Module 21 - Operant Conditioning - Online

Mark is reinforced for working quietly in class instead of being punished for disrupting class.

According to B. F. Skinner, which example illustrates the BEST use of an alternative to punishment in the attempt to reduce an undesirable behavior?

Parents should express their anger by yelling at the girl.

According to operant conditioning principles, which approach would NOT be recommended when dealing with a young girl who is resistant to going to school every morning?

operant conditioning

At work, there is a vending machine that dispenses extra candy bars when you select either the A or B choices. You continue to frequent this machine regularly. This BEST illustrates:

variable interval

Because she is responsible for overseeing the servicing and repair of her company's fleet of cars, Rhonda frequently calls the garage mechanic to inquire whether service on various cars has been completed. Because service completion times are unpredictable, she is likely to be reinforced with positive responses to her inquiries on a _____ schedule.

fixed-interval

Checking one's postal mailbox is generally reinforced on a _____ schedule, because the mail only comes once per day at about the same time.

negative

Daniel's daughter repeatedly hit her playmates during their game of tag. Daniel denied her dessert as a consequence. This is an example of _____ punishment.

variable-ratio

Gamblers and fisherman have a difficult time controlling their need to gamble and fish because of the _____ schedule of reinforcement.

generalization (classical conditioning)

In classical conditioning, _____ is the tendency to respond to stimuli similar to the original conditioned stimulus; while in operant conditioning, the organism's response to similar stimuli is also reinforced.

organisms learn associations between events they don't control; organisms learn associations between their behavior and resulting events

In classical conditioning, _____; whereas in operant conditioning, _____.

shaping

In teaching her son to play basketball, Mrs. Williams initially reinforces him with praise for simply dribbling while standing still, then only for walking while dribbling, and finally only for running while dribbling. She is using a procedure known as _____.

acquire new behavior through experience

In the 1990s, singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette titled a song, "You Learn." Presumably, Morissette meant that people:

variable-ratio

Jack finds it extremely difficult to pull himself away from the blackjack table. He keeps thinking he will break even as the next hand will be his winning one. This is an example of the effects of a _____ schedule of reinforcement.

operant conditioning; generalization

Jennifer trained her dog to howl when he heard Jennifer play the piano by giving him a treat for doing so. One day in her car, Jennifer played a CD of a piano concerto and her dog began to howl. The dog learned to howl through _____ and also demonstrated _____ of a learned response.

Reward specific, achievable behaviors, not vaguely defined "merit"

Marcus owns a landscaping company and employs several college students in the summer. He would like to improve the productivity of his employees. According to research on improving job performance through operant conditioning, Marcus should:

negative reinforcement

Matt regularly buckles his seat belt simply because it turns off the car's irritating warning buzzer. This BEST illustrates the value of _____ reinforcement.

positive punishment

To reduce the self-destructive behavior of some children, a therapist might squirt water in the children's faces whenever they bite themselves. The squirt of water is a:

fixed-ratio

You receive a great money-saving credit card offer in the mail complete with a frequent flyer reward program. You read on further to find that the one mile for every dollar spent may not be such a great offer after all. Getting a $500.00 airline ticket only happens after you acquire 25,000 miles or spend $25,000. This is a _____ schedule.

Operant conditioning; associative learning

_______ is a type of _______.

Thorndike's Law of Effect

behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely, and behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences become less likely