With 2018 coming to a close, some of us may be reflecting on the errors of our ways over the last 12 months and considering self-improvement.
Let's not call such changes new year's resolutions, because everybody knows such ambitious undertakings don't last much past mid-January. Remember when fitness centers were packed at the beginning of a year with people earnestly pledging to shape up? Not any more. They've become cynical. They know it's not going to happen--at least not right away.
Better to think in terms of gradual changes of those behaviors you are starting to realize aren't in your best interest.
To that end, there's a curious behavior training wristband called Pavlok (probably referring to the Russian physiologist who figured out that dogs salivate when they anticipate getting fed, so he rang a bell when food was on the way, which led to salivation when the dog heard the bell; it's called stimulus and response and should not be confused with the 1970s St. Louis-based band Pavlov's Dog) that claims to utilize aversive conditioning to help rid yourself of acting out in ways that are detrimental to your well-being.
Pavlok, its website explains, integrates with sensors and GPS to tell when you are indulging in bad habits and administers a mild shock to help train your brain to quit letting you do stuff that's bad for you.
Some of us learned about negative reinforcement decades ago in Psychology 101, when we weren't gossiping about the alleged benefits of using amphetamines as study aids (not that we would ever do such a thing). A 20th-century scientist named B. F. Skinner developed a theory of behaviorism, positing that learning is a process of conditioning in an environment of stimulus, reward, and punishment.
His invention, an operant conditioning chamber, employs an enclosure with a bar or key that, when pressed, produces food or water. It demonstrated that rats could be trained by using positive and negative reinforcement, and could be taught to act bizarrely when subjected to intermittent (random) reinforcement. Watch some wacky YouTube videos of pigeons in search of snacks to see how this can go off in some strange directions.
We're getting off track here, and I'm not convinced that a Pavlok will make me a better person. I don't intend to invest in a Pavlok, and this is not an endorsement of it and similar products.
What I find fascinating is the list of what Pavlok identifies as habits that are ruining our lives.
Some are obvious: Over-eating white sugar, chocolate, salt, cookies, and fast food. Drinking too much coffee, soft drinks, or alcohol. Biting your nails. Smoking cigarettes. Over-medicating.
Others are peculiar: Humming to yourself. Using your phone in bed. Saying yes to everything. Wool-gathering. Procrastinating. Watching TV right after work (how is that worse than watching TV at all?). Forgetting names of people you meet. Gnawing on your pen. Not maintaining eye contact with others. Sleeping in. Interrupting those around you. Sleeping while wearing makeup. Not moisturizing. Swearing (which I find refreshing now and then). Slouching. Picking fights. Being unfriendly. Complaining. Trolling. Binge-watching Netflix.
There are 176 bad behaviors listed at pavlok.com. The site is careful to add that Pavlok will never judge you. Some habits, it explains, are objectively bad (like smoking). Others depend on context; sleeping in makes you late for work. And others aren't clearly good or bad, just matters of personal preference.
Who knew?
We all do things we wish we didn't do. Habits start with a psychological pattern called a habit loop, according to Charles Duhigg in his book The Power of Habit. In a 2012 interview with Fresh Air's Terry Gross that aired on NPR, the loop has three parts: A cue or trigger that tells your brain to let a behavior unfold, routine (the behavior itself), and reward: something your brain likes that helps it remember the loop in the future.
When behavior becomes automatic, the decision-making part of your brain takes a break.
"In fact, the brain starts working less and less," says Duhigg. "The brain can almost completely shut down. ... And this is a real advantage, because it means you have all of this mental activity you can devote to something else."
Once you tell people about the cue and the reward and you force them to recognize what those factors are in a behavior, it becomes much easier to change, according to Duhigg.
The best way to change automated behaviors, he says, is to take a break from your everyday life. "If you want to quit smoking, you should stop smoking while you're on a vacation--because all your old cues and all your old rewards aren't there any more. So you have this ability to form a new pattern, and hopefully be able to carry it over into your life."
That sounds a lot more compelling than wearing a gizmo that shocks you when you misbehave. So now that January is nearly here, take a few days off.
Karen Martin is senior editor of Perspective.
kmartin@arkansasonline.com
Editorial on 12/30/2018