Jacob Johnston, Chapter 3

1. Positive reinforcement involves the learner gaining something that leads to

an increase in a particular behavior. For example, a dog that sits when he
hears the word “sit” may be given a treat to reinforce the desired behavior.
Despite common misconceptions, negative reinforcement is not punishment.
Instead, negative reinforcement is when a negative stimulus, something the
learner does not want to experience, is removed after an action. The removal
of the undesired stimulus increases the repetition of the action that caused it
to be removed. An example of negative reinforcement would involve my wife
and my taste in music. My tastes are a bit more eclectic than hers and I
typically control the MP3 player in my car. My wife was unaware of how to
work it until a song came on that she did not like. She quickly learned that
pushing the button with the arrow pointing to the right would skip to the next
song. This behavior was reinforced by the removal of the negative stimulus of
the song she did not like. Punishment I also involves an undesired stimulus,
but instead of its removal reinforcing a behavior, its introduction after a
behavior reduces the repetition of the behavior. The classic example of
punishment I is my sister as a child being spanked after jumping off of the
roof of the house onto the trampoline. The undesired stimulus, spanking, was
introduced after the undesired behavior in the hopes that the behavior would
not be repeated. Finally, punishment II is the opposite of negative stimulus.
Instead of an undesired stimulus being removed, a desired stimulus is
removed, which reduces the repetition of the behavior. This year one of my
students had his driving privileges taken away after he wrecked two cars in
two months. The driving privileges are something the 16-year-old boy desired
and the removal of those privileges was intended to reduce his reckless
driving behavior.

2. To use shaping to get a family member to do the dishes, I may first use the
reinforcement of a special dessert item to get the person to be in the kitchen
while dishes are being done. Gradually, the dessert would only be given if the
person scraped their own dishes off and placed them into the sink, and then
only when they washed their own dishes used for that meal, and finally only
when the entire chore was done on their night to do the dishes.

3. Continuous reinforcement involves the reinforcer being presented every time

the desired behavior is exhibited. This leads the learner to pick up the desired
behavior more quickly, but it also leads to a more rapid extinction of the
desired behavior when the reinforcement ceases. This method is more useful
when rapid learning is required, such as preventing a child from running out
into the middle of a road without looking both ways. Intermittent
reinforcement involves only reinforcing the behavior occasionally and leaving
 Jacob Johnston, Chapter 3

the behavior unrewarded at times. This often leads the learner to take longer
to pick up the desired behavior, but because the learner is already used to
not always being rewarded, it also takes longer for extinction of the learned
behavior to occur. Despite leading to slower acquisition, it seems that
intermittent reinforcement is the more useful method for teaching because
students will not always be rewarded outside of the classroom and the
teacher does not want their students abandoning what they were taught just
because they are not longer in a class where they are being rewarded.

4. A. Danielle is experiencing punishment II. Being on dance squad is a desired

stimulus for her and it is being removed to reduce the behavior that leads to
poor grades.

B. Joel is experiencing negative reinforcement, although, surprisingly, he’s

experiencing it all internally. His undesired stimulus, the anxiety at having
unfinished assignments, is removed when he does the assignment early.

C. Lisa and Fran are experiencing punishment I. The undesired stimulus, the
teacher’s scowl, is introduced to reduce the undesired behavior of the girls’
giggling.

D. The teacher is experiencing negative reinforcement because when he yells

(the behavior), his undesired stimulus (talking students) is removed from the
situation.

5. For Shelby, since no negative personality or behavior traits were mentioned

in the situation, we’ll assume that Shelby’s problem is her confidence and
avoidance of trying to make friends and not the fact that she’s violent, rude,
or smelly. Using shaping we will focus on getting Shelby to interact with other
students, our desired behavior. As a reinforcer for the desired behavior, I will
use a small amount of candy because it is something Shelby probably likes
and may decide to share with others, making her acceptance by them easier.
To start with, Shelby will be rewarded just for playing in the same area of the
room as other children. She will not be required to talk to them or interact
with them in other ways. Gradually, she will only be rewarded if she verbally
greets the other students even if she doesn’t interact with them in other
ways. Finally, she will only be rewarded if she actively plays with other
 Jacob Johnston, Chapter 3

students. Hopefully, interacting with other students will be reward enough in

the end to keep her going with the newly learned behaviors. If not, the
reward can gradually be phased out to turn it into an intermittent
reinforcement and not a continuous reinforcement.

