Reference no: EM133405311

Questions

1. Operant conditioning theory stipulates that animals and humans learn by "operating" on the environment. The organism behaves (moves randomly), produces a consequence, and then associates the behavior with the consequence such that the organism either is more or less likely to do the behavior again. What is a consequence? (don't use the terms positive, negative, reinforcer, punisher in your answer). Then give me an example of operant conditioning.

2. In the text, the auth confuses you about "positive" and "negative" in terms of positive meaning what you want, negative meaning what you don't want. Nope! Positive means something is being added to or increased in the environment (e.g. a sound, a slap, food), and negative means something is being removed from or decreased in the environment (e.g. turning sound down; taking food away). So, with this in mind, I want you to define what a reinforcer is, and what a punisher is. They are *not* defined using "positive or negative" at all. Then, I want you to come up with four distinct examples: Positive reinforcer, negative reinforcer, positive punisher, negative punisher. Be sure to explain why the consequence are discussing is first a reinforcer or punisher, and then, secondly, why it is positive or negative.

3. What is shaping? Please explain, and then give an example.