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125-418: There are a number of reasons someone may decide to delegate. These include: Delegation is widely accepted as an essential element of effective management. The ability to delegate is a critical skill in managing effectively. There are a number of factors that facilitate effective delegation by managers, including "Recognising and respecting others’ capabilities; evaluating tasks and communicating how they fit in

250-399: A conditioned reinforcer , is a stimulus or situation that has acquired its function as a reinforcer after pairing with a stimulus that functions as a reinforcer. This stimulus may be a primary reinforcer or another conditioned reinforcer (such as money). When trying to distinguish primary and secondary reinforcers in human examples, use the "caveman test." If the stimulus is something that

375-510: A glittering generality . Some will think they oppose taxes in general because they hinder economic growth. Others may think they oppose only those taxes that they believe will hinder economic growth. In writing, the sentence can be rewritten to reduce possible misinterpretation, either by adding a comma after "taxes" (to convey the first sense) or by changing "which" to "that" (to convey the second sense) or by rewriting it in other ways. The devious politician hopes that each constituent will interpret

500-399: A behavior from happening again is punishment , not negative reinforcement. The main difference is that reinforcement always increases the likelihood of a behavior (e.g., channel surfing while bored temporarily alleviated boredom; therefore, there will be more channel surfing while bored), whereas punishment decreases it (e.g., hangovers are an unpleasant stimulus, so people learn to avoid

625-450: A binary machine register where a decimal interpretation makes no practical sense. Subsequently, the Ki, Mi, and Gi prefixes were introduced so that binary prefixes could be written explicitly, also rendering k, M, and G unambiguous in texts conforming to the new standard—this led to a new ambiguity in engineering documents lacking outward trace of the binary prefixes (necessarily indicating

750-441: A book because it is fun and interesting Example: Corporal punishment , such as spanking a child Example: Loss of privileges (e.g., screen time or permission to attend a desired event) if a rule is broken Example: Reading a book because it allows the reader to escape feelings of boredom or unhappiness A primary reinforcer , sometimes called an unconditioned reinforcer , is a stimulus that does not require pairing with

875-401: A brief period after the subject switches to it. When both the concurrent schedules are variable intervals , a quantitative relationship known as the matching law is found between relative response rates in the two schedules and the relative reinforcement rates they deliver; this was first observed by R.J. Herrnstein in 1961. Matching law is a rule for instrumental behavior which states that

1000-447: A caveman would naturally find desirable (e.g. candy) then it is a primary reinforcer. If, on the other hand, the caveman would not react to it (e.g. a dollar bill), it is a secondary reinforcer. As with primary reinforcers, an organism can experience satisfaction and deprivation with secondary reinforcers. In his 1967 paper, Arbitrary and Natural Reinforcement , Charles Ferster proposed classifying reinforcement into events that increase

1125-417: A consequence of a behavior and the chance that this behavior will manifest in similar environments increases. For example, if reading a book is fun, then experiencing the fun positively reinforces the behavior of reading fun books. The person who receives the positive reinforcement (i.e., who has fun reading the book) will read more books to have more fun. The high probability instruction (HPI) treatment

1250-409: A different stimulus in order to function as a reinforcer and most likely has obtained this function through the evolution and its role in species' survival. Examples of primary reinforcers include food, water, and sex. Some primary reinforcers, such as certain drugs, may mimic the effects of other primary reinforcers. While these primary reinforcers are fairly stable through life and across individuals,

1375-420: A function; square brackets are not allowed for grouping of expressions. Fortran, in addition, does not allow use of the same name (identifier) for different objects, for example, function and variable; in particular, the expression f = f ( x ) {\displaystyle f=f(x)} is qualified as an error. The order of operations may depend on the context. In most programming languages ,

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1500-439: A good hammer ), "exemplary" ( She's a good student ), "pleasing" ( This is good soup ), "moral" ( a good person versus the lesson to be learned from a story ), " righteous ", etc. "I have a good daughter" is not clear about which sense is intended. The various ways to apply prefixes and suffixes can also create ambiguity ("unlockable" can mean "capable of being opened" or "impossible to lock"). Semantic ambiguity occurs when

1625-448: A greater technical precision over big natural languages, although historically, such attempts at language improvement have been criticized. Languages composed from many diverse sources contain much ambiguity and inconsistency. The many exceptions to syntax and semantic rules are time-consuming and difficult to learn. In structural biology , ambiguity has been recognized as a problem for studying protein conformations . The analysis of

1750-525: A high school senior could have a choice between going to Stanford University or UCLA, and at the same time have the choice of going into the Army or the Air Force, and simultaneously the choice of taking a job with an internet company or a job with a software company. That is a reinforcement structure of three superimposed concurrent schedules of reinforcement. Superimposed schedules of reinforcement can create

1875-536: A laboratory analogy of social traps , such as when humans overharvest their fisheries or tear down their rainforests. Brechner created a situation where simple reinforcement schedules were superimposed upon each other. In other words, a single response or group of responses by an organism led to multiple consequences. Concurrent schedules of reinforcement can be thought of as "or" schedules, and superimposed schedules of reinforcement can be thought of as "and" schedules. Brechner and Linder (1981) and Brechner (1987) expanded

2000-486: A level of risk and uncertainty, which can be a powerful deterrent to delegation. When supervisors delegate a task, they remain responsible for whether or not it is carried out effectively and must consider the potential risks and rewards as a result of the delegation. Managers are often reluctant to delegate due to concerns that mistakes will be made, or that the job will not be completed to the standard which they believe they could achieve. Another concern relating to delegation

2125-501: A manager can delegate authority for a task, the ultimate responsibility is not transferred. This means that delegation involves a process of sharing, which may include "authority, power, influence, information, knowledge, or risk". This builds trust and morale between managers and subordinates. The internal and external environment of an organisation is often characterised by many interfering factors. Some of these include "too much urgency, inexperience, and lack of trust". In order to minimise

