Don't underestimate the power of intermittent reinforcement.
Sometimes it's hard to decide which is more disturbing: the realization that you've been responding unthinkingly like a rat in a cage, or the realization that you've been unknowingly reinforcing behavior you never intended to reward. One problem when dealing with people is that, unless you know the subject's full history, it's often difficult to predict when something will reinforce their behavior. One person's punishment may be another person's reward. B.F. Skinner had it easy.
~~~~~
Dark chocolate is usually a good reward for me. I'm just saying.
~~~~~
If I wake up before sunrise, I like to enjoy the silence, to experience the waking of the light in solitude. Almost the last thing I want to see at 6 a.m. is an extravert.
Fortunately, this morning's extravert was smart enough to leave me in peace.
~~~~~
I'm really very tired of dealing with bureaucracy. Too much lever-pressing, and too few of the food pellets contain dark chocolate.
~~~~~
Saturday's walk: 4.5 miles.
Sunday's walk: 2.5 miles.
Monday and Tuesday: Walk when the wind chills were below 0 degrees Fahrenheit? Nah, not when I still have a cold.
Wednesday: About 2 miles.
Thursday: After coming home from a bureaucratic lever-pressing session which may or may not have accomplished anything (I want my food pellets!), I went out again and walked 2.5 miles before noon. Now I'm trying to decide if it's bedtime or not.
~~~~~
I'm watching the breeze rippling the fur of a raccoon on the neighbor's chimney. The poor masked fuzzball would clearly prefer to be inside the chimney protected from the winds, but people in the house keep burning things. He can't breathe the smoke and yet he wants to be close to the warmth, so he climbs up to the outside world and curls up on the chimney top, letting the smoke flow past him.
~~~~~
Fuzzbutt has the right idea. It feels like it's time to go find a sunbeam and sleep in it.
Sometimes it's hard to decide which is more disturbing: the realization that you've been responding unthinkingly like a rat in a cage, or the realization that you've been unknowingly reinforcing behavior you never intended to reward. One problem when dealing with people is that, unless you know the subject's full history, it's often difficult to predict when something will reinforce their behavior. One person's punishment may be another person's reward. B.F. Skinner had it easy.
~~~~~
Dark chocolate is usually a good reward for me. I'm just saying.
~~~~~
If I wake up before sunrise, I like to enjoy the silence, to experience the waking of the light in solitude. Almost the last thing I want to see at 6 a.m. is an extravert.
Fortunately, this morning's extravert was smart enough to leave me in peace.
~~~~~
I'm really very tired of dealing with bureaucracy. Too much lever-pressing, and too few of the food pellets contain dark chocolate.
~~~~~
Saturday's walk: 4.5 miles.
Sunday's walk: 2.5 miles.
Monday and Tuesday: Walk when the wind chills were below 0 degrees Fahrenheit? Nah, not when I still have a cold.
Wednesday: About 2 miles.
Thursday: After coming home from a bureaucratic lever-pressing session which may or may not have accomplished anything (I want my food pellets!), I went out again and walked 2.5 miles before noon. Now I'm trying to decide if it's bedtime or not.
~~~~~
I'm watching the breeze rippling the fur of a raccoon on the neighbor's chimney. The poor masked fuzzball would clearly prefer to be inside the chimney protected from the winds, but people in the house keep burning things. He can't breathe the smoke and yet he wants to be close to the warmth, so he climbs up to the outside world and curls up on the chimney top, letting the smoke flow past him.
~~~~~
Fuzzbutt has the right idea. It feels like it's time to go find a sunbeam and sleep in it.
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