It's About Skiing and Not the Skis: Behavior Theory, Skiing, and Ski Teaching

by Jay Eacker

Overview

People have been skiing—and no doubt teaching others to do the same—for thousands of years. The earliest evidence for it is a picture on the wall of a cave in Norway that was drawn sometime around 4500 BC. Skiing is something that we do. It is a behavior. Teaching others to ski is also something that we do. It, too, is a behavior. Pavlov and his dog helped to demonstrate that behavior is lawful and orderly. Various forms of conditioning as well as reinforcement, generalization, discrimination, punishment, and extinction change behavior. But why do we ski and teach others to do the same? These behaviors can also be accounted for, but no one has done it—until now. Develop a better understanding of why we ski and become a better skier or ski instructor in the process. You’ll gain a greater appreciation of the sport once you discover It’s About Skiing and Not the Skis.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781450267892
Publisher:	iUniverse, Incorporated
Publication date:	12/06/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	195 KB

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IT'S ABOUT SKIING AND NOT THE SKIS

Behavior Theory, Skiing, and Ski Teaching

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By JAY EACKER

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2010 Jay Eacker
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4502-6787-8

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Chapter One

Behavior Theory

Whatever else it may be, skiing is something that we do. It is a behavior. Indeed, the essence of skiing, if there is one, may be that it is simply something that we do with boards on our feet.

Some skiing is more effective, more efficient, more effortless, more elegant, more esthetic than other skiing. That's what makes it so endlessly fascinating. Some of us do it naturally. Others have to learn how. For that, we sometimes hire ski instructors.

Whatever else it may be, ski instructing or ski teaching is also something that we do. Indeed, the essence of ski teaching, if there is one, may be that it is simply something that we do to change skiing behavior. Some of it is more effective, more efficient, more effortless, more elegant, more esthetic than other ski teaching. That, too, makes it endlessly fascinating. Some of us do it naturally. Others have to learn how. For that, ski instructors hire clinicians.

Since skiing and ski teaching are both things that we do, we might expect that the same principles apply to both. Those principles are in effect when we ski as well as when we teach skiing, but they are not well known. Some of the major ones will be examined here. Collectively, they constitute a theory of skiing and ski teaching.

Principles of Behavior Or Principles of Skiing and Ski Teaching

There are a half dozen or so major principles of behavior that apply to skiing and ski teaching. They are based on an experimental analysis of behavior. Actually, there are many more than that but some of them are so obscure that only a behavior analyst could be interested in them. In addition, there are two major categories of behavior to which most of them apply and so, all told, there may be more than a dozen that help to explain skiing and ski teaching behavior.

The major categories of behavior are respondent behavior and operant behavior. Respondent behaviors are those elicited by stimuli in the environment such as those studied by Ivan Pavlov. Everyone knows about Pavlov and his dog. His interest was piqued by salivation but much of what he discovered applies to emotions and especially fear as well as, perhaps, excitement. Skiers as well as ski instructors know a lot about fear and excitement, or elation, first hand. More will be said about emotions as we go along.

Operant behaviors are those that have an effect on the environment. They "operate" on the environment and were studied extensively by B. F. Skinner. Among them are the edging, pressuring, and rotary movements that occur when we make a turn with our skis. They have an effect on the environment and, in turn, those effects affect what occurs next. More will also be said about them as we go along.

For the most part, the major principles of behavior apply to operants, but there are some that also apply to respondents. Those principles are: positive and negative reinforcement, response differentiation or shaping, punishment, extinction, generalization, discrimination, and schedules of reinforcement. Whoops! That makes eight. I miscounted. Actually, when you consider that there are eight schedules of reinforcement, the number increases still more.

Positive Reinforcement

Anything that increases the rate of some behavior is a positive reinforcer. It doesn't matter why it increases the behavior. It only matters that it does. A reinforcer is reinforcing because of its effects on behavior, not because of some property intrinsic to it. Thus, for example, simply making a turn with the skis may increase the rate of the behaviors that contributed to it. In addition, of course, a ski instructor saying "Good!" may work as well.

Response Differentiation Or Shaping

Behavior can be molded, or shaped, by reinforcing those that more and more closely approximate some final performance. Thus, for example, when a ski instructor says "Hey! That was pretty good, but now try to flex your knees a little more", she is using this principle. It is especially evident that the ski instructor is using the principle if she keeps raising the standard for praising her pupil until the student makes a perfect turn (which, of course, never happens so far as we know). Reinforcers may also occur naturally as when the skier makes the turn more efficiently, that is, with less effort or leaves parallel tracks in the snow.