2250-424: A number of potential disadvantages and challenges to effective delegation. Ineffective use of delegation includes allowing no real influence or granting too much authority to someone who is unwilling or unable to make appropriate decisions. Some supervisors find it challenging to delegate tasks for the fear of becoming out of touch with the required skills or giving up something they truly enjoy. Delegation does involve

2375-431: A peck on either. The schedules of reinforcement arranged for pecks on the two keys can be different. They may be independent, or they may be linked so that behavior on one key affects the likelihood of reinforcement on the other. It is not necessary for responses on the two schedules to be physically distinct. In an alternate way of arranging concurrent schedules, introduced by Findley in 1958, both schedules are arranged on

2500-413: A pleasant factor, "positive punishment" refers to the addition of an unpleasant factor, "negative reinforcement" refers to the removal or withholding of an unpleasant factor, and "negative punishment" refers to the removal or withholding of a pleasant factor. This usage is at odds with some non-technical usages of the four term combinations, especially in the case of the term "negative reinforcement", which

2625-455: A priori validation or certainty. Like the existentialists and phenomenologists, he sees the ambiguity of life as the basis of creativity. In literature and rhetoric, ambiguity can be a useful tool. Groucho Marx's classic joke depends on a grammatical ambiguity for its humor, for example: "Last night I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I'll never know". Songs and poetry often rely on ambiguous words for artistic effect, as in

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2750-432: A protein three-dimensional structure consists in dividing the macromolecule into subunits called domains . The difficulty of this task arises from the fact that different definitions of what a domain is can be used (e.g. folding autonomy, function, thermodynamic stability, or domain motions), which sometimes results in a single protein having different—yet equally valid—domain assignments. Christianity and Judaism employ

2875-439: A reinforcer could be delivered after more than one instance of the behavior. For example, a pigeon may be required to peck a button switch ten times before food appears. This is a "ratio schedule". Also, a reinforcer could be delivered after an interval of time passed following a target behavior. An example is a rat that is given a food pellet immediately following the first response that occurs after two minutes has elapsed since

3000-440: A rule or process with a finite number of steps. (The prefix ambi - reflects the idea of " two ", as in "two meanings"). The concept of ambiguity is generally contrasted with vagueness . In ambiguity, specific and distinct interpretations are permitted (although some may not be immediately obvious), whereas with vague information it is difficult to form any interpretation at the desired level of specificity. Lexical ambiguity

3125-503: A scenario in which an unpleasant factor is or will be present but engaging in the behavior results in either escaping from that factor or preventing its occurrence, as in Martin Seligman’s experimente involving dogs learning to avoid electric shocks . B.F. Skinner was a well-known and influential researcher who articulated many of the theoretical constructs of reinforcement and behaviorism . Skinner defined reinforcers according to

3250-411: A sentence like "He ate the cookies on the couch" is also semantically ambiguous. Rarely, but occasionally, the different parsings of a syntactically ambiguous phrase result in the same meaning. For example, the command "Cook, cook!" can be parsed as "Cook (noun used as vocative ), cook (imperative verb form)!", but also as "Cook (imperative verb form), cook (noun used as vocative)!". It is more common that

3375-426: A series of behaviors (e.g. showering, drying off, getting dressed) occurring in sequence as a well learned habit. Challenging behaviors seen in individuals with autism and other related disabilities have successfully managed and maintained in studies using a scheduled of chained reinforcements. Functional communication training is an intervention that often uses chained schedules of reinforcement to effectively promote

3500-406: A single key or other response device, and the subject can respond on a second key to change between the schedules. In such a "Findley concurrent" procedure, a stimulus (e.g., the color of the main key) signals which schedule is in effect. Concurrent schedules often induce rapid alternation between the keys. To prevent this, a "changeover delay" is commonly introduced: each schedule is inactivated for

3625-452: A stimulus is reinforcing is the change in probability of a behavior after administration of that potential reinforcer. Other theories may focus on additional factors such as whether the person expected a behavior to produce a given outcome, but in the behavioral theory, reinforcement is defined by an increased probability of a response. The study of reinforcement has produced an enormous body of reproducible experimental results. Reinforcement

3750-399: A subject's behavior. For example, if a child reads books because they are fun, then the parents' decision to ignore the book reading will not remove the positive reinforcement (i.e., fun) the child receives from reading books. However, if a child engages in a behavior to get attention from the parents, then the parents' decision to ignore the behavior will cause the behavior to go extinct, and

3875-435: A syntactically unambiguous phrase has a semantic ambiguity; for example, the lexical ambiguity in "Your boss is a funny man" is purely semantic, leading to the response "Funny ha-ha or funny peculiar?" Spoken language can contain many more types of ambiguities that are called phonological ambiguities, where there is more than one way to compose a set of sounds into words. For example, "ice cream" and "I scream". Such ambiguity

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4000-405: A task. The principle of absoluteness of responsibility states that delegation of responsibility is not possible. Superiors are unable to relinquish, through the process of delegation, responsibility for the tasks and activities assigned to their subordinates, for they are the ones who delegated this authority and assigned the duty. Responsibility is absolute, with a manager remaining accountable for

4125-420: A type of compound schedule that evolved from the initial work on simple schedules of reinforcement by B.F. Skinner and his colleagues (Skinner and Ferster, 1957). They demonstrated that reinforcers could be delivered on schedules, and further that organisms behaved differently under different schedules. Rather than a reinforcer, such as food or water, being delivered every time as a consequence of some behavior,

