Chapter 19 Antecedent Control Motivation Study Questions 1 How do many people who are not behaviorists or behavior modifiers conceptualize motivation Illustrate with an example Many people conceptualize motivation as some thing within us that causes our actions Consider the behavior of Susie and Jack two children in third grade at an elementary school Susie consistently completes homework assignments works hard during various classroom activities listens attentively to the teacher and is polite with the other children According to Susie s teacher Susie is a good student because she s highly motivated Jack on the other hand is the opposite Jack rarely completes homework assignments fools around while the teacher is talking and doesn t appear to apply himself Jack s teacher believes that Jack lacks motivation 2 What is a conceptual problem with the traditional view of motivation Illustrate with an example A conceptual or logical problem with the traditional view of motivation is that it involves circular reasoning Why does Susie work hard Because she is highly motivated How do we know she s highly motivated Because she works hard 3 Describe three practical problems with conceptualizing motivation as an internal cause of behavior First the suggestion that the causes of behavior are inside of us rather than in the environment might influence some to ignore the principles for changing behavior described in earlier chapters and the enormous amount of data demonstrating that application of those principles can effectively modify behavior Second conceptualizing motivation as an internal cause of behavior may influence some to blame the individual for substandard performance by attributing this to a lack of motivation or laziness rather than trying to help such individuals to improve their performance Third conceptualizing motivation as an internal cause of behavior may influence some to blame themselves for failures to emit various behaviors e g I just can t get motivated to go on a diet rather than examining potential self management strategies for improving their performance 4 If by motivating someone to do something we mean nothing more than manipulating antecedent conditions to influence that person to behave in a certain way list each of the strategies presented in Chapters 17 and 18 to accomplish that task Rules Goals Modeling Physical Guidance Situational Inducement 5 Define motivating operation Describe an example that illustrates both aspects of the definition A motivating operation MO is an event or operation that a temporarily alters the effectiveness of a reinforcer or punisher a value altering effect and b influences behavior that normally leads to that reinforcer or punisher a behavior altering effect Consider the punisher of time out discussed in Chapter 12 Suppose that at Little League baseball practices Coach Jackson typically requires a player to sit in the dugout alone for 5 minutes as a time out contingent for swearing throwing bats and other misbehavior Suppose also that at one particular practice Coach Jackson announced that players could earn points for performing well catching the ball getting a hit etc and that the five players with the most points would each be awarded a ticket to attend a major league baseball game This announcement immediately made points a reinforcer for the players In addition it increased the effectiveness of the time out as a punisher because the players could not earn points if they were sitting in the dugout for misbehavior 6 In what two ways are motivating establishing operations and motivating abolishing operations different A motivating establishing operation MEO is an event or operation that temporarily increases the effectiveness of a reinforcer or punisher and that increases the likelihood of behaviors that lead to that reinforcer or decreases the likelihood of behaviors that lead to that punisher A motivating abolishing operation MAO is an event or operation that temporarily decreases the effectiveness of a reinforcer or punisher and decreases the likelihood of behaviors that normally lead to that reinforcer or increases the likelihood of behaviors that normally lead to that punisher 7 Are the value altering and behavior altering effects of unconditioned motivating operations learned or innate Discuss with reference to an example With unconditioned motivating operations UMOs the value altering effect is innate Thus deprivation of food is an unconditioned motivating establishing operations UMEO because it increases the effectiveness of food as a reinforcer without prior learning Satiation is an unconditioned motivating abolishing operations UMAO because it decreases the effectiveness of food as a reinforcer without prior learning The behavior altering effect of UMOs however is learned For example when someone is hungry the behaviors of looking in the refrigerator or going to a fast food outlet are learned behaviors 8 Are the value altering and behavior altering effects of CMOs learned or innate Discuss with reference to an example Some MOs alter the effectiveness of consequences as reinforcers or punishers because of prior learning Such MOs are called conditioned motivating operations CMOs Coach Dawson s announcement of the program with the basketball players was an MEO because it established the points as reinforcers for the players and it increased the likelihood of desirable practice behaviors to earn those reinforcers More specifically his announcement of the program was a conditioned motivating establishing operation CMEO because it established points as conditioned reinforcers from prior learning The 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 announcement would not have worked as a motivating operation if the players had not previously learned to respond to such announcements Would you describe Coach Dawson s explanation of the points program to the basketball players as a UMEO or a CMEO Justify your choice Look at 8 Suppose that a football team has been practicing for an hour in the hot sun without water The coach says to one of the players Here are the keys to my car Get the bottles of water from the trunk Would this request be classified as an S D or a CMEO for getting the water Justify your choice This would be an S D because the coach told one of the players how to get something that he already wants Suppose that a pianist sets a goal for practicing a piece Before I can stop practicing I have to play this piece through 10 times in a row