Reference no: EM131943838

"Ninja is a feisty cat that is incredibly motivated by food. When she is hungry, Ninja will start doing very disruptive behaviours (for example: racing across the bed at 3 AM to wake up her owners so they will feed her, destroying the fridge door in order to open it and help herself to food, etc.). In order to deal with her behaviours, her owner has purchased a number of food puzzles, including this "Slim Cat" feeder that requires Ninja to play with the feeder to obtain her dry food (https://store.petsafe.net/slimcat-interactive-feeder). Previously, the owners had always kept the dry cat food in a cupboard with a squeaky door, while the wet food was kept in the fridge. You notice that if Ninja is playing with the "Slim cat" and you open the squeaky cupboard, there is a large increase in Ninja's interactions with the feeder. Describe the critical factors of instrumental conditioning in this situation. Why is there a behaviour increase when the cupboard opens? What do you think would happen to the behaviour when the fridge door opens?"