V. MOTIVATION
as of October 5, 2017
A. THE ISSUES AND DAILY LIFE ILLUSTRATION:
Traditionally, the term “motivation” has referred to certain so-called “inner states” which are supposed to partially determine all human and animal behavior. Often these states have been called “instincts,” “needs,” “drives,” or “motives.” Others frequently use words like “wishes,” “wants,” “urges,” or “desires” to refer to much the same thing.
B. DEFINITION:
Q-1. Suppose we have two children. John is fed just before our experiment; Bobby is deprived of food for several hours. In both cases, button-pressing produces food. Which child would you expect to show the higher response rate?
Answer. (BOBBY)
Q-2. A subject who has just “eaten his fill” is called satiated. Which subject would you expect to give the higher response rate if bar-pressing produces food?
a. the deprived
b. the satiated
Answer. (A)
Q-3. If you do not deprive of food, food will not reinforce the sought-after behavior. Food is not a reinforcer unless a period of _______ had occurred first.
Answer. (DEPRIVATION)
Q-4 How can we determine whether a rat was never conditioned, or whether it was conditioned but is satiated? We could _______ the rat of food and see if the behavior occurs.
Answer. (DEPRIVE)
Q-5. With both a hungry child and a hungry rat, food could be used as a _______.
Answer. (REINFORCER)
Q-6. “Which is better-sex or chow?” is a meaningless question in that the correct answer depends on _______.
a. the state of mind
b. the period of deprivation of each
c. how fat the person is
Answer. (B)
Q-7. When a child is made more likely to drink milk by restriction of the water intake, we see the principle of _______.
a. satiation
b. deprivation
c. abstraction
d. induction
Answer. (B)
Deprivation refers to a period in which the reinforcer has not been presented, resulting in an increase in behavior to receive the reinforcer. Satiation refers to a period of sufficient availability of the reinforcer, resulting in a decrease of behavior to work for the reinforcer.
Q-8. What is the name used to refer to a period in which the reinforcer has not been presented, resulting in an increase in behavior to receive the reinforcer?
a. deprivation
b. satiation
c. stimulus
d. reinforcement
Answer. (A)
Q-9. What is the name used to refer to sufficient consumption of the reinforcer, resulting in a decrease of the behavior to work for the reinforcer?
a. stimulus
b. satiation
c. deprivation
Answer. (B)
C. APPLICATION OF MOTIVATION PRINCIPLE:
1. Control Motivation Variables: For pigeons, reduction to 80% ad lib (free feeding) weight or 24 hours of deprivation will increase the probability that the pigeon will work for food. Deprivation is defined as a set of operations that when changed in a certain way will increase the demand for the reinforcer. For example, the probability that the organism will work for food is higher if a period of deprivation from food has occurred first.
2. Mental Hospital: In Narrol’s program, a deprivation condition was established by placing patients in a closed ward of lower status and material comfort. The patients’ task was explained. The token, or reward, for working was moving to a ward that was of a higher level, thereby increasing the patients’ status.
3. Anorexia: The anorexia case described earlier in this set of material illustrated the use of deprivation. In this case, sought after reinforcements were given contingent only on eating behavior and they were deprived until that behavior occurred.
4. Hoarding: The elimination of hoarding towels by a psychotic patient was accomplished by the use of satiation (Ayllon 1963). This was accomplished by putting a large number of towels in the patient’s room.
5. Social Deprivation: Gerwitz and Baer (1958) investigated the effect of deprivation of social interaction on a verbal contingent stimulus. Children were put into one of three groups: deprived of social interaction, satiated with social interactions, or untreated. Following one of these three conditions, they dropped marbles into one of two holes for verbal consequences. The results showed that the socially deprived subjects were more responsive to the verbal contingent stimulus than the satiated subjects.
6. Deprivation: In your Behavior Modification program, don’t forget Motivation Modification. This means at times changes in the behavior may result from changes in deprivation levels.
D. IMPLICATION:
Supposed Intrinsic Motivation: Most middle-income children have been reinforced for achievement for some time before they start grade school. It is a great myth that middle-class children somehow demonstrate “intrinsic motivation” or that they have an “internal need” to perform well in the school situation, independently of social reinforcement. Middle-class children do not initially “learn for learning’s sake”; their behavior in school is usually good because their parents have set up appropriate consequences early in life. By the time these children enroll in school, they often have had a reinforcement history with respect to “being well-behaved.”
Note that it is a learning history of reinforcement for academic performance that is responsible for this greater achievement, and not higher levels of deprivation. Recall that reinforcement comes after the behavior, motivation is what makes something work as a reinforcer. In this case, intrinsic motivation should be called extrinsic reinforcement!
Possible ways exist to make a neutral stimulus a reinforcing stimulus:
a. Find what exists at that particular moment that is reinforcing to the individual.
b. Find another stimulus so it will be reinforcing by pairing it with a stimulus that is a reinforcer.
c. Use deprivation to make a stimulus effective as a reinforcer.
DEFINITIONS
Deprivation
-withholding a reinforcer
-increases relevant learning and performance
Satiation
-consuming a substantial amount of reinforcer
-temporarily decreases relevant learning and performance
Motivating operation
-a procedure or condition that affects learning and performance
-with respect to a particular reinforcer or aversive condition