Brody and the Cell Phone

1. Brody and the Cell Phone Kati Carlson EDPS 257 Tuesday/Thursday 12:30 p.m.-1:45 p.m. Daniel Abbott

2. Scenario • I have a 18 month old son, Brody who is very motivated, assertive and many times, downright naughty. When he began to walk and was able to reach more things at about 11 months old, he began to have a fascination with cell phones. He constantly would grab our cell phones and mess with them. He is like a sponge and anything that the adults around him do, he does. My brother, who is 17 obviously is attached to his cell phone so Brody likes to take his “fake” cell phone and do everything with it that his uncle does such as texting, talking, and placing his cell phone right next to where his uncle does. Brody Uncle Jordan “Monkey see Monkey do”

3. Behaviorism • Operant Conditioning • Form of learning in which a response increases or decreases in frequency as a result of being followed by reinforcement or punishment. • Positive reward • Consequence that brings about the increase of a behavior through the presentation (rather than the removal) of a stimulus. • Negative punishment • Consequence that brings about the decrease of a behavior through the removal of a stimulus.

4. Tying the 3 concepts together • Operant conditioning is all about positive and negative, removing and adding stimuli in order to achieve a desired response. Two examples of achieving that desired response are positive reward and negative punishment. Positive reward can be tied to operant conditioning because it is the adding of a stimulus in order for the behavior to continue. Negative punishment is tied to operant conditioning because it is the taking away of a stimulus in order to decrease the behavior. Positive reward and negative punishment are directly tied to operant conditioning because they both require the use of stimuli in order to achieve a desired response.

5. Applying concepts to scenario • Operant conditioning applies to Brody’s behavior because as his parent, I am attempting to add or subtract stimuli in order to decrease his inappropriate behavior. • Positive reward applies to Brody’s behavior because I have added my attention to his cell phone grabbing behavior by directing my attention to him and telling him, “Please don’t do that Brody.” and putting the cell phone back on the table. • Negative punishment applies to Brody’s behavior because I physically removed the “real” cell phone from his hands and put it somewhere that he could not reach it which decreased him playing with Mommy’s “real” phone. I also did not say anything to him so to not add any reward to his behavior.

6. Question • Obviously the positive reward didn’t work to stop the cell phone grabbing behavior, what other types of rewards or punishments would have worked to stop the cell phone grabbing behavior? • I thought positive punishment would work by giving Brody a “fake” cell phone to play with which would decrease the behavior of him playing with the “real” cell phone. (We did this in the future.)

7. Modeling • Modeling • Demonstrating a behavior for another or observing and imitating another’s behavior • Expert Model • An expert model shows you how to do something (presumably the teacher) and are often perceived to be flawless or perfect. • Observational Learning Effect • Acquisition of a new behavior after watching someone else do it.

8. Tying the 3 Concepts Together • Modeling is about someone or something demonstrating a task for another person whether it be a teacher or a peer. An expert model would be a teacher or a mentor or someone that is flawless at the task being modeled. The observational learning effect is related because the expert model is modeling a task in which the person is acquiring the new behavior.

9. Applying the Concepts to the Scenario • Modeling applies to Brody’s behavior because he is observing his uncle texting on his phone and putting his phone up to his ear to talk. Therefore, Brody imitates his uncle’s behavior by doing the same things. • Expert model applies to this situation because his uncle is his expert model who is flawless at using his phone and modeling that for Brody. • Observational learning effect is associated because Brody is observing his uncle and learning from him and acquiring the appropriate way to use a phone which right now is not necessary but in the future when he is old enough, will be.

10. Question • Do you think that maybe Brody’s behavior is only mimicry? • I don’t think it is because he is cognitively figuring out the appropriate behavior for what his uncle is doing, not just blindly copying what his uncle is doing.

11. Memory • Declarative Memory • Knowledge that relates to the nature of how things are, were, or will be. • Explicit Knowledge • Knowledge that a person is consciously aware of and once we recall it, we are conscious of what we know. • Meaningful learning • Cognitive process in which learners relate new information to the things they already know.

12. Tying the 3 Concepts Together • Declarative knowledge uses general world knowledge and recollections of specific life experiences. Explicit knowledge ties in declarative knowledge because it is a type of declarative knowledge and since for declarative knowledge we must know past, present, and future, explicit knowledge allows us to recall what we’ve learned. Meaningful learning applies to declarative knowledge and explicit knowledge because it is a way to learn these knowledge's and allows us to add onto what we’ve already learning and make new connections.

13. Applying the Concepts to the Scenario • Declarative knowledge applies to Brody because he is relating to the nature of how things are by observing how it is correct to talk on a phone or use a phone or text on a phone. • Explicit knowledge applies to Brody because he is consciously aware of what he’s learned and can recall what he saw us or his uncle do the previous day, week or month and can apply that to his behavior. • Meaningful learning applies to Brody because he makes new connections with the new information, i.e. seeing how to text on a cell phone, with prior knowledge, i.e. a cell phone is used to communicate and talk to people on. He relates the fact that he already knows how to put a phone to his ear or to our ears (something that is stored in his long term memory) to something new, taking the phone and pressing the buttons.

14. Questions • What other terms from the memory concept would apply to Brody? • I think that procedural knowledge may apply to Brody because it is a skill concerning how to do something, i.e. how to talk on a phone.

16. THANK YOU!