 Hey everyone, it's Dr. Howard. Now we're moving into the topic on operant conditioning, and we're going to be talking a lot about how the environment supports and changes behavior over time. Unfortunately, this is a place where most introductory psychology textbooks tend to oversimplify behavioral theory. Now, since I'm a behavior analyst by training, it's really important for me that you understand just how robust and fantastic a theory of behaviorism really is for changing behavior. So what I want to do in these next two videos is talk a little bit about some of these common misconceptions that psychologists have about behaviorism and behavioral theory, so you can better understand how robust this particular theory is. Now keep in mind that when Skinner was studying and doing research, he had a very, very long career and focused on things like how to use reinforcement, how to use reinforcement effectively. He argued at length, philosophically about the dangers of using punishment, why we shouldn't be using punishment ubiquitously in our society. So behaviors really are focused on improving the quality of life for our clients and making sure that when we're making changes, they really do pay off well for people. Let's talk about the first misconception that is usually introduced to students, and it's this issue of topography versus function, or simplified a little bit. Think of it as the dichotomy between form and function. So topography or form is what a stimulus looks like. You know, I can say that I give Billy a cookie and he's more likely to do a behavior. Am I using reinforcement? What's the most important part of that relationship? Is it the fact that I gave Billy a cookie, right, the stimulus that has a particular form, or is it the fact that his behavior occurs more often in the future? Well, if you believe your textbook, and in this case I'm going to encourage you not to, the more important part would be the cookie. But keep in mind that a cookie is not going to be a reinforcer for everyone, and there are going to be circumstances under which the cookie itself isn't a reinforcer for us, even if it's been a reinforcer before. So times like you just had a really big meal, and I say, hey, come wash my car. I'll give you some cookies, and you're like, no thanks. I'm not going to wash your car because I'm not really motivated by that form of a stimulus, right? In this case, what the stimulus looks like doesn't matter. You should not assume that things that you find pleasant or repetitive or things that you say that you like will actually function as reinforcers. Again, topography or form is what it looks like, but function is the more important part. Function means what does it actually do? So what I need to know to determine whether I'm looking at a reinforcement procedure or a punishment procedure is what effect did it produce on behavior? Giving you that same example, I give Billy a cookie. He's more likely to clean his room in the future when he earns a cookie. That means that I'm using reinforcement. I've delivered a stimulus. We have more behavior occurring in the future. The more important part there is how Billy's behavior changed, right? We have more behavior. More behavior means reinforcement. But imagine that I have another child who's learning table manners and every time they talk back to me at the dinner table, I swat him, I spank him, I give him a little tap on the butt. Now you might immediately say, well, that's punishment, right? Because in our everyday language, we assume that physical striking or hitting or making somebody feel bad is going to be a punisher. That's a topographical description. In order to know what function my swatting or spanking had, I need to look at the future rate of behavior. If that child talks back less, yes, that was punishment because less future behavior means punishment. But if I'm teaching the child table manners, they talk back to me. I swat them and they talk back more. I'm really looking at a reinforcement procedure because they had a behavior. The consequence of swatting followed it, but I got more behavior in the future. That means reinforcement. Okay. So keep that in mind. There is a big difference between the form of a stimulus and the function of a stimulus. And for this very reason, we cannot conclude that things like rewards, things that we think people will like, will actually serve as reinforcers. We can't assume that things that people say they don't like will function as punishers. You always have to look for proof that behavior is actually changing. To determine whether or not you have an effective behavioral procedure. Now in the next video, I'm going to talk a little bit about some of those misconceptions about basic behavior change procedures. So I hope you come on back. If you have any questions, please let me know.