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Dr_Manhattan comments on [LINK] The NYT on Everyday Habits - Less Wrong Discussion

6 Post author: Alex_Altair 18 February 2012 08:23AM

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Comment author: Dr_Manhattan 18 February 2012 02:06:00PM *  1 point [-]

I haven't seen emphasis of this particular phenomenon—habits consisting of a cue, routine, and reward

Sounds like operant conditioning ?

Do people think it's a valid, scientifically supported phenomenon?

Works like hell for animals, at least for some behaviors. I suspect it will work for many human behaviors, though being the reinforcer and reinforcee seems like a serious handicap. Karen Pryor appears to be the expert in this area - see http://store.clickertraining.com/people-tagteach-training-books.html. It's something I've been meaning to look into for a while, so please report back if you get into it!

Comment author: Alex_Altair 18 February 2012 10:23:31PM 1 point [-]

Sounds like operant conditioning?

Wow, why didn't I pick up on that? After going over Yvain's post (which I read many months ago) I think it didn't strike me the same way because he discusses the validity of extending the concept to humans and the details within a laboratory setting (which is great), while the NYT article takes it as a basic observation of humans and focuses on applications to real-life motivation.

Comment author: Dr_Manhattan 18 February 2012 10:39:10PM 0 points [-]

Which post? Sounds like I want to read it too :)

Comment author: Alex_Altair 19 February 2012 03:20:21AM 0 points [-]

http://lesswrong.com/lw/6ja/basics_of_human_reinforcement/

Plus a few before and after it that are relevant. I looked for a sequence page, but it wasn't on any.