4250-418: A voucher. Only rewriting the sentence, or placing appropriate punctuation can resolve a syntactic ambiguity. For the notion of, and theoretic results about, syntactic ambiguity in artificial, formal languages (such as computer programming languages ), see Ambiguous grammar . Usually, semantic and syntactic ambiguity go hand in hand. The sentence "We saw her duck" is also syntactically ambiguous. Conversely,

4375-432: A word or phrase applies to it having more than one meaning in the language to which the word belongs. "Meaning" here refers to whatever should be represented by a good dictionary. For instance, the word "bank" has several distinct lexical definitions, including " financial institution " and " edge of a river ". Or consider " apothecary ". One could say "I bought herbs from the apothecary". This could mean one actually spoke to

4500-422: A word, phrase or sentence, taken out of context, has more than one interpretation. In "We saw her duck" (example due to Richard Nordquist), the words "her duck" can refer either Syntactic ambiguity arises when a sentence can have two (or more) different meanings because of the structure of the sentence—its syntax. This is often due to a modifying expression, such as a prepositional phrase, the application of which

4625-447: A “consequence of behavior that reduces the future probability of that behavior,” and some studies have shown that positive reinforcement and punishment are equally effective in modifying behavior. Research on the effects of positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement and punishment continue today as those concepts are fundamental to learning theory and apply to many practical applications of that theory. The term operant conditioning

4750-425: Is a behaviorist treatment based on the idea of positive reinforcement. Negative reinforcement increases the rate of a behavior that avoids or escapes an aversive situation or stimulus . That is, something unpleasant is already happening, and the behavior helps the person avoid or escape the unpleasantness. In contrast to positive reinforcement, which involves adding a pleasant stimulus, in negative reinforcement,

4875-413: Is acceptable and unacceptable in terms of the expected output to help the person who is to complete the task understand what the principal is and isn't looking for. Expectations: Establishing priority, timeline, and deliverable for the expected outcome. A lack of clarity around expectations can lead to misalignment and so setting clear expectations is critical. Accountability: Clarifying ownership for

5000-414: Is also negative reinforcement , which involves taking away an undesirable stimulus. An example of negative reinforcement would be taking an aspirin to relieve a headache. Reinforcement is an important component of operant conditioning and behavior modification . The concept has been applied in a variety of practical areas, including parenting, coaching, therapy, self-help, education, and management. In

5125-435: Is also potentially ambiguous notation. For example, in the notation T m n k {\displaystyle T_{mnk}} , the reader can only infer from the context whether it means a single-index object, taken with the subscript equal to product of variables m {\displaystyle m} , n {\displaystyle n} and k {\displaystyle k} , or it

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5250-399: Is also used for food refusal. Food refusal is when an individual has a partial or total aversion to food items. This can be as minimal as being a picky eater to so severe that it can affect an individual's health. Shaping has been used to have a high success rate for food acceptance. Chaining involves linking discrete behaviors together in a series, such that the consequence of each behavior

5375-574: Is an "unwritten rule": the state is coherent if there are more Greek characters than Latin characters in the argument, and n {\displaystyle n} -photon state if the Latin characters dominate. The ambiguity becomes even worse, if   | x ⟩   {\displaystyle ~|x\rangle ~} is used for the states with certain value of the coordinate, and   | p ⟩   {\displaystyle ~|p\rangle ~} means

5500-456: Is an important influence on how the different schedules operate. Many simple and complex schedules were investigated at great length by B.F. Skinner using pigeons . Simple schedules have a single rule to determine when a single type of reinforcer is delivered for a specific response. Simple schedules are utilized in many differential reinforcement procedures: Compound schedules combine two or more different simple schedules in some way using

5625-498: Is an indication to a trivalent tensor . An expression such as sin 2 ⁡ α / 2 {\displaystyle \sin ^{2}\alpha /2} can be understood to mean either ( sin ⁡ ( α / 2 ) ) 2 {\displaystyle (\sin(\alpha /2))^{2}} or ( sin ⁡ α ) 2 / 2 {\displaystyle (\sin \alpha )^{2}/2} . Often

5750-527: Is analogous to visual ambiguity and impossible objects , such as the Necker cube and impossible cube, or many of the drawings of M. C. Escher . Some languages have been created with the intention of avoiding ambiguity, especially lexical ambiguity . Lojban and Loglan are two related languages that have been created for this, focusing chiefly on syntactic ambiguity as well. The languages can be both spoken and written. These languages are intended to provide

5875-399: Is both the reinforcement for the previous behavior, and the antecedent stimulus for the next behavior. There are many ways to teach chaining, such as forward chaining (starting from the first behavior in the chain), backwards chaining (starting from the last behavior) and total task chaining (teaching each behavior in the chain simultaneously). People's morning routines are a typical chain, with

6000-760: Is common practice to omit multiplication signs in mathematical expressions. Also, it is common to give the same name to a variable and a function, for example, f = f ( x ) {\displaystyle f=f(x)} . Then, if one sees f = f ( y + 1 ) {\displaystyle f=f(y+1)} , there is no way to distinguish whether it means f = f ( x ) {\displaystyle f=f(x)} multiplied by ( y + 1 ) {\displaystyle (y+1)} , or function f {\displaystyle f} evaluated at argument equal to ( y + 1 ) {\displaystyle (y+1)} . In each case of use of such notations,

6125-515: Is contrasted with semantic ambiguity . The former represents a choice between a finite number of known and meaningful context -dependent interpretations. The latter represents a choice between any number of possible interpretations, none of which may have a standard agreed-upon meaning. This form of ambiguity is closely related to vagueness . Ambiguity in human language is argued to reflect principles of efficient communication. Languages that communicate efficiently will avoid sending information that