6. The ultimate goal of teaching a groundstroke forehand, usually the first swing
a beginning player will learn, is for the player to consistently produce a shot
that can be hit hard and at a low trajectory over the net and landing inside
the lines of the court. The reinforcer in this case is verbal praise when
something is done correctly. We’re not dealing with a behavior the student
wants to avoid, so we don’t have to really bribe them here. First, we’ll focus
just on holding the racquet correctly while swinging. When the player grips
the racquet correctly so the head of the racquet faces straight ahead instead
of angling up or down, the student will be rewarded. When the student is
comfortable with holding the racquet, I’ll focus on keeping the elbow straight.
Bending the elbow reduces power and accuracy, so the student will be
rewarded when they keep their elbow straight and grip the racquet correctly.
Finally, I’ll only praise my tennis student when the ball goes over the net and
lands inside the court. This will eventually get to the point of only praising the
player when they can consistently hit their spots on the court and with an
increase in power. Early in the process, I would use continuous
reinforcement. The student needs to pick up the process quickly for both his
confidence and my sanity. As the student becomes more comfortable with
the shot, I will gradually reduce the frequency of praise to switch to
intermittent reinforcement so that the player does not regress when I’m not
there to praise them for doing it correctly.

7. Stacey does not like being in physical education class because of the ridicule
of other students. After hitting the other students and being removed from
the class, Stacey learns that by behaving aggressively she can get out of the
class she does not enjoy. This is an example of negative reinforcement. The
undesired stimulus, P.E., is removed after being aggressive. The removal of
the undesired stimulus reinforces the aggressive behaviors.

8. Avoidance responses are difficult to eliminate because they keep the

individual from being in the situation to be exposed to the undesired
stimulus. For example, a tennis player may try an advanced technique on
their own and fail because they are not physically ready for that technique.
Later, when they are mature enough and tall enough to make the shot, they
are afraid to try it so will not learn the behavior on their own. One way to get
 Jacob Johnston, Chapter 3

an individual over an avoidance response is to simply force the individual to

experience the stimulus again. A kinder method is to expose the individual to
that stimulus systematically in happier contexts much in the way that the
child afraid of the rabbits was gradually re-exposed to rabbits in a happy
environment

Chapter 4 Activity Name ______________________________________________

D________ 1. One difference between instrumental and respondent conditioning is

that instrumental conditioning places primary emphasis on

(A) the establishing of automatic triggers for specific behaviors.

(B) the transferring of instinctive behaviors to new situations.

(C) operationally definable antecedents and responses.

(D) the functional relations between responses and their consequences.

B________ 2. In the jargon of instrumental conditioning, a stimulus is defined as a

reinforcer or punisher depending on whether it

(A) is pleasurable or painful to the organism experiencing it.

(B) increases or decreases the frequency of the behavior if follows.

(C) is intended to promote or to suppress a behavior.

(D) occurs antecedent to or as a consequence of a behavior.

A________ 3. In the context of instrumental learning, consequences are labeled

"positive" or "negative" depending on whether they involve

(A) additions to or subtractions from the environment in which target

behaviors occur.

(B) satisfying or annoying states of affairs for the organism involved.

(C) relative increases or decreases in drives that accompany underlying

biological needs.

(D) desirable or undesirable target behaviors.

 Jacob Johnston, Chapter 3

A________ 4. Your four-year-old has a loud temper tantrum in the supermarket when
you refuse to put her in the grocery cart, so you give her a candy bar to keep her
quiet. You probably have

(A) positively reinforced the tantrum behavior.

(B) negatively reinforced the tantrum behavior.

(C) positively punished the tantrum behavior.

(D) begun to extinguish the tantrum behavior.

D________ 5. In reference to the previous question, suppose that instead of giving

your child the candy bar, you decide to continue to walk through the supermarket
with her in tow, as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening. Assuming that no
one else intrudes into the situation you probably have

(A) positively reinforced the tantrum behavior.

(B) negatively reinforced the tantrum behavior.

(C) positively punished the tantrum behavior.

(D) begun to extinguish the tantrum behavior.

B________ 6. Edgar smiles at his instructor for the first eye contact she makes with
him after each 3-minute segment of class time. What schedule is Edgar using to
modify his instructor's eye-contact behavior?

(A) Fixed Ratio (B) Fixed Interval (C) Variable Ratio (D) Variable Interval.