This activity shapes the behavior of a human "rat" using the principles of operant conditioning and the processes involved in successive approximations. Ask a participant to be a hungry “rat” and send that person outside the room. In the meantime, you should select a target behavior for the rat to perform. Potential target behaviors include turning off the room lights, turning on the TV, picking up an object, scratching his or her head, shaking hands with you, and so on. Also, select a method of reinforcement; smiles (which can be big or small), nods (which can be slight or vigorous), or even pencil tapping signifying the “rat” will receive a bite of food should work well. When the hungry "rat" returns explain his/her job is to get as much “food” as possible. You should reinforce successive approximations of the goal behavior. That is, you should reinforce the rat when it is close to performing the behavior, and do nothing when it is far from the desired behavior. Then proceed to make the criterion for “food” progressively more specific: the “rat” first receives “food” for going over to the window, then for touching it with either “paw” and then with the left, then for opening the window. The “rat” will probably try a number of different responses that will become more and more specific and focused. See whether after several successive approximations, the “rat” performs the desired response with no explicit direction. Alternatively, you can adopt the popular "temperature" version from the childhood game and use "cold,” "cool,” "warm,” "hot" and so on to reflect closeness to the goal. This activity can also be modified to include more human “rats” as part of a small-group activity within the classroom. We can divide students of our class into groups of about 4-6 people and ask for a volunteer "rat" from each group. To keep things flowing smoothly, you distribute to each group a slip of paper containing the target behavior. These should be simple, personal behaviors (such as having “rats” cover their eyes, clap their hands, stand on one leg, make the "okay" gesture, say a target word, take off a watch, etc.) rather than more expansive behaviors (such as going to a corner of the room) in order to keep the activity coordinated and manageable. You may want to let each student in the class have a turn playing the “rat.”
This activity shapes the behavior of a human "rat" using the principles of operant conditioning and the processes involved in successive approximations. Ask a participant to be a hungry “rat” and send that person outside the room. In the meantime, you should select a target behavior for the rat to perform. Potential target behaviors include turning off the room lights, turning on the TV, picking up an object, scratching his or her head, shaking hands with you, and so on.
Also, select a method of reinforcement; smiles (which can be big or small), nods (which can be slight or vigorous), or even pencil tapping signifying the “rat” will receive a bite of food should work well.
When the hungry "rat" returns explain his/her job is to get as much “food” as possible. You should reinforce successive approximations of the goal behavior. That is, you should reinforce the rat when it is close to performing the behavior, and do nothing when it is far from the desired behavior.
Then proceed to make the criterion for “food” progressively more specific: the “rat” first receives “food” for going over to the window, then for touching it with either “paw” and then with the left, then for opening the window.
The “rat” will probably try a number of different responses that will become more and more specific and focused. See whether after several successive approximations, the “rat” performs the desired response with no explicit direction.
Alternatively, you can adopt the popular "temperature" version from the childhood game and use "cold,” "cool,” "warm,” "hot" and so on to reflect closeness to the goal.
This activity can also be modified to include more human “rats” as part of a small-group activity within the classroom. We can divide students of our class into groups of about 4-6 people and ask for a volunteer "rat" from each group. To keep things flowing smoothly, you distribute to each group a slip of paper containing the target behavior. These should be simple, personal behaviors (such as having “rats” cover their eyes, clap their hands, stand on one leg, make the "okay" gesture, say a target word, take off a watch, etc.) rather than more expansive behaviors (such as going to a corner of the room) in order to keep the activity coordinated and manageable. You may want to let each student in the class have a turn playing the “rat.”
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