Do You Know The Premack Principle Or Grandma’s Law?
Surely, without knowing it, you have ever used the Premack principle with your children, also known as the grandmother’s law or principle of differential probability. This is a theory based on operant conditioning, which is often put into practice with the aim of modifying and improving children’s behavior.
If you want to know exactly what we are referring to, pay attention to what you are going to read next, as we explain more about the subject.
Do you know the Premack Principle or Grandma’s Law?
As its name suggests, this principle was proposed by the American psychologist David Premack, who states that a stimulus that occurs many times can act as positive reinforcers of a stimulus that occurs with less probability, which does not happen the other way around.
In other words, the fact of first doing something that one likes less and then something that one likes more (which is usually spent more time), makes one feel more predisposed to carry out the action less preferred.
How do you explain this? Very easy! As defended by the behavioral psychologist Burrhus Frederic Skinner, behavior is determined by the consequences obtained with said acts, so that behaviors that are followed by a reward tend to repeat. And what better reward than an activity that one likes to do?
“The consequences of an act affect the probability that it will occur again.”
– Burrhus Frederic Skinner –
Innately, the human being shows greater attraction and motivation towards tasks that are pleasant to him. Therefore, in parenting, these tasks can be used as effective incentives or reinforcers after the infant performs a desired behavior, such as tidying the room, picking up toys, making the bed, etc.
But why is the Premack principle also referred to as grandmother’s law? Actually, with the formulation of this principle, David Premack only described what had already been used for years in the rearing of children and grandchildren, something that was present in the popular wisdom of grandmothers: “first do what I I ask you and then what you want ”.
How to choose the right reinforcers?
To choose which are the tasks that can act as appropriate positive reinforcers, it is necessary to know very well the tastes and preferences of the child in question.
Therefore, it is very important to carefully observe the little ones, talk with them and pay attention to how they enjoy their free time, because only in this way will one be able to determine what motivates them the most, which can be useful to condition their behavior.
And remember: for the Premack principle to be effective, the least preferred action needs to be performed before the one that is already enjoyable on its own. But it should never be done the other way around, as the motivation would be lost.
The Premack Principle in the Education of Children
Every mother, father or educator has at some time applied the Premack principle to get children to perform a behavior. For example, at mealtime, it is very common to tell the little ones to eat the vegetables first (less pleasant stimulus), and then they can have dessert (very pleasant stimulus). Which is incredibly effective.
In short, we encourage you to use this principle consciously in the education of your children. You will see how well and fast they respond!
