Walk Through Seattle Library Seattle koolhaas Library

The Seattle Central Library is the flagship library of the Seattle Public Library system. The 11-story (185 feet or 56 meters high) glass and steel building in downtown Seattle, Washington was opened to the public on Sunday, May 23, 2004. Rem Koolhaas was the principal architect and Hoffman Construction Company of Portland, Oregon was the general contractor. The 362987 square foot (34000 m²) public library can hold about 1.45 million books and other materials, features underground public parking for 143 vehicles, and includes over 400 computers open to the public. Over 2 million individuals visited the new library in its first year. It is the third Seattle Central Library building to be located on the same site at 1000 Fourth Avenue, the block bounded by Fourth and Fifth Avenues and Madison and Spring Streets. The library has a unique, striking appearance, consisting of several discrete "floating platforms" seemingly wrapped in a large steel net around glass skin. Architectural tours of the building began on June 5, 2006. In 2007, the building was voted #108 on the American Institute of Architects' list of Americans' 150 favorite structures in the US.[1] It was one of two Seattle buildings included on the list of 150 structures, the other being Safeco Field. The architects conceived the new Central Library building as a celebration of books, deciding after some research that despite the arrival of the 21st century and the "digital age," people still respond to books ...



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Training Your Dog Through Punishment Should Be a Thing Of The Past

Punishment as a form of training is still widely used by dog owners who know no better when training a dog. What your dog sees as a punishment can take many forms: verbal (shouting or an angry tone), physical (kicking, hitting or other forced actions such as rubbing his nose in the carpet) or even the posture of his master. No dog wants to be punished, nor will he do anything 'on purpose' and be aware of the (physical) consequences beforehand.

If you come home to find your dog has upset the garbage can and spread the contents all over the house, he is unlikely to realize when he is being yelled at that it is because of the mess he made some hours ago. What he will do is associate the return of his master with physical or verbal punishment, making him anxious about you returning home. You may even begin to notice your dog showing fear towards you if your training methods have included physical punishment.

If you see your dog crawling or slinking around looking "guilty" about the time you have noticed something he did earlier, you might think he knows he has done something wrong. This is not the case. Dogs have no sense of right and wrong. When shouted at, he is not acting "guilty", but is in fact just showing submissive posture in response to your harsh tone of voice or angry demeanor.

There are forms of behavior modification that may be acceptable even though they are based upon negative reinforcement that you could use in correcting unwanted behavior in a dog. If this is a method you wish to use, it is best that the 'perceived punishment' does not come from you, but instead comes from the environment your dog is in. For instance, noise can be an effective form of correction. When the dog is caught doing something that is undesirable, a sudden loud noise can disrupt what he is doing. It is important that the sound does not appear to come from you, but is something that 'mystically occurs' whenever he is misbehaving - it can come from an air horn or a tin full of beans that is shaken to make a noise. In time, your dog will associate the unwanted noise with the behavior you want to correct and avoid doing it again, even when you are not around.

If any of the above sounds familiar to you, or punishment to correct your dog's behavior is not the way you want to train your dog, why not consider positive reinforcement as a training method? Positive reinforcement is the exact opposite of punishment as a dog training technique, and providing you are consistent, it can be much more effective, rewarding and enjoyable for both you and your dog.

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Effective Parenting Skills - Instill Good Behavior Through Positive Reinforcement

As a parent, how do you discipline your child? Have you ever spanked your child? Most behavioral studies show that there are three approaches parents use to evoke desired behavior from their children. They are: positive or negative reinforcement, and punishment.

Positive reinforcement occurs when you offer a reward or praise that will increase the likelihood that your child will repeat a desired behavior. Negative reinforcement occurs when you elicit a behavior by taking away or avoiding an adverse event, such as having your child go to school earlier to avoid traffic he dislikes riding in. Punishment is the third type of approach. Although often confused with negative reinforcement, it actually involves inclusion of an adverse event in order to decrease or stop what you perceive to be a negative behavior, such as administering a spanking or timeout to stop your son from picking on your daughter.