6250-483: Is generally resolved according to the context. A mishearing of such, based on incorrectly resolved ambiguity, is called a mondegreen . Philosophers (and other users of logic) spend a lot of time and effort searching for and removing (or intentionally adding) ambiguity in arguments because it can lead to incorrect conclusions and can be used to deliberately conceal bad arguments. For example, a politician might say, "I oppose taxes which hinder economic growth", an example of

6375-592: Is much greater tolerance of ambiguity, as it is generally seen as an integral part of the human condition. Martin Heidegger argued that the relation between the subject and object is ambiguous, as is the relation of mind and body, and part and whole. In Heidegger's phenomenology, Dasein is always in a meaningful world, but there is always an underlying background for every instance of signification. Thus, although some things may be certain, they have little to do with Dasein's sense of care and existential anxiety, e.g., in

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6500-612: Is often purposely ambiguous. To quote Sir Donald Francis Tovey (1935, p. 195), "Theorists are apt to vex themselves with vain efforts to remove uncertainty just where it has a high aesthetic value." In visual art, certain images are visually ambiguous, such as the Necker cube , which can be interpreted in two ways. Perceptions of such objects remain stable for a time, then may flip, a phenomenon called multistable perception . The opposite of such ambiguous images are impossible objects . Pictures or photographs may also be ambiguous at

6625-419: Is often used to denote what technical parlance would describe as "positive punishment" in that the non-technical usage interprets "reinforcement" as subsuming both reward and punishment and "negative" as referring to the responding operant's evaluation of the factor being introduced. By contrast, technical parlance would use the term "negative reinforcement" to describe encouragement of a given behavior by creating

6750-442: Is one of the best-known methods for efficiently managing time and leads to numerous benefits within an organisation. One of the most significant advantages of delegation is its use for employee motivation and development. The motivating factor associated with delegations comes from the increased confidence transferred from manager to subordinate. When a supervisor demonstrates their confidence it builds staff trust and self-confidence in

6875-423: Is redundant with information provided in the context. This can be shown mathematically to result in a system that is ambiguous when context is neglected. In this way, ambiguity is viewed as a generally useful feature of a linguistic system. Linguistic ambiguity can be a problem in law , because the interpretation of written documents and oral agreements is often of paramount importance. The lexical ambiguity of

7000-418: Is reinforced, and extinction, where no response is reinforced. Between these extremes, more complex schedules of reinforcement specify the rules that determine how and when a response will be followed by a reinforcer. Specific schedules of reinforcement reliably induce specific patterns of response, and these rules apply across many different species. The varying consistency and predictability of reinforcement

7125-447: Is required when translating the formulas to an algorithmic language. In addition, it is common to write an argument of a function without parenthesis, which also may lead to ambiguity. In the scientific journal style, one uses roman letters to denote elementary functions, whereas variables are written using italics. For example, in mathematical journals the expression s i n {\displaystyle sin} does not denote

7250-424: Is separate from or unified with something else: language, he asserts, divides what is not, in fact, separate. Following Ernest Becker , he argues that the desire to 'authoritatively disambiguate' the world and existence has led to numerous ideologies and historical events such as genocide. On this basis, he argues that ethics must focus on 'dialectically integrating opposites' and balancing tension, rather than seeking

7375-590: Is supposed to guess from the context. Some physical quantities do not yet have established notations; their value (and sometimes even dimension , as in the case of the Einstein coefficients ), depends on the system of notations. Many terms are ambiguous. Each use of an ambiguous term should be preceded by the definition, suitable for a specific case. Just like Ludwig Wittgenstein states in Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus : "... Only in

7500-418: Is that top-level management can become wary that middle management will delegate for the benefit of their specific needs rather than those general to the organisation.   Athena has developed a framework for successful delegation, using the acronym CLEAR. Context : Articulating why a delegated task matters and the necessary background to approach the task. Limitations: Setting boundaries for what

7625-520: Is the central concept and procedure in special education , applied behavior analysis , and the experimental analysis of behavior and is a core concept in some medical and psychopharmacology models, particularly addiction , dependence , and compulsion . Laboratory research on reinforcement is usually dated from the work of Edward Thorndike , known for his experiments with cats escaping from puzzle boxes. A number of others continued this research, notably B.F. Skinner, who published his seminal work on

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7750-500: Is unclear. "He ate the cookies on the couch", for example, could mean that he ate those cookies that were on the couch (as opposed to those that were on the table), or it could mean that he was sitting on the couch when he ate the cookies. "To get in, you will need an entrance fee of $ 10 or your voucher and your drivers' license." This could mean that you need EITHER ten dollars OR BOTH your voucher and your license. Or it could mean that you need your license AND you need EITHER ten dollars OR

7875-420: Is used in many training situations, and also for individuals with autism as well as other developmental disabilities. When shaping is combined with other evidence-based practices such as Functional Communication Training (FCT), it can yield positive outcomes for human behavior. Shaping typically uses continuous reinforcement, but the response can later be shifted to an intermittent reinforcement schedule. Shaping

8000-416: The sine function , but the product of the three variables s {\displaystyle s} , i {\displaystyle i} , n {\displaystyle n} , although in the informal notation of a slide presentation it may stand for sin {\displaystyle \sin } . Commas in multi-component subscripts and superscripts are sometimes omitted; this

8125-565: The Los Angeles County storm drain system (Brechner, 2010). In operant conditioning , concurrent schedules of reinforcement are schedules of reinforcement that are simultaneously available to an animal subject or human participant, so that the subject or participant can respond on either schedule. For example, in a two-alternative forced choice task, a pigeon in a Skinner box is faced with two pecking keys; pecking responses can be made on either, and food reinforcement might follow

8250-526: The actions of their subordinates. According to the principle of unity of command , employees should only have one supervisor, who they report to, are granted authority by and receive orders from. This employee should be solely accountable to their direct supervisor. This is associated with increased employee efficiency and less role conflict within an organisation.     The scalar principle asserts that there are clear and formal lines of hierarchal authority within an organisation. This hierarchy reflects

