Question

1.Use Skinner's Operant Conditioning model to explain superstitious behavior, such as refusing to open an umbrella indoors, or stepping on a crack in the sidewalk. Why do we engage in these behaviors?

2.Intelligence (IQ) tests are good predictors of school performance. What factors are not measured by IQ tests but greatly influence academic achievement? What benefits are there to identifying some students as "slow" and some as "gifted

Answer 1

1. Superstition is defined as belief or idea that has roots in magic, luck, or anything supernatural that others might find as being illogical, or irrational. Superstition is usually spread through certain practices or rumors. For example, if a black cat crosses our path something bad will happen, or if a mirror breaks your soul will break, etc. These superstitions are hinged on the beliefs that black cats are agents of devil or that mirror is a reflection of your soul. Brain has the tendency to link rewards and punishments to the actions. So, just as Skinner says, occurrence of behavior gets affected by reinforcers or punishers. These superstitious behaviors arise when superstitious belief gets reinforced or punished by accident or coincidence and especially when the delivery of consequence is close in time to the action, the probability of behavior occurrence increases. For example, if you have a bad day just after the cat crossed your path, you are more likely to believe in that superstition.

We engage in such behaviors so that we do not suffer negative consequences. Most of the superstitions have negative consequences. So, we try to avoid such actions, or we will try to negate the effects of unavoidable actions by engaging in other behaviors. For example, if cat crossed your path, then, first walk in a circle, then go backward across the spot where it happened and count to 13, chanting a charm or line from the Bible. Some of these are culture related beliefs (black cat being bad luck in some European countries, while it is considered good luck in some Asian countries).

2. IQ tests are believed to be fundamentally flawed as they are unable to measure all the facets of intelligence. Most of the IQ tests are designed to measure only certain facets like verbal, reasoning, comprehensive, and non-verbal skills. What happens when someone is bad at logical subjects, but are the type who are gifted in other fields? According to Gardner, there are 8 (later on 9) types of intelligence which are - logical, linguistic, body movement, cosmic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, musical, spatial, and naturalistic. These all individually contribute to academic achievement, and IQ tests only measure linguistic, logical, and only some aspect of spatial intelligence. Creativity, wisdom and giftedness are not measured as a part of IQ test either. These factors also influence academic as well as future success of the child in life. For example, how would you measure geniuses like Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Steve jobs, etc. using standard IQ tests and find out if they were gifted or not? Some of them did not even do well academically. Would people like Kahlo Frida, Beethoven, Steven Spielberg, etc. have scored as being having exceptionally high IQ even though they are exceptionally gifted in their respective fields?

Benefits of identifying someone as 'slow' and some as 'gifted' can help in tailoring methods to suit their needs. Gifted children can be helped in honing their skills and achieve greater heights in their respective fields. They can spend more time in the field that they are gifted with rather than waste time doing things that do not need less attention. Similarly, for slower children special materials can be prepared and given to help them catch up to average students. They can be helped to achieve success at their own pace and in a way that they can understand better, rather than rush them. Just because someone is slow does not mean that they have a disorder, it just might mean that you have to adapt a different way to teach them or may be that certain subject requires skill that they might not be having. For example, someone has bad grades just because s/he fails on logical subjects like math, science, etc. does not mean that they are dumb, it just means that they lack logical skills.