Child experts generally agree that positive reinforcement is the most desirable of the three methods used to elicit positive behavior from children and reduce negative behavior.

Positive Reinforcement as Compared to Bribery?

Some parents mistakenly equate positive reinforcement and bribery. With bribery, you promise some sort of material reward in exchange for a behavior you want. This often involves negotiating or even begging your child to behave properly. This is different than giving your child verbal praise or encouragement, or rewarding them with some small token after they have achieved a certain goal.

Many times, parents steer clear from positive reinforcement because they think this might spoil their child. However, this is not at all true if the reward is given in response to positive behavior or a goal well attained by the child. In addition, these types of rewards do not need to be at all expensive. Especially for small children, small tokens like stickers provide a tangible reward for some long sought-after goal, such as potty training. Small children especially have a much easier time with difficult to obtain goals if they are given regular rewards along the way. In addition, nonmaterial rewards such as hugs, praise or genuine parental excitement for a job well done are also highly prized by the child.

When Should You Start Using Positive Reinforcement?

There is no correct time in which to start using positive reinforcement, but children learn to equate receipt of some type of reinforcement to their positive behavior after they have had several similar experiences. Certain good deeds that are reinforced at an early age become habit after a certain period of time.

As children grow up, their needs will grow and expand, as will your expectations. Therefore, the reinforcement may change, but the general principle of positive reinforcement remains the same. Positive reinforcement's success depends not just on the child, but on the adult who uses a particular method as his or her disciplinary approach.

If used successfully, positive reinforcement can help a child develop intrinsic motivation. This, of course, is the ultimate goal. Children learn to expect certain results from certain behavior.

How Do You Best Use Positive Reinforcement?

The best way to use positive reinforcement is to do the following:

First, select and define the behavior you want to strengthen. For instance, you can be clear about what you accept in your children's behavior at home. To best reinforce positive behavior, make sure that you clearly define what your children's progress should be by specifically defining the behavior you want your children to repeat. Do not give abstract directives such as, "Behave yourself when you are eating." Do provide clear, concise directions on "how" children should behave themselves, such as, "Sit still on your chair with your napkin in your lap, do not fidget or play with your food, and when you are finished, ask to be excused before you leave the table."

Second, choose what types of reinforcement you want to use. Reinforcements should be age-appropriate and should be something the child can understand and want. Since children have individual preferences, reinforcements should match children's individual characteristics. They should be age-appropriate enough that the child can actually earn them quite easily so as not to get discouraged. However, they should be difficult enough to earn that the child really does have to make an honest effort to behave in order to receive them. For example, stickers are very appropriate for preschool children, since they value these, while an extended weekend curfew is more appropriate to a teenager.

Third, consistency is the key; reinforcement should be provided without fail and with clear rules and expectations. Children should expect routine and should expect consequences for bad behavior, as well as rewards for good behavior. When a particular behavior is just being learned, immediate reinforcement is very important, so that children can expect clear feedback. As the behavior becomes more integrated, intermittent reinforcement is actually better, since this actually has been shown to strengthen the behavior rather than weaken it. Oftentimes, if children are rewarded for behavior consistently, they cease to perform that behavior unless they receive the reward. Therefore, intermittent and irregular reinforcement is best once a behavior has been learned. Once the behavior is fully established as habit, you can remove the tangible reinforcement altogether.

Fourth, praise and encourage as you reinforce. This helps motivate the child to continue; while praise can be good, be careful not to overpraise. This can actually be counterproductive, as the child learns to focus on an external authority rather than on his or her own internal sense of right and wrong. Encouragement, too, is useful if used when a child becomes discouraged, but again, the focus here is to develop a sense of internal control within the child.

You can best praise children by focusing on the good behavior. For example, saying, "That was very nice of you to help that lady carry her bag," helps the child understand that his efforts truly impact other people in a positive manner. Thus, not only do you acknowledge the childrens actions, but you show how they affect other people. This helps the child to start focusing outside of himself as to how actions have impact, in addition to how his actions affect just himself or his immediate family, such as siblings.

