The secret

Premack gave a group of rats free access to drinking water and a running wheel (Premack, 1959). He recorded their behavior across several minutes. Initially (at baseline), each rat spent some time drinking and some time running, but on average rats spent more time running than drinking: about 250 seconds running and only about 50 seconds drinking. Then, Premack restricted the rats’ access to the wheel: they were allowed to run only after they had drunk a certain amount of water. The rats soon learned the contingency and started drinking water in order to gain access to the running wheel. Unsurprisingly, the total amount of running decreased, because the rats now had to work to obtain access to the wheel. But the total amount of drinking increased to more than 100 seconds, as the rats now performed this behavior more often in order to gain access to the wheel. In effect, the activity of running was acting as a reinforce, and it was increasing the probability of an otherwise infrequent behavior, drinking:

S (running restricted) → R (drinking) → C (access to wheel)

Premack went on to show a similar pattern in human children (Premack, 1959). He put the children in a room that contained a pinball machine and a bowl of candy, and he recorded how much time each child spent playing pinball and eating candy. Some of the children spent more time playing pinball. Premack then restricted access to the pinball machine, allowing these children to play only after they had eaten some candy. Candy eating increased, showing that access to the preferred activity (pinball) could reinforce the less-preferred activity (candy eating). Conversely, children who preferred eating candy in the first place could be trained to play more pinball, by making access to the candy contingent on playing pinball.

Thus, in both rats and children, the opportunity to perform a highly frequent behavior can reinforce a less-frequent behavior. This idea came to be known as the Premack principle. Examples of the Premack principle abound in human life. For example, left to their own devices, most children will spend more time watching television than doing their homework. Thus, watching television is a preferred activity, and it can be used to reinforce the less-preferred activity of homework. The parent restricts television time, making it contingent on homework. As a consequence, the child spends more time doing homework than he would have done if television had not been restricted. A later extension of the Premack principle, the response deprivation hypothesis, suggests that the critical variable is not which response is normally more frequent but merely which response has been restricted: by restricting the ability to execute almost any response, you can make the opportunity to perform that response reinforcing (Allison, 1993; Timberlake & Allison, 1974). For example, perhaps you have a chore, like cleaning your room or doing laundry, that you normally detest. But if access to this activity is restricted, it can become reinforcing. If you have been studying for several hours straight, the idea of “taking a break” to clean your room or do the laundry could begin to look downright attractive. If so, you’ve experienced the Premack principle at work.

Learning and Memory: From Brain to Behavior New York: Worth Publishers, 2007
Mark Gluck
Eduardo Mercado
Catherine Myers
p316-317

Read the whole thing....

I am violating my brand-new All-Premack-all-the-time Principle to put up this post first thing in the morning instead of second thing:

One Classroom, Two Genders
By JENNIFER FINNEY BOYLAN

There are two surprises: one in the middle, one at the end.

The middle one was especially fun for me because I'd read the whole first column thinking, "Really?"

The twist in the middle explained my astonishment.

Read the whole thing because.....the last line is fabulous. Especially for readers of ktm, I think.

postscript: I remember writing lots of posts on the subject of "the girl show."

I wonder if any of you remember the time our middle school principal -- Chris was in the 6th grade -- told us: "Everyone knows boys do worse in middle school."

Direct quote.

35 lbs

Chris has lost 35 lbs.

35 lbs! Since June 6. Today is August 21, so that's 11 weeks.

I've lost weight, too, though I can't report how much since I haven't been weighing myself. At least 5 lbs, maybe more. Shorts that were too tight to wear at in June are loose now.

AND: I think I finally understand the Premack principle, which I'm certain is the basis of the VB6 diet we've both been following. VB6 is the first diet I've encountered that uses eating to reinforce not eating^* -- and it works, just as the principle predicts. I would never have guessed, even though I've been reading about the Premack principle for years. I wouldn't have guessed because until now I haven't understood the principle.

I am now thinking PP is the secret to life. (Unless response deprivation is the secret to life. Clearly I need a MOOC on radical behaviorism.)

I'll try to find time to explain tomorrow.


^* Or, more accurately, eating stuff you do like to reinforce eating stuff you don't like

VB6

C. has lost 10 pounds on Mark Bittman's VB6 diet!

VB6 ("Vegan before 6") is an amazingly user friendly diet: it's the first diet I've ever tried that uses eating things you like to positively-reinforce not eating things you like without causing the whole diet to crash and burn. I've spent years trying to make the Premack principle work for weight loss, and I think Bittman has actually done it.

The funny thing is, back when I briefly became a hard-core vegan (I've been a 'part-time' vegan since then), I started out by doing exactly what Bittman did: I stuck to a vegan diet during the day, then ate a regular dinner with the family.

