“The piano is the social instrument par excellence… drawing-room furniture, a sign of bourgeois prosperity, the most massive of the devices by which the young are tortured in the name of education and the grown-up in the name of entertainment.” Jacques Barzun.Next up; movie review. The assignment is due this Wednesday, so the piece will only be up by Friday (latest). Not that anyone's excited about it, of course.
When I was seven years old, pianos looked so grand and massive from where I stand. It still does. I always believed that it was my reason for agreeing to attend piano class when my parents asked me to. And so, at the age of seven, I attended my first piano class. My teacher, a woman in her late twenties at that time, let’s call her Milfuelle just for fun, had soft eyes and kind looks. It would only be years later that I’d learn looks can be deceiving.
My first few years of piano lessons were bliss. Nothing excites me more than Saturday mornings as I spent an hour in piano class. For each new song I learn, Milfuelle would tick the pages of the song and signed her name. And if I did extra well, she’d give me a star. I loved those stars. I’d show them off to my mother and she would smile approvingly. I took my first grade exam at eight years old and passed with a merit. My parents rewarded me and eventually, I came to a realization that for my achievements, my parents would gladly reward me. So, I worked harder for my second grade and got a distinction. For my third grade, I got a merit. But the truth is, I never really learned to play the piano with passion, nor with discipline. I slacked all year long and when exam is near, I would practice non-stop for hours. After the exam, it would be for months before I start practicing at home again. I only had eyes for the reward.
Here, we could say that positive reinforcement has been applied, whereby the reinforcement of a response (in this case, the response is to get me to practice the piano) is done by the addition of a pleasurable sequence (earning a reward). Milfuelle’s stars, my mother’s pleased smiles, and the gifts from my parents were my reinforcers (items or events that when following a response, will strengthen it). The act of rewarding me for passing my piano exams illustrates fixed interval schedule of reinforcement. The response rate (practicing my piano pieces) would go up just before receiving the reinforcers (my reward) and then drops off (slacking period) immediately after receiving it, until it’s almost time for the next exam.
In my fourth grade, I learnt other ways to gain my parent’s approval and earn rewards; by performing well in my studies. It was much easier compared to spending hours practicing scales and arpeggios or polishing the exam pieces. Consequently, I failed my fourth grade. My parents and Milfuelle were enraged. I had to re-sit fourth grade and that was the most miserable year of my piano-playing years. At home, my parents constantly nagged me to practice my piano skills. At piano class, Milfuelle would call in the other students and have them listen as I played. To stop my parents’ nagging and to avoid poor performance in public, because it’d naturally be embarrassing to do so, I constantly practiced my exam pieces and passed my fourth grade and the following grades.
This time, negative reinforcement have successfully been implemented, whereby I reinforced a response (practicing the piano constantly) in order to escape from an unpleasant consequence (public embarrassment and parents’ nagging).
Was I too pampered during the years of positive reinforcement? Or was I too miserable during the years of negative reinforcement? Nevertheless, I did learn how to play the piano over the years. In conclusion, I’ve learned to play the piano via operant conditioning.
Labels: killer assignments, psych babble, scribbles on papers, Sunway stories
