Operant Conditioning

Kate was an 11-year-old girl who attended junior high school. Her problem was that she pulled out her hair, a disorder called trichotillomania. Kate's behavior problem had left her partially bald. A procedure was used in which, every time Kate pulled her hair out felt an urge to do so, she was required to clench her fist for 2 minutes. This procedure reduced the frequency of hair pulling, allowing her hair to grow back normally.

+ PUNISHMENT

Mordred was a 20-year old woman who was depressed. She would often cry for no apparent reason, would seldom talk, and when she did speak she talked about fear, personal injury, and death. She lived in a psychiatric hospital on a ward that used a token economy. One treatment used with Mordred was to fine her one token whenever she cried. As a result of this procedure, after 8 weeks, Mordred's crying declined from over 25 responses per day to fewer than 4 responses per day.

+ PUNISHMENT (FINES) OR � PUNISHMENT (LOSS OF TOKENS)

Psychiatric ward patients at the Brockton Veterans Administration Hospital were in a token economy program. They could earn up to 50 tokens per day for grooming, cleaning, using free time appropriately, and positive social behavior. However, the patients did break some ward rules, so a system of fines was set up in which errant patients would receive tickets that specified how many tokens they had lost (e.g., 3 tokens for spitting on the walls or floor, 5 tokens for stealing, 15 tokens for destroying property). The ticketing system worked very effectively. Baseline fines of 22.37 tokens per week per patient were reduced to 5.47 tokens per week by the eight week of the program. Reductions in the fines, of course, indicated similar reductions in rule-breaking behaviors.

+ PUNISHMENT (FINES) OR � PUNISHMENT (LOSS OF TOKENS)

At a Mexican factory, the workers were often late for work. A new procedure was put into effect in which, for each time a worker arrived on time for work, he would receive a bonus of 10 pesos. Before the procedure was used, 85% of the workers arrived on time for work As a result of the bonus procedure, 97% of the workers arrived on time for work.

+ REINFORCEMENT

In a junior high home economics classroom, the students were working on sewing projects, but often the level of disruptive noise in the classroom rose so high that it impaired the students' work on their projects. In order to solve this problem, an apparatus was constructed that measure the overall noise level in the room. If the noise stayed below a level that the teacher had determined was disruptive to the students' work, radio music would come on. As a result of this procedure, the noise level in the classroom stayed below as disruptive level more often than it had before.

+ REINFORCEMENT

In an elementary school classroom, research was conducted to study the effects of teacher behavior on student behavior. During one phase of the study, the teacher began disapproving of the student's disruptive behaviors when they occurred, resulting in increased disruptive behaviors

+ REINFORCEMENT

In early Greece, citizens were expected to attend the daily ecclesia or General Assembly where various issues were discussed and voted on. Attendance at these sessions was a problem. In order to increase attendance, each citizen was given a clay tablet beginning of the session. These tablets could be exchanged at the end of the session for money. This method was very successful in improving attendance.

+ REINFORCEMENT

Norm was an 8-year-old boy who had been removed from a regular school classroom and put in a special education class because he would follow the teachers' instructions only after long delays. A procedure was set up to encourage him to follow instructions rapidly. This procedure consisted of giving Norm tokens when he complied with the teacher's instructions within a given time limit. Norm could use the tokens to buy toys or play periods. This procedure caused Norm to follow the teacher's instructions rapidly much more often than he had before

+ REINFORCEMENT

One day Dave was teasing Marsha about her weight. This angered Marsha so she slapped Dave in the face. As a result, Dave began teasing Marsha about her weight more often than he had before.

+ REINFORCEMENT

The residents in a complex of 166 apartments in Baltimore participated in an electrical conservation study. During any month when the amount of electricity the residents used was less than the amount of electricity the electric company predicted on the basis of the outside temperatures, the cost savings of the difference in these values was rebated to the residents in the form of a check. This procedure resulted in a decrease in electricity use of 6.2%. The target behaviors here are those behaviors that conserve electricity.