But I saw my own 'VB6' as a way station to full-time veganism; it never occurred to me that you could actually lose weight on that regimen.

Turns out I was wrong.

Here's an excerpt:

Six years ago, the man I most trusted with my health said to me, “You should probably become a vegan.”

Not exactly the words I’d wanted to hear, and certainly not what I was expecting. But I’d asked Sid Baker, my doctor of thirty years, what he recommended, given that he’d just told me that at age 57, I had developed the pre-diabetic, pre-heart-disease symptoms typical of a middle-aged man who’d spent his life eating without discipline.

He’d laid out the depressing facts for me: “Your blood numbers have always been fine but now they’re not. You weigh 40 pounds more than you should. You’re complaining of sleep apnea. You’re talking about knee surgery, which is a direct result of your being overweight. Your cholesterol, which has always been normal up until now, isn’t. Same with your blood sugar; it’s moved into the danger zone.”

A more conventional doc would’ve simply put me on a drug like Lipitor, and maybe a low-fat diet. But Lipitor, one of the statin drugs that lowers cholesterol, is a permanent drug: Once you start taking it, you don’t stop. I didn’t like the idea of that.

Furthermore, its effectiveness in healthy people has never been established, and it’s also been implicated in memory loss and other cognitive complications; I didn’t like the idea of any of that, either. And at this point, low-fat and lowcarbohydrate diets have essentially been discredited: They might help you lose weight, but they’re not effective for maintaining that loss in the long term, and they may even wreak havoc on your system.

But becoming a vegan? A person who eats no animal products at all? Calling that a radical change to my lifestyle was more than a bit of an understatement. Yet it was clear that something had to be done. I asked Sid, “Is a compromise possible? Any other ideas?”

“You’re a smart guy,” he said. “Figure something out.”

The answer, to me, was this: I’d become a part-time vegan. And for me, this part-time veganism would follow these simple rules: From the time I woke up in the morning until 6 in the evening, I’d eat a superstrict vegan diet, with no animal products at all.

In fact, I decided to go even beyond that: Until 6 p.m., I’d also forgo hyper-processed food, like white bread, white rice, white pasta, of course all junk food, and alcohol.

At 6 p.m., I’d become a free man, allowing myself to eat whatever I wanted, usually—but not always—in moderation. Some nights, this meant a steak dinner; some nights, it was a blow-out meal at a good restaurant; other nights, dinner was a tunafish sandwich followed by some cookies. It ran, and runs, the gamut.

Whatever happened at dinner, though, the next morning I turned not to bacon and eggs or a bowl of Trix but to oatmeal or fruit or vegetables. For lunch, rice and beans or a salad—or both. Throughout the day I snacked on nuts and more fruit.

I called the diet “vegan before six,” or VB6. And it worked.

A month later, I weighed myself; I’d lost 15 pounds. A month after that, I went to the lab for blood work: Both my cholesterol and my blood sugar levels were down, well into the normal range (my cholesterol had gone from 240 to 180). My apnea was gone; in fact, for the first time in probably thirty years, I was sleeping through the night, not even snoring. Within four months, I’d lost more than 35 pounds and was below 180—less than I’d weighed in thirty years. And the funny thing was, the way I ate in the daytime began to change the way I ate at night.

An excerpt from Mark Bittman’s “VB6″

AND SEE:
I Answer Frequently Asked Questions about VB6
Help for the afflicted
Application of the Premack principle to the behavioral control of extremely inactive schizrophrenics

Elizabeth Wissner-Gross

Great minds think alike.

At least I think they do.

I'm thinking that, a year or so ago, Steve H told us about Elizabeth Wissner-Gross' book and website, What Colleges Don't Tell You (And Other Parents Don't Want You to Know).

I don't see her website now.... but here is her blog.

Then today Susan S sent an email telling me about a great book called What High Schools Don't Tell You. She says it's great.

I'm ordering it.

Then I'm going to try to find my copy of the college book, which is around here somewhere....

..........................

I am semi returned to email.

Semi.

(Premack principle rocks!)

Just what I wanted to hear!

from Lynn G:

FWIW, we started Primary Math 6A today. Kicking and screaming ensued.

Then we opened yesterday's mail and got a very pleasant surprise. My daughter's CMT scores (CT's state testing) arrived and were very good. She got a perfect 400 in math. Math is not her favorite, or strongest subject, but it's one we've focused on at home at length. I see the score as reflecting the coherence of the Singapore Math system.

After much oooohhing and ahhhing, I was able to get her to start 6A.

Right now, she doesn't seem to have any real weak areas. She's doing pretty good in decimals and fractions, so we're just going to charge ahead with the whole program.

That's where I am -- and I can see exactly how this curriculum gets a student to the point of perfect scores on state math exams.