Praising Points

Many studies have shown that intermittent praise helps people focus on and keep their interest in activities. Too much or too little becomes ineffective, because it can reduce praise's value or make it too hard to come by. When you give praise, you should:

Do it immediately. Praise children if you can right after the good behavior occurs. This is also known as "catching children being good." Too often, disciplinary effort focuses on bad behavior and correcting it rather than good behavior and acknowledging it. By acknowledging good behavior, you reinforce it.

Be specific in your praise. Make note of exactly which behavior you like. For example, you could say, "John, that was very nice of you to play ball with Todd. Thank you." To avoid confusion, leave any wrong actions, such as minor spats, for another time. Simply put, the praise itself should be undiluted.

Be frequent with your praise. Although overpraising, as stated before, is not good because it actually discourages children from proper behavior in that they look for the reward every time, intermittent but relatively frequent praise is very good to help children both develop an internal sense of control and to know that what they are doing is good. As often as you can, catch your children doing something good. As children continue, they will develop these good behaviors as habit.

Be sincere with your praise. In addition, focus on actions as good or bad, and avoid labeling children as "bad." If a child politely asks for his toy back from his brother, say, "Thank you for doing that. It was very polite of you."

Vary your statements of praise. They should go with the situation in order to sound sincere. If you use the same statements of praise over and over again, children will pick up on this and will either see this phony or will cease to listen to it. In addition, the more you expand your vocabulary as you talk with your child, the more you help them expand their own as well. This also helps children develop an emotional vocabulary, so that if they are frustrated or upset, they can voice their feelings rather than act them out. This, in turn, will help them appropriately express themselves, as they get older.

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Train Your Brain Through Reinforcement

Maintaining reward systems or positive reinforcement is an important part of building life-long habits. As human animals, we generally like to repeatedly do the things that we have been rewarded for. The basis of positive reinforcement or habit-changing is that when someone does something and is immediately positively reinforced, they will tend to do the same thing again in a similar situation. You will note the word immediate. The person who plans to train and diet all year and then reward themselves with a summer vacation, has less chance of success than someone who gives themselves small, but immediate rewards for training and dieting, throughout the year.

The first big mistake that people make with the reward system is delayed rewards. Trying to get in shape for a vacation or the forthcoming summer season when it is still several months away might be a good reason to train, but it fails to motivate as a strong reward. To grudgingly drag oneself down to an unfriendly gym or pedal on an exercise bike in the corner of one's basement is just plain punishment. I recall my stepfather recovering from a heart attack by peddling on an exercise bike. He lasted about two and half weeks before resuming his usual routine of television-watching, chain-smoking and beer-guzzling after work. His second heart-attack followed a few months later, at age 46. The problem was that there was no reward linked with the daily activity. Unfortunately, there was also a hell of a punishment waiting for him as a result of his slipping back into old habits.

Frank, who is a retiree, used a more successful method of behavior modification, After failing several times at exercising, Frank put exercise into his own established routine. This original routine was: coming home, grabbing a beer and sitting in front of the television. What Frank did was come home, put on his sneakers, walked around the outside of his house once (the behavior) and then have a beer (reward). After a few days, he was walking around his house several times before sitting down to a beer. Gradually, Frank set goals of greater distances before accepting his reward. He must have really wanted that beer as he was soon jogging a quarter mile every day.

I cannot stress enough the importance of immediate rewards during a habit- changing program. The shorter the time span between the activity and the reward, the stronger the habit-forming bond. It is even better if you can incorporate the reward into the activity. For instance, many of my own workouts involve going to a good gym, talking to interesting people, listening to good music and sometimes, eating at a restaurant with friends after the workout. For me, this is a great reward for working out and I associate my experience at the gym with good times and good folk. However, suppose that I was in total pain throughout my workout, the people in the gym were all rude and unwashed, my locker was broken into and the restaurant food that I had later made me ill. In this case, my whole gym experience would relate to nothing but misery and chances are I wouldn't be eager to do it again anytime soon. When you start training for fun rather than just health, it becomes much easier.

