3011 Chapter 5 Study Questions

. Define adjunctive behaviors, and explain how they may account for some of the behaviors Skinner observed in his "superstition experiment."

Adjunctive behaviors: stereotyped behaviors that arise when food or some other reinforcer is delivered at intervals. Not all the behaviors that arise when periodic free reinforcers are delivered are an accident. Some may be simply innate behaviors that become highly probable.

Give an example of an individual superstition, and of a superstition held by many people. Under what conditions are these two types of superstitions likely to develop?

An individual superstition would be not opening an umbrella inside a building. A common one is not walking under a ladder. communication with others (word of mouth) and reinforcement.

Briefly describe Skinner's experiment on "superstition" in pigeons, and his explanation of the results. Discuss the alternative explanation proposed by Staddon and Simmelhag.

Pigeons each placed in seperate experimental chambers. They were presented with food every 15 seconds regardless of what they were doing. 6/8 pigeons developed behaviors that were repeatedly performed during food intervals. Skinner says this is because whatever behavior happened to be occurring when the reinforcement was delivered, was strengthened. S&S found that certain behavior patterns tended to occur freq. in all of their subjects during feeding intervals. These are Interim (early) or Terminal (late but frequent)

Describe Thorndike's experiments with the puzzle box, and what he concluded.

Thorndike created a puzzlebox in which if the animal performed the appropriate response, the door to the box would open and the animal could exit and eat food. Thorndike concluded that an animals first successful exit was an accident The Law of Effect: certain behaviors that opened the doors were closely followed by a satisfying state of affairs

Explain how the procedure of shaping can be used to train a new behavior in an animal, or in a child. Give a specific example, and describe the steps that would be needed

Shaping involves reinforcing closer and closer behaviors to the actual desired behavior

. What did Guthrie and Horton find when they photographed cats in their puzzle box? How did they attempt to account for their results?

They found that each cat has their own way of manipulating the pole to open the door. They developed the stop-action principle. This says that the specific bodily position and the muscle movements occurring at the moment of reinforcement will have a higher probability of occurring in the next trial.

What is a percentile schedule? Explain how such schedules can help to eliminate differences in how two different teachers might use a shaping procedure to train a new behavior.

a reinforcement schedule in which a given response is reinforced if its better than a certain percentage of the last several responses.