Form of Learning in Regular Show Essay PDF

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Form of Learning in Regular Show Essay - Dr. Thomas...

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Form of Learning in Regular Show In the episode of Regular Show that we watched today, the main characters were emptying a fountain with the intent of cleaning it when they discovered baby ducks in the fountain. They catch the baby ducks and try to release them so that they can clean the fountain. One of the characters, Rigby, notices that the baby ducks are following him wherever he walks or runs. The two characters, still determined to get rid of the baby ducks, try to have friends take them so they can finish working. One of the girls notices that the baby ducks are copying Rigby’s karate chop motion. The ducks begin to learn from Rigby by observing the motions he makes and imitating them. This is called observational learning. The ducks continue to learn by watching Rigby and copying him when he makes punching motions, splashes water, and acts like a rubber duck. Later in the episode, the baby ducks are playing a videogame against Rigby. When they win, the other character, Mordecai, cheers for them with a “Woo!” In doing this, he is positively reinforcing the baby ducks that beat Rigby at the video game which causes their response to be increased. The praise the ducks receive helps them to understand that winning is good. This form of learning is called operant conditioning. Afterwards, the baby ducks take notice of Mordecai’s “Woo” and imitate him (observational learning), but they do it when it’s not a proper time to be celebrating a win. When they do this, Mordecai negatively reinforces their “Woo” by saying, “Not cool guys.” The baby ducks then understand that their cheering was not at the right time. The baby ducks were able to learn from Rigby and Mordecai by using two different forms of learning. Through observational learning, the baby ducks watched and copied Rigby to learn new motions such as a karate chop. They also watched and copied Mordecai’s reactional “Woo” that he did when the baby ducks won while playing video games. Through operant

conditioning, the baby ducks were able to understand that winning is good when praised or positively reinforced for it. They learned that saying “Woo” at random times was not appropriate after receiving negative reinforcement for it. In this episode, the baby ducks learned a few different actions and behaviors that they might not have learned without the help of Rigby and Mordecai....