MOTIVATION - Georgia Institute of Technology

WHERE’S THERE’S THE MOST LIGHT: MOTIVATION AND BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS

M. JACKSON MARR, PH.D. GEORGIA TECH

STRANGER THAN FICTION INTELLIGENCE PERSONALITY ATTENTION INTENTION BELIEF EXPECTATION MIND MOTIVATION

MOTIVATION WHAT IT IS NOT: 1. 2.

3.

A thing or quality possessed by an organism. (i.e., it’s not like a nose) An explanatory concept. (e.g., The problem of circular definition with terms like “drive” and “will power”) Reflective of teleology. ( The future ain’t happened yet.)

WHAT IS IT THEN?

Can refer to a field of study devoted to the specification and analysis of those variables that control the (1)

reinforcing, (2) punishing, (3) discriminative, and (4) eliciting properties of events.

ESTABLISHING or MOTIVATIONAL OPERATIONS/CONDITIONS • These conditions are comparable to initial and boundary conditions in physics and include: • • • • • •

(1) deprivation (2) stimulation (3) temporal variations (4) social context (5) experiential history (6) physiological states

LIKE MOTIVATION,

A REINFORCER IS NOT A THING EITHER.

Three-term Contingency SD

SD: discriminative stimulus

SR Ro

Ro: operant class SR: reinforcer

Newton’s Second Law of Motion

F m

   

dv  dt 

F: force m: mass dv/dt: acceleration

SHOCKING RESULTS

Operant Conditioning

Operant Conditioning

IT’S AUTOMATIC

MEN ACT UPON THE WORLD, AND CHANGE IT, AND ARE CHANGED IN TURN BY THE CONSEQUENCES OF THEIR ACTION.

B. F. Skinner, Verbal Behavior, 1957, p. 1

FEEDBACK FUNCTIONS

O-rules, functional relations B = f (r) r:

B:

feedback

output

E-rules, feedback functions r = g (B) Figure 1. The behavior-environment feedback system Operant Conditioning