8375-494: The apothecary ( pharmacist ) or went to the apothecary ( pharmacy ). The context in which an ambiguous word is used often makes it clearer which of the meanings is intended. If, for instance, someone says "I put $ 100 in the bank", most people would not think someone used a shovel to dig in the mud. However, some linguistic contexts do not provide sufficient information to make a used word clearer. Lexical ambiguity can be addressed by algorithmic methods that automatically associate

8500-409: The appropriate meaning with a word in context, a task referred to as word-sense disambiguation . The use of multi-defined words requires the author or speaker to clarify their context, and sometimes elaborate on their specific intended meaning (in which case, a less ambiguous term should have been used). The goal of clear concise communication is that the receiver(s) have no misunderstanding about what

8625-1725: The author's intention can be understood from the context, in cases where only one of the two makes sense, but an ambiguity like this should be avoided, for example by writing sin 2 ⁡ ( α / 2 ) {\displaystyle \sin ^{2}(\alpha /2)} or 1 2 sin 2 ⁡ α {\textstyle {\frac {1}{2}}\sin ^{2}\alpha } . The expression sin − 1 ⁡ α {\displaystyle \sin ^{-1}\alpha } means arcsin ⁡ ( α ) {\displaystyle \arcsin(\alpha )} in several texts, though it might be thought to mean ( sin ⁡ α ) − 1 {\displaystyle (\sin \alpha )^{-1}} , since sin n ⁡ α {\displaystyle \sin ^{n}\alpha } commonly means ( sin ⁡ α ) n {\displaystyle (\sin \alpha )^{n}} . Conversely, sin 2 ⁡ α {\displaystyle \sin ^{2}\alpha } might seem to mean sin ⁡ ( sin ⁡ α ) {\displaystyle \sin(\sin \alpha )} , as this exponentiation notation usually denotes function iteration : in general, f 2 ( x ) {\displaystyle f^{2}(x)} means f ( f ( x ) ) {\displaystyle f(f(x))} . However, for trigonometric and hyperbolic functions , this notation conventionally means exponentiation of

8750-408: The authority which is delegated to an employee must be consistent and equal to that of their responsibility. "Responsibility without authority is meaningless". Each individual in an organisation requires the necessary authorities in order to effectively carry out assigned tasks; disparity should not exist between the responsibility imposed on and the authority granted to an employee in order to carry out

8875-481: The behavior that led to that unpleasant stimulus). Extinction occurs when a given behavior is ignored (i.e. followed up with no consequence). Behaviors disappear over time when they continuously receive no reinforcement. During a deliberate extinction, the targeted behavior spikes first (in an attempt to produce the expected, previously reinforced effects), and then declines over time. Neither reinforcement nor extinction need to be deliberate in order to have an effect on

9000-478: The behavior. Another example is a social situation that will generally result from a specific behavior once it has met a certain criterion. Behavior is not always reinforced every time it is emitted, and the pattern of reinforcement strongly affects how fast an operant response is learned, what its rate is at any given time, and how long it continues when reinforcement ceases. The simplest rules controlling reinforcement are continuous reinforcement, where every response

9125-419: The behavioral sciences, the terms "positive" and "negative" refer when used in their strict technical sense to the nature of the action performed by the conditioner rather than to the responding operant's evaluation of that action and its consequence(s). "Positive" actions are those that add a factor, be it pleasant or unpleasant, to the environment, whereas "negative" actions are those that remove or withhold from

9250-523: The big picture; matching people and assignments; providing support and encouragement; tolerating ambiguity and uncertainty; interpreting failure as a key to learning". With organisations being such complex and dynamic entities, the success of objectives relies heavily on how effectively tasks and responsibilities can be delegated. According to Dr. Kanthi Wijesinghe, Senior Lecturer at the National Institute of Education , "Delegation begins when

9375-412: The challenges relating to management’ workload, increasing responsiveness and growing and developing the capabilities of employees. Organisational resources are managed more efficiently, and subordinates are able to make decisions and perform tasks faster. Through delegation, lower level employees are able to embrace the opportunity to gain experience, build on capabilities and develop skills, which improves

9500-430: The change in response strength (response rate) rather than to more subjective criteria, such as what is pleasurable or valuable to someone. Accordingly, activities, foods or items considered pleasant or enjoyable may not necessarily be reinforcing (because they produce no increase in the response preceding them). Stimuli, settings, and activities only fit the definition of reinforcers if the behavior that immediately precedes

9625-483: The child will find a different behavior to get their parents' attention. Reinforcers serve to increase behaviors whereas punishers serve to decrease behaviors; thus, positive reinforcers are stimuli that the subject will work to attain, and negative reinforcers are stimuli that the subject will work to be rid of or to end. The table below illustrates the adding and subtracting of stimuli (pleasant or aversive) in relation to reinforcement vs. punishment. Example: Reading

9750-479: The concept of paradox synonymously with "ambiguity". Many Christians and Jews endorse Rudolf Otto 's description of the sacred as 'mysterium tremendum et fascinans', the awe-inspiring mystery that fascinates humans. The apocryphal Book of Judith is noted for the "ingenious ambiguity" expressed by its heroine; for example, she says to the villain of the story, Holofernes , "my lord will not fail to achieve his purposes", without specifying whether my lord refers to

9875-587: The concept to describe how superimposed schedules and the social trap analogy could be used to analyze the way energy flows through systems . Superimposed schedules of reinforcement have many real-world applications in addition to generating social traps . Many different human individual and social situations can be created by superimposing simple reinforcement schedules. For example, a human being could have simultaneous tobacco and alcohol addictions. Even more complex situations can be created or simulated by superimposing two or more concurrent schedules. For example,

