One of the most useful applications of the psychology of learning is in the employment of the behavior modification principle of contingent reinforcement in order to enhance performance. TheShootingstreak® Personal Trainer (PT) provides the player with a training tool that utilizes this principle to increase shooting accuracy.
To cite one of the world’s most renowned learning psychologists, Stanford University’s Professor Emeritus of Social Science in Psychology, Albert Bandura, Ph.D., according to the behavior modification operant conditioning paradigm in regards to the Outcome Control of Behavior, [sic] (parenthetically [not sic]): …"instrumental (operant) responses are extensively controlled by their immediate consequences. Operant responses that result in nonreward or punishing effects" (such as chasing after an errant shot) "are generally eliminated while those that are successful in securing rewarding outcomes" (such as with the consequent return of the ball after an accurate shot) "are retained and strengthened" (In: principles of behavior modification, 1969, p. 25.)
Players find the direct return of the basketball without the intermediary of another person (a parsimonious operational outcome definition) to be an extra reward for shooting accurately. Rather than having to retrieve the ball after a successful shot, the player can stay relaxed, set-up in position and remain in rhythm, ready for the next shot. Further development of this point, along with an explication of both the rationale and methodology for disciplined use of the apparatus, can be found in the discussion wherein is addressed its practical application as it pertains to wheelchair basketball, cited in the "Information" sidebar (sited at left), sighted under the heading: Community Centers, beginning... "So it is for the case of training with TheShootingstreak® PT."
The extendible track feature of TheShootingstreak® PT offers the practical advantage of Progressive Range Reinforcement, allowing coaches and players to utilize the technique of reinforced "shaping"; whereby, there is a gradual shaping process that occurs of selectively reinforcing approximations progressively closer to longer distanced shots, especially to straightaway shots successively closer to free-throw and 3-point lines, providing the tractable variable range both players and coaches alike are looking for.
There is also the advantage provided by the special design of TheShootingstreak® PT; whereby, the Trough Assembly extends forward beneath the goal hoop and allows "air balls" or "short shots", which miss in front of the rim but fall into the access path of the retriever, to be collected and returned to the player. Thusly, due to its inclined, under goal open trough, design, TheShootingstreak® PT is, both structurally and functionally, designed and inclined to benefit all players; particularly beginning players or those with difficulty, for whatever reason, of having their shot reach the goal hoop — especially younger children — whereby, the rewarding return of a short "air ball" shot can act to provide encouragement for a shot proximate to an accurate shot; that is, for a shot falling short on distance to the goal but directionally on the PATHWAY TO ACCURACY™ track [to goal].
Noteworthily, the nearer the shot to the rim, the farther up the runway the ball is collected and its subsequent descent is directly related in terms of the vigor of the ball's delivery to the player. The faster the delivery service, the more immediate the consequential reward delivered to and received by the player — "immediacy" being a salient factor having been empirically well established in the annals of psychology as having a positive influence on the effectiveness of response consequences. Perhaps the significance of the positive correlation between memory decay and reinforcement delay is not actually lost on keen players, which may be why — as their focus turns, while yet confident in the memory of their previously successful shot, to the next shot for which they ready themselves — they await with eager expectancy the rapid return of the ball from TheShootingstreak® PT.
Like training wheels on a bicycle for a beginner, the guidance offered by TheShootingstreak® PT is appreciated when a good effort is made but falls just short of the goal. It provides a step along the way enabling the progressive shaping of more accurate shooting; the inside track to better results. This is an ancillary way in which TheShootingstreak® PT can effectively function, especially for the youngest of us, as a targeting mechanism for mediational reinforcement within the operant conditioning model of learning; that is, to shape up the mediating factor of self-confidence by rewarding the player's successive approximations to accurate shooting per se, and particularly for shots of gradually greater distance.
Importantly, by utilizing the Trainer Track Extender's manually adjustable (positionally IN----OUT) trombone-like slide feature, a shape shifting mechanism — which, when deployed gradually with each small step back from the rim, allows the player to progressively shape successive approximations to more distant shots — a player’s marksmanship then can be shaped to extend from close to the basket all the way to the free throw line or, additionally farther yet; straightaway to the 3-point line, providing that popularly sought competitive edge.
