attempting a synthesis of PCT & behaviorism

created 2022-02-23 · edited 2022-02-23 · open in Roam

I have a video on this now:
but see also my notes here: re behaviorism & clicker training & PCT - attempting a synthesis of PCT & behaviorism

3 linked references

December 20th, 2024

attempting a synthesis of PCT & behaviorism
- excerpts from The Mind Illuminated by Culadasa
  - > In reality, all we’re “doing” in meditation is forming and holding specific conscious intentions—nothing more. In fact, while it may not be obvious, all our achievements originate from intentions. Consider learning to play catch. As a child, you may have wanted to play catch, but at first your arm and hand just didn’t move in quite the right way. However, by sustaining the intention to catch the ball, after much practice, your arm and hand eventually performed the task whenever you wanted. “You” don’t play catch. Instead, you just intend to catch the ball, and the rest follows. “You” intend, and the body acts.
  - > In exactly the same way, we can use intention to profoundly transform how the mind behaves. Intention, provided it is correctly formulated and sustained, is what creates the causes and conditions for stable attention and mindfulness. Intentions repeatedly sustained over the course of many meditation sessions give rise to frequently repeated mental acts, which eventually become habits of the mind.
- these are sort of describing how the unfolding of learning happens in accordance with will
- and intention is a very PCT-ish frame
- and obviously it helps to have clarity/knowledge and a path/learning context that isn't overwhelming
  - and these help you get the other ones

April 5th, 2022

relevant to attempting a synthesis of PCT & behaviorism - reward punishment operant conditioning
- Education by Punishment by David MacIver
  - > Is not rewarding someone the same as punishing them? i.e. can not giving someone a job really count as punishing them?
    
    The answer is: Individually no, but collectively yes.

February 22nd, 2022

re behaviorism & clicker training & PCT - attempting a synthesis of PCT & behaviorism
- Externally Reinforcing an Intrinsically Reinforced Behavior
- this article is from a sort of behaviorist lens overtly
  - critiquing Alfie Kohn
    - but seems to kinda strawman him and not engage with his actual studies
      - (which Divia points out may not have replicated, although even so, to not mention them at all is unimpressive)
  - and a lot of what she says sounds more PCT-esque ("sated") than stimulus-response
  - the whole concept of an "intrinsically reinforced behavior"
    - feels very phlogistony from PCT's perspective
    - but also it makes sense!
    - as long as you don't overreify who/what is doing the reinforcement
    - I find myself wanting to replace "reinforcer" with "what works"
      - and so you can only reinforce someone else if you are satisfying some sense of what works
        and only they are the deciders of what workingness is!
        like if you're playing chess and you make a move and your friend you're playing against says "fuck you", that might be a reinforcer! even though the same friend saying that during an argument would not
        (unless in some sense you were trying to get them worked up!)
        and you may have multiple control systems
      - in this sense, non-praise feedback is letting them know that what they did works/worked, which is a reinforcement!
    - and I see & like how it dovetails with what Divia's saying, in terms of "timing matters"
      - > I think some of the important insights of behaviorism are:
        -timing often matters a ton more than other paradigms might predict
        -a fuckton of behavior change can happen if you go more gradually than might seem intuitive
        -some stuff about adding cues to behavior
      - like in order to have "timing matters" you need to be able to measure the reinforcement event precisely
        but it seems like the "timing matters" stuff fails to model all of the higher-order control systems that operate more slowly?
        like, entire strategies
  - > It's considered the height of success to have a career based on your passion. That is, by definition. external reinforcement for an intrinsically motivating activity. Sometimes it works out great for people. Sometimes people find that what is great as a hobby absolutely sucks as a job. Always though, it sticks within the laws of learning.
    - this is doing a bunch of subtle equivocation afaict
      - and the equivocation is probably caused by assuming that money is always a reinforcer
    - money isn't necessarily functioning as a reinforcer/reward here, depending on how the person's psychology is relating to the situation.
      - it could be that they're just not thinking about money anymore and doing what they want to do, in exactly the same way they would if they had a UBI and were doing it for no pay (this requires that the job feels secure, eg a prof with tenure or whatever)