The Primary Mathematics series is the coherent curriculum (pdf file) par excellence. One thing leads to another, and you have problem solving applications from the get-go.

C. has probably done 50 word problems in his entire math-learning career, if that. He has no idea how anything relates to anything else. He's been getting by on brute memory.

Here's how bad it is.

We've been doing the percent lessons in Singapore Math 5A.

That quickly became so "natural" a learning situation that, when I told C. yesterday morning I wanted him to do an entire page of problems, he looked at the page and said, "OK, that looks easy."

And it was easy. He finished in 5 or 10 minutes & got everything right.

The fact is, going back to 3A will probably be fun, especially since the Premack principle is working so brilliantly that yesterday morning (Saturday), at 10 am, C. came into my office, sat down, and said, "What do I have to do today?"

So I think we've got the think-like-a-behavior-analyst aspect of things down, which will free C. to enjoy being able to comprehend, learn, and do 3rd grade math.

That is already happening, in fact.

Yesterday, after he whipped off his one-page problem set, he said, "That Singapore method is really good."

He was referring to finding the percent equivalent of a fraction by multiplying numerator and denominator by the same number.

This is the state of his math education.

Multiplying 6/20 by 5/5 to get 30% is "that Singapore method."

Upon reflection

So I finished reflecting on my practice.

Conclusion: I stink at teaching percent.

That about covers it.

But!

I have a plan.

More anon.

...........................

Haven't read email in days - (Premack says NO! So if there are folks who've sent something I haven't answered, that's why - hoping to get back to Entourage tomorrow.)


the pause that refreshes
upon reflection
Plan B

Premack Principle redux

from Ben Calvin:

I guess employing the Premack principle means I should remap my software program's option file before I post this.

Yup.

That's what it means, alright.

Help for the afflicted

Karen A left this comment today:

Yikes! Somebody needs to stop me! (I'm in major procrastination mode--I'm supposed to be writing a paper.)

This is your lucky day, Karen A!

It just so happens that I, too, have been in major procrastination mode for lo these many moons, and I have found the answer:

the Premack Principle

The Premack Principle sounds like something you already know, but it isn't.

Sure, sure, we all know positive reinforcment is a good thing.

We all know we should put first things first.

What we don't know -- what I didn't know, at any rate -- is this whole business about reinforcement hierarchies. To wit: there are tons of things you don't want to do, and a bunch of things you do want to do, and these things can be ranked.

Then, once you've ranked them, you can pick something you don't want to do -- any old thing you don't want to do, not just the one big thing you don't want to do (in my case: stay up all night and write my book) -- do that one thing; then pick something you do want to do and do that.

And here's the miracle: after you've done this for a day or two, you start to want to do the things you don't want to do.

Not only that, but the Premack Principle works with your middle school child, the one who thinks the problem with parents is they constantly threaten to take away rights from their children.

Seriously.

Take it from Jon Bailey and Mary Burch:

Basically the Premack Principle involves setting up the rules in the house so that the preferred behavior (watching TV) is used as a reinforcer for the nonpreferred behavior (helping with chores).
p. 3

Translation: no "break" after school.

The "break" after school has been sacrosanct around here. C. needs a break after school. That's the concept. He's been at school all day; school is hard; he needs a break.

This summer the after-school break made a seamless transition into the after-camp break. C's been hard at work playing tennis all day; he needs a break when he gets home.

Which means C. comes home, plops down on the sofa, and begins playing video games with Christian, leaving me to nag, order, demand, and, yes, threaten to take away rights.

And that's just the beginning. When I finally get him to the table, we have negotiating.

If I do Megawords I'm not doing Vocabulary Workshop.

If I do decimals I'm not doing word problems.

Etc.

That's all over now.

Last Tuesday or Wednesday, I squelched the after-camp breaks. By the weekend things were running so smoothly that on Saturday morning C. came into my office at 10:30 a.m., sat down, sighed, and said, "What do I have to do?"

Then he pitched a fit, but still. By noon he had done everything I wanted him to do.

He was amazed. He kept saying to Ed, "I'm done with my work."

And Ed kept replying, "Doesn't it feel good to get it over with?" (great attitude, that!)

Sunday morning I got up and started awarding myself mental points for doing things I didn't want to do. I was banking my points, saving them to spend on doing things I did want to do. This turned things I didn't want to do into things I did want to do (points!) which got a little confusing because if I wanted to do something I didn't want to do because I would get points if I did it, didn't that make it something I did want to do after all and thus something I shouldn't be getting points for doing?

This put me in mind of the possible urban legend about the one-question essay exam some Harvard psych professor was said to have given his class, namely: what is a stimulus?

I decided not to worry about it. I was tearing around the house looking for things I didn't want to do that I could go ahead and do right then and there before we had to get to church. Points!

