Pigeons are known for their amazing eyesight and learning abilities, allowing them to have been used as assets in military missions, i.e. in their guided missiles. However, due to ethical issues, with this method is no longer used. Nevertheless, the use of pigeons in the military has given us much insight into how the human brain works in regards to operant conditioning.
B.F Skinner (1981) believed operant conditioning has played a significant role throughout the history of the human race. He calls this selection by consequences. Our self reflection helps us understand what we enjoy and don’t enjoy, as well as assists us in creating our personal values reflected by our personalities. Through reinforcement, we form our own opinions that shape us to become who we are. This was shown through the Montessori school we observed. Each kid was able to discover their own likes and dislikes through the different subject stations around the classroom through reinforcement. This reinforcement encourages kids to further explore a subject that they find especially interesting, which allows the students to start thinking independently in an academic setting at a young age. The teacher is also not the center of the classroom, they are just a facilitator and mediator of the materials for the children, which is a catalyst for this independence. The student’s want to learn on their own creates satisfaction and enjoyment for school and gives them the ability to be proactive in the outside world for their future which reinforces this form of learning for them.
Unlike normal elementary schools, kids in Montessori schools are much more well behaved and excited to learn. For example in my Catholic elementary school, our teachers were very much authoritative which caused some students to act out against them. They tried to resist the authority since they were not able to act independently and caused codependency and other authoritative resistance later on in life. This is a major difference I noticed in our observation, which goes back, again, to Skinner’s idea of operant conditioning in selection by consequences.
Through behavioral analysis, we are able to see how different people form ideas and values from their own individual reinforcement. Like the pigeons, when a person has a motive for something that is pleasing to them they have more of a reason to repeat these actions. However, when does reinforcement to the things we like become harmful to us and the selection of our consequences?
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