Negative Reinforcement

While on the subject of effort, whenever some behavior reduces effort and increases in rate, we have a case of negative reinforcement. Thus, for example, when a skier stands more balanced over the skis and it reduces the strain on the back and thigh muscles, the behavior of balancing is negatively reinforced. Similarly, whenever we make a turn more efficiently, it reduces the difficulty of making the turn, and we are more likely to make the turn that way in the future. As a result, a behavior may be both positively and negatively reinforced at the same time. That is, if the turn reduces the difficulty in making it, it is negatively reinforced. And, if our tracks in the snow are more parallel to each other, it is positively reinforced provided, of course, that the rate of making that turn increases.

Punishment

Unfortunately, punishment is also effective in changing behavior and it, too, may occur along with negative and positive reinforcement. Thus, for example, when a skier "leans back" he may feel the strain on his thigh muscles. If "leaning back" then decreases in rate, we have a case of punishment.

Now, when he straightens up, or becomes more balanced over the skis, and balancing increases in rate, we have a case of negative reinforcement. And, when he is then more comfortable on his skis and comfort increases in rate, we have a case of positive reinforcement.

Punishment decreases the rate of some response when that response produces it. Negative reinforcement increases the rate of some response when that response removes it. And, positive reinforcement increases the rate of some response when that response produces it.

With all three principles occurring at, or about, the same time you would think that "leaning back" or being out of balance on the skis would get eliminated pretty quickly. As most experienced ski instructors know, it doesn't. There are probably other well established behaviors that interfere with it. They may be emotion or fear which are also things that we do. More will be said about them later.

Extinction

When a previously reinforced behavior is no longer reinforced, it decreases in rate or extinguishes. However, the rate may not return to zero. There may be a lingering residual for the effects of reinforcement and that may be a part of why it takes so long to eliminate some behavior. In addition, of course, some features of the old behavior may still get reinforced and interfere with the new.

Thus, for example, when a ski instructor gets a student to turn on her outside ski, and it becomes a pretty good turn, it may take a while for that student to become more two-footed. One-footed turns may still get reinforced by their naturally occurring consequences even though the instructor may no longer encourage them or the new, shaped, skis no longer reinforce them.

Schedules of Reinforcement

How quickly a behavior extinguishes depends, in part at least, on the previous schedule of reinforcement. Schedules have to do with the way in which reinforcement occurs or is administered. For example, reinforcement can occur after every response or after every other response. In addition, it can occur after every fifth response or, on the average, after every fifth response. In fact, the schedule can be ratio or interval, fixed or variable, and simple or complex. Their combinations give rise to at least eight different ways in which reinforcement occurs or can be administered.

Actually, there are many more schedules than that but only behavior analysts could possibly be interested in them. For example, B. F. Skinner wrote an entire book entitled simply Schedules of Reinforcement.

Complex schedules are made up of the simple ones, but none of the complex schedules may occur in the natural environment even though behavior analysts can arrange conditions in a behavior laboratory to study them. Nevertheless, if each constitutes a separate principle of behavior, then all told there are more than two dozen principles of behavior that help to explain it.

A simple schedule of reinforcement is illustrated by a ski instructor saying "Good!" after every thing that a beginning student does. In this case, there is a fixed ratio of responses to reinforcement. It is continuous or a fixed ratio of one, one response for one reinforcement. Behaviors get established very quickly on this schedule of reinforcement. Unfortunately, they also extinguish very quickly.

When the ratio of responses to reinforcement is increased, we have still another fixed ratio schedule of reinforcement and so on for fixed ratios that can become quite large. Early on in teaching skiing, the instructor may use a continuous schedule of praise for her student's efforts because, as said, it quickly establishes the behavior in which she is interested if only just walking around on the skis.

Later in the lesson, she may shift to a variable ratio schedule of responses to reinforcement where, on the average, every other response is reinforced. Variable ratio schedules establish rather high rates of responses over long periods of time that are quite resistant to extinction. They are the ones most commonly encountered in the natural environment which may help to explain why some skiing behaviors are so persistent.

For example, bending at the waist can get established early and take a long time to extinguish. Some of us know that from personal experience and may do it longer than we care to admit.

The reinforcer for it is probably balance, and it may persist until fore and aft, side to side, balancing get established and interfere with it. Then, bending at the waist is no longer reinforced and extinguishes.

The two remaining simple schedules of reinforcement are based on the time interval since the last reinforced response. Thus, for example, if the time interval since the last reinforced response is one minute, the schedule is a fixed interval one minute. If the time interval since the last reinforced response varies around some average value, the schedule is a variable interval schedule of reinforcement. Since ski instructors and clinicians seldom if ever time the intervals between reinforced responses with a stopwatch, these schedules seldom if ever occur in ski teaching.