10000-404: The context of a proposition has a name meaning." A highly confusing term is gain . For example, the sentence "the gain of a system should be doubled", without context, means close to nothing. The term intensity is ambiguous when applied to light. The term can refer to any of irradiance , luminous intensity , radiant intensity , or radiance , depending on the background of the person using

10125-411: The desirable response by presenting a reflex eliciting stimulus, the unconditional stimulus (UCS), which they pair (precede) with a neutral stimulus, the conditional stimulus (CS). Reinforcement is a basic term in operant conditioning. For the punishment aspect of operant conditioning, see punishment (psychology) . Positive reinforcement occurs when a desirable event or stimulus is presented as

10250-512: The effect of these factors, a clear delegation protocol should be developed and followed within an organisation.   The process of delegation does not always follow a set structure, however, some aspects which are typically involved are: There are a number of guidelines which are essential to understanding and implementing the process of delegation. The principles of delegation include: The authority delegated to an individual subordinate needs to be adequate to ensure their ability to accomplish

10375-468: The empirical findings of science. She states: "Since we do not succeed in fleeing it, let us, therefore, try to look the truth in the face. Let us try to assume our fundamental ambiguity. It is in the knowledge of the genuine conditions of our life that we must draw our strength to live and our reason for acting". Other continental philosophers suggest that concepts such as life, nature, and sex are ambiguous. Corey Anton has argued that we cannot be certain what

10500-444: The employees. There is a highly significant and positive relationship that exists between delegation and trust between an individual employee and management. Leaders are able to empower subordinates through the sharing of supervisor power. This leads to positive reinforcement of the supervisor's role, builds morale and generates organisation trust. Delegation significantly increases effectiveness and efficiency in multiple ways. It eases

10625-404: The environment a factor of either type. In turn, the strict sense of "reinforcement" refers only to reward-based conditioning; the introduction of unpleasant factors and the removal or withholding of pleasant factors are instead referred to as "punishment", which when used in its strict sense thus stands in contradistinction to "reinforcement". Thus, "positive reinforcement" refers to the addition of

10750-434: The ethics which they have proposed to their disciples has always pursued the same goal. It has been a matter of eliminating the ambiguity by making oneself pure inwardness or pure externality, by escaping from the sensible world or being engulfed by it, by yielding to eternity or enclosing oneself in the pure moment." Ethics cannot be based on the authoritative certainty given by mathematics and logic, or prescribed directly from

10875-504: The face of death. In calling his work Being and Nothingness an "essay in phenomenological ontology" Jean-Paul Sartre follows Heidegger in defining the human essence as ambiguous, or relating fundamentally to such ambiguity. Simone de Beauvoir tries to base an ethics on Heidegger's and Sartre's writings (The Ethics of Ambiguity), where she highlights the need to grapple with ambiguity: "as long as there have been philosophers and they have thought, most of them have tried to mask it ... And

11000-402: The fear that they may have misinterpreted the situation and acted unnecessarily. Alternately, non-ambiguous emergencies (e.g. an injured person verbally asking for help) elicit more consistent intervention and assistance. With regard to the bystander effect , studies have shown that emergencies deemed ambiguous trigger the appearance of the classic bystander effect (wherein more witnesses decrease

11125-624: The flow of authority and responsibility. It clearly outlines to managers and subordinates, who has the power to delegate authority and to whom they are answerable to.       This principle asserts that employees should be given complete freedom to fulfill their responsibilities within the purview of their authority. Managers should therefore refrain from interfering with the day-today work of their subordinates, even if minor mistakes are recognized. This level of control leads to more efficient results. In some exceptional cases, managers are able to interfere on matters deviating significantly from

11250-423: The focus is on the removal of an unpleasant situation or stimulus. For example, if someone feels unhappy, then they might engage in a behavior (e.g., reading books) to escape from the aversive situation (e.g., their unhappy feelings). The success of that avoidant or escapist behavior in removing the unpleasant situation or stimulus reinforces the behavior. Doing something unpleasant to people to prevent or remove

11375-413: The frequency of an operant behavior as a natural consequence of the behavior itself, and events that affect frequency by their requirement of human mediation, such as in a token economy where subjects are rewarded for certain behavior by the therapist. In 1970, Baer and Wolf developed the concept of "behavioral traps." A behavioral trap requires only a simple response to enter the trap, yet once entered,

11500-402: The front door is rewarded by a big kiss on the lips by the person's spouse and a rip in the pants from the family dog jumping enthusiastically. Another example of superimposed schedules of reinforcement is a pigeon in an experimental cage pecking at a button. The pecks deliver a hopper of grain every 20th peck, and access to water after every 200 pecks. Superimposed schedules of reinforcement are

11625-419: The last lever press. This is called an "interval schedule". In addition, ratio schedules can deliver reinforcement following fixed or variable number of behaviors by the individual organism. Likewise, interval schedules can deliver reinforcement following fixed or variable intervals of time following a single response by the organism. Individual behaviors tend to generate response rates that differ based upon how

11750-442: The lever is reinforced at first. Then, only turning and stepping toward it is reinforced. Eventually the rat will be reinforced for pressing the lever. The successful attainment of one behavior starts the shaping process for the next. As training progresses, the response becomes progressively more like the desired behavior, with each subsequent behavior becoming a closer approximation of the final behavior. The intervention of shaping

11875-565: The light is the antecedent stimulus, the lever pushing is the operant behavior, and the food is the reinforcer. Likewise, a student that receives attention and praise when answering a teacher's question will be more likely to answer future questions in class. The teacher's question is the antecedent, the student's response is the behavior, and the praise and attention are the reinforcements. Consequences that lead to appetitive behavior such as subjective "wanting" and "liking" (desire and pleasure) function as rewards or positive reinforcement . There

