April 29 Behavior Program

So here's the result of Monday's behavior observation.

9:30am - remembered to go set up an appointment with counselor
11:30am - inquired about history essay

i was able to remember to go set up an appointment with my counselor at 10am but when the time arrived, i forgot to go and set up that appointment which was weird because i had absolutely nothing to do from 10am-11:30. I only remembered that i forgot to set up an appointment during break for history class. since i only got 20 minutes difference from my history class to the next, i wasn't able to go set up an appointment and this was moved to be done tomorrow after my physics class.
i will be doing my physics homework after this... and do my household chores after that.


i think my behavior didn't change much since the behavior baseline... so i guess the mere absence of my planner is not enough. This observation is going to affect the program im going to design in order to make this behavioral modification work.

The challenging thing about using operant conditioning to modify my forgetfulness is when to actually do the reinforcements or the punishments. Will it be right after remembering the task correctly or at the end of the day? In psychological terms, will be fixed ratio or fixed interval?

But, based on my observations today, i choose a fixed ratio schedule of reinforcements. Everytime i DO (not remember to do) something that i believe is in my schedule, i will ask my friend to check my planner for the day if it was right. The reason why I will be asking a friend is to avoid seeing the next task that is planned on my schedule for the day.

If the task was at the right time and day, my positive reinforcement will be more time for psp in the evening. I will have time for psp because i will leave out an hour for me to do anything that i want. BUT if I forget the scheduled task after that hour, there will be a punishment of stress because surely i will be staying up for it and after playing my psp more than the normal length of time i play, i will surely be tired already to do this scheduled task.

If the task i was doing was delayed, advanced, or at a time that i should be doing something else, my friend will simply tell me that i shouldn't be doing that task but won't tell me what the task is supposed to be. I should strain to remember what i should be doing at the moment. Furthermore, i will be punished because i will have no extra hour to play psp because instead of psp, i will add a task on that extra hour, either an unimportant homework that i could set aside but, ofcourse, something that i had to do just because its my punishment.

Example:

Schedule for the day:
10am - schedule an appointment
7:00 pm - physics homework


(positive reinforcement)
-10am i set up an appointment = since the next task will be in the evening, and my class will still be at 11:30, i could use the one hour playing time i earned for myself (yey!)

(punishment)
8:30pm - i did my physics homework but the time is not right - no psp time for me plus i will add another task in my schedule which is to do the physics homework for tomorrow.


The reason why i chose playing psp as my reinforcement is because psp is all around me. It could be a retrieval cue sometimes by helping me remember that i could get an hour playing time by trying to remember something at a right time. Why is psp all around me? hahaha... all my friends play psp everytime we hang out together (even my aunt at home plays psp!), we play music with it, share each other pictures with it, watch anime with it and lots more. So for me, not allowing myself to play psp is a punishment because everybody else will be playing except for me.. ='(

I believe that this program will be effective because i have psp as a retrieval cue and as a positive reinforcement tempting me to try my best to remember. And also because there is someone (my friend) to help me observe my behavior, keep track of my schedule, and to check if im not cheating my way into this behavior modification project.

let's try it again

usually Mondays are the busiest of my days on the week because i got class until 6pm and my school day starts at 6:30 plus i still got chores in the evening and homework to do.

so here's my schedule for tomorrow... let's see how many i'll forget.

Monday, April 28th

10am- set up sched with counselor
11:30 - inquire about history essay
7pm - psychology blog
8:30 - physics homework
10pm - clean birdcage
11pm - vacuum house

there it is... i still have not used my planner since this project started so maybe i'll remember more because i've been straining to remember things since i observed my behavior on the week of April 14th.

Behavior at Baseline

The week of observing this behavior has passed and this is what i remembered from the schedule I wrote last week:

Week of April 14th
Monday
10am - remembered to turn in forms
10:30 - meeting
12pm - turned in history homework
3pm - turned in forms

Tuesday
2:30pm - did some physics homework
7:30pm - created song list and script

Wednesday
6am - print experiment paper
10am - study for psych
11:30am - turned in psych. homework
7:30pm - finished physics homework

Thursday
8am -studied for physics
12pm - turned in physics homework

Friday
12pm - studied for history


the things i forgot to do:
- my promos and station sweeps
- studio time
- study for psych

and obviously most of them i didn't do at the assigned time.


The thing is, I do these tasks whenever i remembered them. I don't fail to do them because i set them aside, i fail to do them because i fail to remember them. And when i do, I'm always in a hurry to finish them, which i guess another reason why i forget the other things im supposed to be doing at that time.
The schedule i made last week is the ideal schedule for me so that i will not be cramming during the week. But i still ended up cramming my physics homework until 1am and trying to study as fast as i can the next morning before i went to school. If I had followed the schedule I set myself, I would have a good amount of sleep everyday and reduce more than half the stress im having just because i don't have my planner to remind me what to do.
My schedule isn't at all hard to remember because it's based on my daily routine. I usually do my homework after dinner, print things i have to turn in in the morning, and study the day before. But even my daily routine gets screwed up without my planner.

Operant conditioning is, in a way, given in my situation. If I remember my schedule, I would have a good amount of sleep, I'll be less tired, and less stressed. If I don't, an all nighter will kill me eventually. (just kidding)

Ideas that might help me improve this behavior in a long term basis might need more research about improving the prospective memory. The prospective memory is our memory of our plans to do in the future, like schedules or paying bills, taking medication. In my research i will try to devise a way for me to help me remember what i should be remembering to do.

oh.. another thing

since i'm supposed to keep track of this behavior and how many times i do it, i'm not going to use my planner AT ALL.
what i will do is that i'm going to post this week's tasks that i have to do and the time and date i should be doing it. and try to remember it for the whole week. i'm just going to bring a small notebook so i could take note as to when i remembered to do that task and actually did it.
by the next time i should record my progress in this blog, i will put in the times i listed on my notebook and compare it to the original schedule i made for that week.

so for the week of april 14th here's my schedule (classes that i have to go to is not listed)

Monday, April 14th

6am - print history homework
10am - turn in internship forms
10:30 am - meeting
11:30 am - turn in history homework
7pm - finish physics homework

Tuesday, April 15th

6:30pm - create song list and artist info
9pm - study for psych

Wednesday, April 16th

6am - bring field experiment paper (the reason for being late is actually my forgetfulness)
11:30 am- turn in experiment paper
6:30 - write 2 :30 promos and 2 :10 station sweeps for radio show
7pm - study for physics test/finish physics homeowork

Thursday, April 17th

6:30pm - try to finish history study guide
3-5pm - studio time

Friday, April 18th

10am - finish history study guide (if i still haven't)
1pm - study for psychology chapter 5 & 6

i will view this schedule on Sunday night and i will not view this blog again until after the 18th.

april 15 - introduction

Introducing.... Carlotta!!!
I'm doing this blog so i could monitor a behavior i want to change for psychology class.
one thing about me is that i am very forgetful.
the solution i did for my being forgetful, is a planner.
but when i actually forget my planner, i'm screwed.

so... apparently... the planner solution i have been doing since i got into high school, doesn't work.
instead of the planner helping me to lessen my forgetfulness, i became dependent on it, so i could get by even if im forgetful.

to take advantage of this class, the behavior i want to change is my being forgetful.
by the end of this project, i want to be mindful or at least a little bit less forgetful.

i'm really hoping i could change this behavior of mine...
so, please comment on my blog.. it might help me remember! hahahaha