+ REINFORCEMENT

Three 3-year-old children attended nursery school. It was noticed that the children's favorite activities were running around the room and screaming, while sitting quietly and looking at the blackboard seldom occurred. A procedure was used in which, when the children were observed to be sitting quietly and paying attention to the blackboard, they were told Run and scream. They immediately did so. As a result of this technique, the children sat quietly and paid attention to the blackboard much more often than they had before

+ REINFORCEMENT

Three 4-year-old girls were participating in research designed to study creative behavior. The children were given building blocks and invited to play with them. The teacher began using a procedure in which she expressed delight and enthusiasm when the child constructed a shape or form she had not constructed before (i.e., a novel form). As a result of this procedure, the children constructed novel forms more often than they had before.

+ REINFORCEMENT

When Lewis' classmates misbehaved by speaking out without being called on, the teacher made them stay after school and perform special chores including washing the blackboards. This procedure caused Lewis�s classmates to speak out more often than they would have had they not been made to stay after school and wash the blackboards.

+ REINFORCEMENT

Celia was a retarded and hearing-impaired 5-year-old girl. A big problem with her was that she would scratch other people. In order to solve this problem, her teacher put Celia behind a freestanding room divider for several minutes where she could not see other children in the classroom. This procedure happened when Celia had Celia's scratching to decline from 0.15 scratches per minute to 0.05 scratches per minute, and eventually it almost completely eliminated scratching.

-PUNISHMENT

Peter was a retarded 4-year old boy whose mother had taken him to a psychologist because Peter's behavior had gone out of her control. He kicked objects and people, took off his clothes, called people vile names, pushed his sister, threatened others, and hit and bit himself. A procedure was implemented to reduce Peter's objectionable behaviors: every time he behaved objectionably he was sent to his room for a minimum of 5 minutes. This method resulted in a decline in Peter's objectionable behaviors to low, manageable levels.

-PUNISHMENT

A bank employee is given a bonus of a $30 restaurant coupon for every 4 hours of overtime he volunteers to work.

FI

For each half day that a second grader pays attention and works well, the teacher gives her a "Good Behavior" dollar that she can trade in at the end of the week for desired objects from the store.

FI

Gwendolyn's great preoccupation in life was observing if the local groundhog would see his shadow on groundhog day. Observing whether the groundhog would see or not see his shadow on February 2 was a reinforcer for Gwendolyn's behavior. The target behavior was Gwen's observing the groundhog.

FI

Your paycheck arrives on the 1st and the 15th of every month.

FI

A business that advertises that it will change your oil in 20 minutes offers you a free oil change after you have had your oil changed 5 times at their business.

FR

A piano teacher gives a 6-year-old student a sticker for each song he plays well.

FR

Loretta was blind and in order to earn a livelihood she made macram plant hangers. The company she worked for paid her $2.50 for each batch of 10 plant hangers she made. The money was a reinforcer for her making the hangers, and she worked busily during the day fashioning the hangers. The target behavior was making one plant hanger.

FR

You do piece work in a factory. For every 3 sleeves you sew on garments, you get $.50.

FR

Although farmers put out about the same amount of labor each year, sometimes they sell their grain at harvest time, sometimes in January, and sometimes as late as March

VI

Lola had moved to a new town and enjoyed receiving letters from her friends and family back home. She would check her post office box to see if any letters had arrived for her. Some days she would receive a letter, but on other days she would not. Receiving a letter was a reinforcer for Lola's behavior. The target behavior in this example was checking the post office box.

VI

You are still fishing from a dock. You sit with your line in the water and wait for the fish to strike. Sometimes it takes only 20 minutes; sometimes it takes an hour or more.

VI

A vacuum cleaner salesperson does numerous presentations in people's homes and gets paid a bonus each time he or she sells a vacuum. Sometimes the salesperson does 5 presentations before a customer buys a vacuum, sometimes 2 customers in a row purchase the product

VR

A young child demands a candy bar each time she is in the checkout line at the grocery store. Sometimes the parent gives her one and sometimes he doesn't.

VR

Bob's television set was not working properly. The picture would roll repeatedly, much to Bob's frustration. However, Bob found that if he hit the top of the set, it would stop rolling and deliver a really good picture. The number of times he had to hit the set before it stopped rolling wasn't the same each time. Sometimes he would have to pound it only once, but other times he had to smack it four, five, six, seven, or even as many as eight times before it would operate correctly. The change from a rolling picture to a good picture was a reinforcer for Bob�s behavior. The target behavior in this case was hitting the top of the television set once.

VR

You are fly fishing in a great trout stream. Sometimes you catch a fish after only 4 or 5 casts, sometimes it takes 10 or 20 casts

VR