The second big mistake that people make with the reward system is giving large rewards for small efforts. This is typical of people who believe that a couple of hours of playing sports is a great excuse to guzzle a case of beer. Another example is dieters who think that eating salad all week entitles them to eat a whole chocolate cake or go on a shopping spree that they can't really afford. Or the guy who makes a big production out of eating a few carrot sticks for supper and then heads out to the bar to knock back a few pitchers of beer because he "earned it".

The problem with large rewards for small efforts is that over time you will need increasingly larger rewards to get the same result. Some dog trainers have this problem when they only use food as a reward. The dog will eventually only respond when it is hungry. It's also like bribing a spoiled child to do anything. The rewards have to get larger and larger to be effective.

The solution to this problem is to give consistent, small rewards for regular efforts. So, in the case of exercising, the trainee should follow up the exercise session with small rewards like watching a favorite show, telephoning a friend or having a drink of juice. After a workout at a gym, one can schedule a walk through the mall or bookstore, a stop off at a coffee shop or whatever is routine and fun. One does not have to break the bank as part of a reward system.

The same goes for following an eating plan. By arranging the food to taste good or to take place in a good-time environment, you develop a mental link between eating healthy and enjoyment. For instance, there is probably not much fun to be had sitting home alone and eating a pre-frozen, low-calorie meal. However, if you eat that same meal at a park, during a good television movie or in good company, the meal becomes a pleasant experience. Personally, I would rather eat a hot dog in a park with friends than indulge in a gourmet meal at a high-class restaurant with company that I do not enjoy.

This method of small, consistent rewards can be applied to any regular task that you find challenging. It helped me immensely with my studies at university. As a reward for studying 15 extra minutes, twice a day, while traveling on the bus, I would get to read fiction for a designated period of time after each study session. Within a couple of months, I raised my Biology marks from a D to a B average.

Take the time to plan out your own small reward system to support your training program. A little bit of planning done now will pay off with big dividends later.

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Parenting Solutions - 5 Easy Ways to Instill Good Child Behavior Through Positive Reinforcement

Whether it is applied to adults or kids, giving a little praise can significantly help increase a person's interest in a subject or an activity. This is one aspect of parenting skills that parents need to understand and apply correctly. If parents overdo it, positive reinforcements such as praising become useless because it becomes ever-increasingly meaningless to the child who is receiving them. On the other hand, if positive reinforcements are irregular and inconstant with the good behavior performed by the children, it also becomes meaningless to the child and it does not serve to shape the child's learning.

Here are some common sense parenting key points to help parents effectively implement positive reinforcement. With developed parenting skill, parents can easily administer appropriate parenting solutions:

Send a clear message. Parents must be very clear on what is good or bad actions and behavior. If your kid performs a good act, praise him and make it clear to him what you are praising him for. And if the action is undesirable, avoid giving vague warnings like "please behave yourself". This doesn't give the child a good and clear idea of what action he has taken was wrong. Let your kids be clear of your parenting guidelines.
Choose your reinforcements. Rewards must match the magnitude of the behavior. They should match the child's age, capabilities, and the effort required to earn them. Kids have unique preferences. A reinforcement that is not relevant to your child will bear no value. For example, preschool children will like getting stickers and toys, while teenagers may prefer getting extra pocket money. Follow this basic common sense parenting.
Timing is everything. Consistency is the key. Make it an everyday routine for your kids. It helps them understand rules and expectations. Also, immediately reinforce good behavior. The shorter the delay between the behavior and reinforcement, the greater the chance of strengthening the behavior. When a new behavior performed by your child is desired, keep providing him with positive reinforcements. Until that behavior is instilled in your kid and is established, then you can cut back on the positive reinforcements.
Change the types of reinforcements given your child so he doesn't get bored of the reward or find that the same reward gradually diminishes in value over time. Wherever possible, try to reward your child with non-material items. Encouragement or a gentle pat on the back all serves the same purpose. Don't make it a point to have your child used to getting a material item for a job well done.
Good behavior should come instinctively from the child, and not done because he or she wants the reward that is hanging at the end of the action. One way to instill a proper sense of what's right or wrong is to combine praise along with an encouragement. This serves to strike the point across more strongly and helps reduce emphasis on just the praise alone.

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