En route to church I explained the Premack Principle & the point system to C, who took it to heart at once.

Then, in church, we wrangled over how many church points (church being down there with word problems in C's reinforcement hierarchy) he was now losing for rudeness and failure to attend to the sermon.

When we got back home he had one don't-want-to-do facing him, which was to read a page of the Bible. This task is the result of a negotiation we'd had a couple of weeks before, when C. had said he shouldn't have to work on Sundays, and Ed backed him.^* So I said, Fine, you don't have to work on Sunday if you read the Bible, and Ed didn't have the nerve to intervene on that one.

C. also needed to mow the lawn, but since he gets paid to do that, and since it was his idea to start mowing the lawn, lawn-mowing was somewhere in the middle of his hierarchy.

He read one page of the Bible practically the instant we got home.

Then he mowed the lawn.

Then he lay down on the sofa, snapped on his video game, fixed me with the wolfy smile of the victorious, and said, "I have all my play points for the rest of the day."

..................................

I will be back tomorrow with Dick Malott & his online book on procrastination.

Chapter 3: "How to Get Yourself to Write."


^* Have I mentioned Ed is Jewish and agnostic? People will do anything not to hear middle schoolers fighting with their moms about word problems.

NYRB Children's Collection

WAPO article here

NYRB collections summer sale

NYRB Classics

NYRB Collections

NYRB Children's Collection

The Backward Day sounds adorable:

For some reason, young children get an absurd kick out of doing things backward, or spelling words backward, or otherwise behaving contrariwise for comic effect. This can be charming, but it can pretty quickly get tedious, too, as any parent will attest who has ever tried to get a straight answer out of a bunch of gleeful children chanting, "It's opposite day! It's opposite day!' " Ruth Krauss's 1950 picture book, "The Backward Day" -- just revived in elegant hardback as part of the New York Review's Children's Collection -- speaks directly to this anarchic impulse. In the brief tale, a little boy wakes one morning and decides that it is "backward day." So he gets up and puts on his coat, then his clothes -- with his underwear on the outside. He puts on his shoes, and over them his socks. "Then he turned his head backward as far as he could, to see over his shoulder, and he walked backward out of the room and backward down the stairs."

Come to think of it ... this description, of children's affection for doing things backwards, fits perfectly with what Temple and I are saying about the nature of play in our book about animal welfare ....

So I guess that means I have to buy this book.


I have to buy this book because it's a business expense!

I've just ordered The Bear and the People from Amazon Marketplace. I have no idea whether C. will like it, but how many children's books about God come across my path? None.

"Well, there was a man once, and he had a bear . . ." begins this story about a life long friendship between man and beast. The Bearman and the bear understand each other. Together they travel all over the country, "a part of the highway like the knotty old apple trees and whitehorn bushes," as they go from village to village, where they play music and juggle and dance and the children are always happy to see them. At night they sleep in the open, and before they do the Bearman tells a story and plays a beautiful melody on his horn for the bear and for God, a melody so beautiful that all the animals in the forest raise their heads and the leaves themselves stop rustling and listen.

And yet the Bearman and the bear have enemies: the jealous members of the Duda family, who are thieves and tricksters; and even more than that, the dogs. And when the Bearman dies, the bear must retreat into the wilderness for safety—until, after many adventures, he meets a new friend: a boy.

The Bear and the People is a lovely parable of friendship and courage and reverence for the natural world. It is a tale that is as exciting as it is touching and profound, and it will delight children and parents alike.

And I'm seriously contemplating hitting the Two-Day 1-Click -- Free button for The Lost Island, The Little Bookroom, and The Island of the Horses. Here's NYRB's description of the author, Ellis Dillon:

Eilís Dillon (1920-1994) wrote more than thirty books for young people, as well as fiction for adults, including the best-selling historical novel Across the Bitter Sea, about the struggle for Irish independence in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. With few exceptions, her young people's books are set in the west of Ireland, in small communities struggling to make a living on the islands and along the Atlantic coast. As the critic Declan Kiberd wrote in Dillon's obituary: “What Laura Ingalls Wilder did for children's literature in the US, she achieved in Ireland, imparting a sure historical sense in books such as The Singing Cave. That interest in history was a natural expression of her curiosity of mind, and of her family inheritance.

I better knock off here and go do some math.

Which reminds me.

The book all of us parents of middle schoolers really need is How to Think Like a Behavior Analyst, by Jon Bailey. What an enormous help. Somehow I had managed to forget the most basic principles of behavior analysis, up to and including "Grandma's Rule," aka the Premack Principle.

I've put Christopher & me both on the Premack Principle and it is working.

Of course, keeping myself (and everyone else) on a Premack Principle regimen is the question.