow, choppy reading since the first grade. After math class, he walks into his literature classroom to find that they’ll be reading Shakespeare aloud for several days. Hans has been assigned one of the leading roles, which means he has a lot to read. He asks his literature teacher for a smaller role, but his request is denied. Despite being surrounded by friends he’d normally chat with, Hans sits quietly in his seat. He feels anxious, frustrated, and helpless. Other students begin reading their parts, and Hans notices how steadily and smoothly they are reading. When it’s time for his first line, he stammers a little on the first few words, hears a student snicker from behind him, and begins to feel sick. He stands up and walks out of the room while the literature teacher yells from their desk, “Stop being lazy! Get back here and read your lines!” Hans walks himself to the front office and awaits his punishment—it’s not his first time walking out of literature.

Questions: Behavioral Learning Theory Instructions : Complete your assignment on this template. After reading the vignette above, respond to the following five questions. Type your responses in complete sentences under each sub-question (e.g., you should respond to questions 1a and 1b separately). If you have questions about the assignment, please check with your instructor. 1. Operant conditioning. a. Define punishment. Include the difference between positive and negative punishment. Consequence (stimulus) that decreases the frequency of the response it follows. Positive punishment presenting a new stimulus, presumably something that a learner finds unpleasant and doesn’t want. Negative punishment involves removing an existing stimulus or state of affairs, presumably one that a learner finds desirable and doesn’t want to lose. b. Define reinforcement. Include the difference between positive and negative reinforcement. Reinforcement is the act of following a particular response with a reinforcer. Positive reinforcement occurs whenever a particular stimulus is presented after a behavior and the behavior increases as a result. Negative reinforcement occurs whenever the removal of a typically unpleasant stimulus increases a behavior. 2. Application of operant conditioning. a. Identify the type of operant conditioning that Hans’s Spanish teacher intended when they removed Hans from his social group and required him to sit at the front of the class. Use details from the case study to support your answer. The type of operant conditioning that Hans’s Spanish teacher intended when they removed Hans from his social group and required him to sit at the front of the class was negative punishment. Being removed from his social group would be the unpleasant stimulus that Hans’s teacher used in order to reduce his behavior. b. Based on what you’ve learned about operant conditioning, is Hans’s disruptive behavior in Spanish class more likely to continue or cease? Explain why. Based on what I have learned about operant conditioning, I believe Hans’s behavior will likely continue. Social exclusion can deflate the student’s sense of self and dampen their interest in the classroom subject matter. Taking Hans away from his social group will just lead to boredom, which is likely to lead to more disruptive behavior. The teacher also didn’t think to add any positive reinforcer, so there’s really nothing to motivate Hans to act appropriately. 3. Application of operant conditioning.

a. Identify the type of operant conditioning that Mr. Higheagle intended when he asked Hans to help him teach math class. Use details from the case study to support your answer. Mr. Higheagle intended on positive reinforcement when he asked Hans to help him teach math class. He presented Hans with a new desirable stimulus (helping teach the math class) in order to increase behavior. b. Based on what you’ve learned about operant conditioning, is Hans’s disruptive behavior in math class more likely to continue or cease? Explain why. I believe Hans’s disruptive behavior is more likely to cease. He obviously enjoys talking to his classmates, and no one likes getting in trouble, so by helping to teach the math lesson, he still gets to talk to his classmates while doing the work he is supposed to do. 4. Classical conditioning. a. Describe the process of classical conditioning. Include its key components (i.e., unconditioned, neutral, and conditioned stimulus; unconditioned and conditioned response). Classical conditioning begins with an unconditioned stimulus-response association (dog seeing meat leads to salivation). A neutral stimulus is then presented immediately before or with the unconditioned stimulus multiple times (flash of light immediately before the meat). Eventually, the new neutral stimulus will also elicit a response, usually very similar to the unconditioned response. This means that the neutral stimulus has become a conditioned stimulus and the response has become a conditioned response (flash of light causing salivation). 5. Application of classical conditioning. a. Using specific details from the case study, explain how classical conditioning might help to explain Hans’s feelings in literature class. Since Hans was teased so much for his struggles with reading aloud in the past, classical conditioning has made it so now if he struggles even once whilst reading aloud, he immediately feels anxious. b. Identify the key components of classical conditioning in Hans’s case. Unconditioned stimulus: teasing Unconditioned response: anxiety Neutral stimulus: reading aloud in class Conditioned stimulus: reading aloud in class Conditioned response: anxiety

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