12000-532: The likelihood of any of them helping) far more than non-ambiguous emergencies. In computer science , the SI prefixes kilo- , mega- and giga- were historically used in certain contexts to mean either the first three powers of 1024 (1024, 1024 and 1024 ) contrary to the metric system in which these units unambiguously mean one thousand, one million, and one billion. This usage is particularly prevalent with electronic memory devices (e.g. DRAM ) addressed directly by

12125-633: The logical concept of underdetermination —for example, X = Y {\displaystyle X=Y} leaves open what the value of X {\displaystyle X} is—while overdetermination, except when like X = 1 , X = 1 , X = 1 {\displaystyle X=1,X=1,X=1} , is a self-contradiction , also called inconsistency , paradoxicalness , or oxymoron , or in mathematics an inconsistent system —such as X = 2 , X = 3 {\displaystyle X=2,X=3} , which has no solution. Logical ambiguity and self-contradiction

12250-465: The manager passes on some of their responsibilities to a subordinate. Responsibility is the work assigned to an individual." Delegation is strongly dependent on a supervisor's ability to communicate, motivate, and understand individual preferences and differences. The process of delegation involves ensuring that a task and appropriate employee have been selected. The process of delegation requires "preparation, initiation, implementation, and closure". While

12375-408: The new style) as to whether the usage of k, M, and G remains ambiguous (old style) or not (new style). 1 M (where M is ambiguously 1 000 000 or 1 048 576 ) is less uncertain than the engineering value 1.0 × 10 (defined to designate the interval 950 000 to 1 050 000 ). As non-volatile storage devices begin to exceed 1 GB in capacity (where the ambiguity begins to routinely impact

12500-462: The norm; in this case the authority delegated to the subordinate may even be withdrawn.     Delegation is an essential and extremely useful management tool. When implemented effectively and successfully delegation results in many benefits to the organisation, manager and subordinate. However, if delegation in unsuccessful and not implemented optimally, the results can lead to serious disadvantages and have resultive effects. Delegation

12625-414: The operations of division and multiplication have equal priority and are executed from left to right. Until the last century, many editorials assumed that multiplication is performed first, for example, a / b c {\displaystyle a/bc} is interpreted as a / ( b c ) {\displaystyle a/(bc)} ; in this case, the insertion of parentheses

12750-425: The organisation. Delegation is positively related to organisational commitment, task performance, innovative behavior and job satisfaction. At an organisational level, delegation can provide insight into current strengths and weaknesses, providing the opportunity for improvement and growth. It also increases the capacity of an organisation to respond quickly and effectively. While the benefits are clear, there are

12875-415: The potential reinforcer increases in similar situations in the future; for example, a child who receives a cookie when he or she asks for one. If the frequency of "cookie-requesting behavior" increases, the cookie can be seen as reinforcing "cookie-requesting behavior". If however, "cookie-requesting behavior" does not increase the cookie cannot be considered reinforcing. The sole criterion that determines if

13000-463: The reader is supposed to be able to perform the deduction and reveal the true meaning. Creators of algorithmic languages try to avoid ambiguities. Many algorithmic languages ( C++ and Fortran ) require the character * as symbol of multiplication. The Wolfram Language used in Mathematica allows the user to omit the multiplication symbol, but requires square brackets to indicate the argument of

13125-466: The reinforcement schedule is created. Much subsequent research in many labs examined the effects on behaviors of scheduling reinforcers. If an organism is offered the opportunity to choose between or among two or more simple schedules of reinforcement at the same time, the reinforcement structure is called a "concurrent schedule of reinforcement". Brechner (1974, 1977) introduced the concept of superimposed schedules of reinforcement in an attempt to create

13250-416: The reinforcing value of different primary reinforcers varies due to multiple factors (e.g., genetics, experience). Thus, one person may prefer one type of food while another avoids it. Or one person may eat much food while another eats very little. So even though food is a primary reinforcer for both individuals, the value of food as a reinforcer differs between them. A secondary reinforcer , sometimes called

13375-406: The relative rate of responding on a particular response alternative equals the relative rate of reinforcement for that response (rate of behavior = rate of reinforcement). Animals and humans have a tendency to prefer choice in schedules. Shaping is the reinforcement of successive approximations to a desired instrumental response. In training a rat to press a lever, for example, simply turning toward

13500-705: The result of function application. The expression a / 2 b {\displaystyle a/2b} can be interpreted as meaning ( a / 2 ) b {\displaystyle (a/2)b} ; however, it is more commonly understood to mean a / ( 2 b ) {\displaystyle a/(2b)} . It is common to define the coherent states in quantum optics with   | α ⟩   {\displaystyle ~|\alpha \rangle ~} and states with fixed number of photons with   | n ⟩   {\displaystyle ~|n\rangle ~} . Then, there

13625-433: The results expected of the task. Prior to delegation, the manager needs to know the purpose of such delegation and the results which they expect from it. This means that goals, standards of performance and targets need to be clearly outlined to direct the actions of the subordinate to completion of the task. This principle outlines the concept that authority and responsibility co-exist and must go hand-in-hand. This means that

13750-416: The same reinforcer for the same behavior. There are many possibilities; among those most often used are: The psychology term superimposed schedules of reinforcement refers to a structure of rewards where two or more simple schedules of reinforcement operate simultaneously. Reinforcers can be positive, negative, or both. An example is a person who comes home after a long day at work. The behavior of opening

13875-429: The second significant digit), GB and TB almost always mean 10 and 10 bytes . Positive reinforcement In behavioral psychology , reinforcement refers to consequences that increase the likelihood of an organism's future behavior, typically in the presence of a particular antecedent stimulus . For example, a rat can be trained to push a lever to receive food whenever a light is turned on. In this example,