Generalization

Fortunately, a behavior established under one set of circumstances occurs under other similar circumstances. That is, behavior generalizes. Thus, once we get a student walking around with skis on flat terrain, it is easier to get them walking around in skis on terrain that is not quite so flat. That is fortunate because we then don't have to teach walking around with skis all over again under those changed circumstances.

Discrimination

Fortunately, a behavior established under one set of circumstances doesn't occur under all other circumstances. That is, discrimination occurs, but it must be taught or shaped by way of differential reinforcement and extinction. All that means is that the ski instructor reinforces the behavior under one set of circumstances but doesn't reinforce it under others. Thus, he may praise a student for getting her boots on the right feet but not when she doesn't. In addition, of course, the student may be punished by boots on the wrong feet so discrimination training is not simply a matter of differential reinforcement and extinction. It may also include punishment as well as extinction.

Operant Conditioning

Up to now, most of what has been related here has been about operant conditioning. Simply stated, the principle of operant conditioning is that operants are change by their consequences. Some of those consequences are positive and negative reinforcement, punishment, and extinction.

Operant behaviors are widespread in skiing. They include all of those behaviors that help us to get around in the skiing environment. As a result, they include skiing itself but also getting on a chair lift. Getting on a chair lift changes our view of the mountain we are skiing and so may be reinforced by that view, and it can also be exciting if not downright scary when we do it for the first time. That is where respondent conditioning comes in.

Respondent Conditioning

The principle of respondent conditioning is that respondents are changed when their normal stimuli are paired with others as in the case of Pavlov's dog. As stated earlier, respondents are evoked, like a reflex, by what's going on in the environment. That principle was perhaps the first demonstration by anyone that behavior is lawful and orderly.

When we ski, all kinds of things in the skiing environment can evoke, or elicit, respondents. They can vary all the way from excitement, to wonder, to fear, to elation, to exuberance, to joy. You name it. All kinds of feelings can be produced. For behavior analysts, feelings are also things that we do. They are behaviors. When the stimuli that bring out those emotions are paired with other stimuli in the skiing environment, they too come to evoke those emotions just as salivation was produced by the metronome, or bell, in Pavlov's demonstration.

Obviously, behavior analysts treat emotions as behavior. However, they occur inside of us. They are covert rather than overt as in the case of, for example, making a ski turn. But, they can interfere with making a ski turn as well as, on occasion, enhancing it.

If we are timid about making a ski turn and timidity is a covert behavior, it can interfere with making the turn properly. On the other hand, being too bold about making the turn and being bold is a covert behavior can also interfere with making the turn properly. There are, of course, all shades of emotion between timidity and boldness. We need the right balance, neither too timid nor too bold, to make the turn properly.

In addition, of course, fear or the lack of it may also be involved. Fortunately, it too can be dealt with as a covert behavior by way of behavior principles. One is respondent extinction.

Respondent Extinction

The principle of respondent extinction is that repeated presentations of the new stimulus in the absence of the one that normally elicits the respondent reduces the strength of the conditioned respondent. Thus, for example, if the chair lift evokes a fear response, repeatedly exposing the student to the moving chair without asking them to sit in it may help to reduce the fear of a moving chair. In addition, repeatedly sitting in a stationary chair may help to reduce the fear of a moving chair.

Similarly, getting on and off a slow moving chair may help to eliminate the fear of a faster moving chair. And, of course, simply getting on an off a faster moving chair may help to eliminate or reduce the fear of a still faster moving chair. There are all kinds of ways to use this principle and the one that works is the right one for a particular student. When it works, it reinforces the operant behavior of the ski instructor who implemented that procedure whatever it was.

To give another example, the word "lemon" in this sentence may evoke salivation by some of you as you are reading this sentence right now. If it does, the behavior of salivation is explained by the fact that the word "lemon" has been paired with real lemons on several occasions in your past, or, respondent conditioning. Now, when the word "lemon" occurs in this sentence at this moment, it evokes salivation right now just as real lemons have evoked it in your past. If it doesn't, the respondent conditioning procedure may not have been as extensive for you as it has for others or else the behavior of salivation may have undergone respondent extinction.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from IT'S ABOUT SKIING AND NOT THE SKIS by JAY EACKER Copyright © 2010 by Jay Eacker. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Contents

I. Preface....................1
II. Introduction....................3
III. Behavior Theory....................5
IV. Skiing....................23
V. Ski Teaching....................59
VI. Conclusion....................85