This was a fascinating look into practical applications of operant conditioning. I would love to see more of the data for this experiment, most importantly whether the correlations between desired behavior and reinforcement criteria were statistically significant.
Also, I loved your video thumbnail.

What a unique topic a research design! Looking at your cumulative records, there is clearly variability in who showed the desired pattern, both within specific versions, but also across as a function of what they were being reinforced to do. What are some factors that you think contributed to why some people showed such clean cumulative records and others did not? Also, what is the goal of looking at the VAT data? Is it to see if the behavior extends beyond the situation of communicating with the aliens? I know you had a small sample size, but if it were bigger would it be worth looking at the VAT data only in those who showed evidence of shaping with their cumulative record?

This was incredibly interesting! For both short words and long words, either can be reinforced through the releasing of hostages. I was wondering if you all believe that these methods could be useful in teaching children new words! Do you think that shaping for more complex words would be beneficial in the learning process of younger children?

This was such a clever experiment! I wonder if some participants simply could not identify what words were releasing the hostages. What if they typed really fast – they may not have associated the most recent word they typed with the hostage release depending on if there may have been a time lag. Clearly some participants got it and others really didn’t! I think it is funny and clever that many figured out that one letter responses would work. But if they did that they probably did not do well in the VAT because they didn’t really know why it was working!

Great work everyone! I was extremely impressed with the usage of a self-made simulation as a way to gain qualitative data! Also, I believe if additional tests had been done with the alliteration variation, results probably would’ve flipped and shown control for that category as well. Nice job!

I found the choices in your independent variables so fascinating. I loved the diligence of the utilization of the top and bottom halves of the keyboard, the length of words, conjunctions and adverbs, and the dichotomy between adjectives and verbs in order to determine the success of operant conditioning. This experiment was extremely well thought-out and was successful in communicating the effects of operant conditioning.

Interesting project! Do you think these findings could be extended to situations in which student participation in a classroom setting is reinforced? One of my high school math teachers used to hand out candy to students who would answer questions…it got me to participate more than the 0 times I otherwise would have, but how much can that influence behavior at the university level (for example)? Your professors are always trying to figure out how to get more participation! Great job programming such an interesting experiment that could likely be applied to many different types of stimuli.

It was so interesting to see how you guys made your own game to reinforce word choice. It was neat to see that the participants picked up the desired behavior of word length more then that of the word’s part of speech. Overall, this was a really well thought out study and really neat program!

Great presentation! This is such an interesting study and so amazing that you all programmed it! What are other ways that you suggest for your study’s results to be used, other than the use of “I feel” statements? Overall, very interesting and funny that people found a way to “break” the system!

Hi all! This is a really great study! I am amazed at your coding skills! Have you thought about using other criteria as opposed to using short or long words or adjectives or verbs? Like maybe polite messages as opposed to direct messages?

What a unique topic! What would happen if participants misspelled words? They are typing really fast and misspell something? I know a lot of time when people play typing games, they type fast because it is timed. Was it more beneficial to type faster in your game? Great job programming and coding, very impressive!