14000-438: The semantic level: the visual image is unambiguous, but the meaning and narrative may be ambiguous: is a certain facial expression one of excitement or fear, for instance? In social psychology , ambiguity is a factor used in determining peoples' responses to various situations. High levels of ambiguity in an emergency (e.g. an unconscious man lying on a park bench) make witnesses less likely to offer any sort of assistance, due to

14125-626: The song title "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue" (where "blue" can refer to the color, or to sadness). In the narrative, ambiguity can be introduced in several ways: motive, plot, character. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the latter type of ambiguity with notable effect in his novel The Great Gatsby . Mathematical notation is a helpful tool that eliminates a lot of misunderstandings associated with natural language in physics and other sciences . Nonetheless, there are still some inherent ambiguities due to lexical , syntactic , and semantic reasons that persist in mathematical notation. The ambiguity in

14250-462: The state with certain value of the momentum, which may be used in books on quantum mechanics . Such ambiguities easily lead to confusions, especially if some normalized adimensional , dimensionless variables are used. Expression | 1 ⟩ {\displaystyle |1\rangle } may mean a state with single photon, or the coherent state with mean amplitude equal to 1, or state with momentum equal to unity, and so on. The reader

14375-437: The statement in the most desirable way, and think the politician supports everyone's opinion. However, the opposite can also be true—an opponent can turn a positive statement into a bad one if the speaker uses ambiguity (intentionally or not). The logical fallacies of amphiboly and equivocation rely heavily on the use of ambiguous words and phrases. In continental philosophy (particularly phenomenology and existentialism), there

14500-520: The style of writing a function should not be confused with a multivalued function , which can (and should) be defined in a deterministic and unambiguous way. Several special functions still do not have established notations. Usually, the conversion to another notation requires to scale the argument or the resulting value; sometimes, the same name of the function is used, causing confusions. Examples of such underestablished functions: Ambiguous expressions often appear in physical and mathematical texts. It

14625-700: The term. Also, confusions may be related with the use of atomic percent as measure of concentration of a dopant , or resolution of an imaging system, as measure of the size of the smallest detail that still can be resolved at the background of statistical noise. See also Accuracy and precision . The Berry paradox arises as a result of systematic ambiguity in the meaning of terms such as "definable" or "nameable". Terms of this kind give rise to vicious circle fallacies. Other terms with this type of ambiguity are: satisfiable, true, false, function, property, class, relation, cardinal, and ordinal. In mathematics and logic, ambiguity can be considered to be an instance of

14750-456: The three classic conflict situations (approach–approach conflict, approach–avoidance conflict , and avoidance–avoidance conflict) described by Kurt Lewin (1935) and can operationalize other Lewinian situations analyzed by his force field analysis . Other examples of the use of superimposed schedules of reinforcement as an analytical tool are its application to the contingencies of rent control (Brechner, 2003) and problem of toxic waste dumping in

14875-757: The topic in The Behavior of Organisms , in 1938, and elaborated this research in many subsequent publications. Notably Skinner argued that positive reinforcement is superior to punishment in shaping behavior. Though punishment may seem just the opposite of reinforcement, Skinner claimed that they differ immensely, saying that positive reinforcement results in lasting behavioral modification (long-term) whereas punishment changes behavior only temporarily (short-term) and has many detrimental side-effects. A great many researchers subsequently expanded our understanding of reinforcement and challenged some of Skinner's conclusions. For example, Azrin and Holz defined punishment as

15000-479: The training of thousands of principals and executive assistants. Ambiguity Ambiguity is the type of meaning in which a phrase , statement, or resolution is not explicitly defined, making for several interpretations; others describe it as a concept or statement that has no real reference. A common aspect of ambiguity is uncertainty . It is thus an attribute of any idea or statement whose intended meaning cannot be definitively resolved, according to

15125-431: The trap cannot be resisted in creating general behavior change. It is the use of a behavioral trap that increases a person's repertoire, by exposing them to the naturally occurring reinforcement of that behavior. Behavioral traps have four characteristics: Thus, artificial reinforcement can be used to build or develop generalizable skills, eventually transitioning to naturally occurring reinforcement to maintain or increase

15250-506: The various components of the task between the delegator and the delegated. This requires pinpointing who is responsible for which part of the task. Review: Providing specific and high-quality feedback, especially after the first time the principal has assigned a task of a specific kind to another person. High-quality feedback helps ensure that mistakes, misunderstandings, and duplicate work are less likely to be repeated and this increases efficiency. The framework has been successfully used in

15375-653: The villain or to God. The orthodox Catholic writer G. K. Chesterton regularly employed paradox to tease out the meanings in common concepts that he found ambiguous or to reveal meaning often overlooked or forgotten in common phrases: the title of one of his most famous books, Orthodoxy (1908), itself employed such a paradox. In music , pieces or sections that confound expectations and may be or are interpreted simultaneously in different ways are ambiguous, such as some polytonality , polymeter , other ambiguous meters or rhythms , and ambiguous phrasing , or (Stein 2005, p. 79) any aspect of music . The music of Africa

15500-403: Was introduced by Skinner to indicate that in his experimental paradigm, the organism is free to operate on the environment. In this paradigm, the experimenter cannot trigger the desirable response; the experimenter waits for the response to occur (to be emitted by the organism) and then a potential reinforcer is delivered. In the classical conditioning paradigm, the experimenter triggers (elicits)

15625-460: Was meant to be conveyed. An exception to this could include a politician whose " weasel words " and obfuscation are necessary to gain support from multiple constituents with mutually exclusive conflicting desires from his or her candidate of choice. Ambiguity is a powerful tool of political science . More problematic are words whose multiple meanings express closely related concepts. "Good", for example, can mean "useful" or "functional" ( That's

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