For the 'hack-a' player, in the application of this progressive learning principle called “shaping” — by rewarding successive approximations of the target behaviors of shooting accuracy; that is, consistency in directionality and distance — TheShootingstreak® PT can be a valuable assistant in helping the player transcend historical self-expectations and change nightmare shots at the foul line into dream shots at the free point line, adding one more bonus point to that competitive edge.
Reinforcers are assumed to affect performance through their informative and incentive functions. In accordance with learning psychologists such as B.F. Skinner, Ph.D., Arthur Staats, Ph.D., and others, "the existence of differential response consequences is essential to the maintenance of stimulus control produced through instructional means" (Bandura, op cit, p. 24). In his work with children and a complex task such as reading, Staats demonstrated, by using back-up reinforcers (as I reminisce as his grad student assistant back in 1967 Hawaii) to dramatically increase children's attention span, that even very young children will take part in complex learning activities, and with interest sustained over intensive trials of practice sessions, when given a personalized back-up reinforcement incentive system (See also: Bandura, op cit, p.226).
A person's low frustration threshold or short attention span often can be attributable to inadequate incentives. Psychologists G.L. Martin and R.B. Powers have shown this to be the case and especially for developmentally exceptional children (See: Attention Span: an operant conditioning analysis. Exceptional Children, 1967). The capacity to maintain effortful behavior over time is one of the most important attributes of a reinforcement operation and is reflected by the number of responses persons will perform until they choose to discontinue the activity.
In producing physical educational strivings in children or adults who display little interest in physical exercise pursuits, one can arrange to provide for back-up incentive motivation with respect to athletic achievement behavior. In the case of basketball, coaches find TheShootingstreak® PT to be an advantage as a back-up reinforcer to their instructional efforts and as an extra motivational stimulus inspiring closer attention to straightaway three point shooting and, for that matter, shooting in general. Summarily, in the behavior modification tradition, both field goal and free throw shooting can benefit from the bonus reinforcement provided by TheShootingstreak® PT.
Expert basketball players prefer to develop one position at a time on the court during shooting practice. This method of developing a "sweet spot" for shooting is not due to athletic indolence but is a result of rather sound judgment about what is required of performance setting events in order to learn reliable shooting habits.
For a player to acquire the motor skill of basketball shooting accuracy, the essential question is, "What is required for most efficient response acquisition? Straightaway, the essential answer is: the maintenance of relatively constant performance setting events during what is primarily a trial-and-error process of learning a perceptual motor skill confluently involving the coordination of body, mind, and spirit in the rhythm of shooting.
Ideally, for players to acquire shooting accuracy, the ball should be returned to them in a reliably similar manner which minimizes events setting up players’ extraneous arrhythmic motions such as bending, stretching, stumbling, or chasing for the ball and reinforces their shooting accuracy by maximizing events setting up their shot oriented rhythm of catching, aiming, and shooting the ball. Additionally, though perhaps counterintuitively, especially for the player who perforce might be feeling the urgency to play and shoot more aggressively, the essential ingredient that (paradoxically) could need to be focused on for reliable development would be the player's sweetness. For learning reliable shooting habits, the sweetness to be focused on for development. then, would as much be the sweet rhythm of the shot as it would be the sweet spot of the shot.
When a shot has been successful, it is an impractical, non-didactic, waste of time for a player to retrieve the ball each time. Often, it is either impossible or undesirable to press someone else into this job. Even if this is accomplished, there are serious disadvantages, with the pressure to socialize ultimately shrinking one's dedicated portion of personal practice time. And, though an other may be hired or importuned to retrieve the ball, there is little assurance for the player that the ball will be returned in a reliably similar manner. However, being the recipient of the similarly mannered, mechanized, self-dependent marked time return of the ball from TheShootingstreak® PT is both a rewarding experience and an opportunity for self-reliantly repeating another shot while established at a personal sweet spot for practicing the dulcet rhythm of shooting from a particular area on the court (especially free throws). It is the history of the literature on learning that the effect of both reward and repetition can be expected to be enhanced personal performance. Accordingly, the patently logical personal choice is TheShootingstreak® Personal Trainer (PT).
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