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Chapter 16: Problem 3

Sandy had had a rough day, and his son's noise making was not helping him relax. Not wanting to resort to scolding, Sandy told his son in a serious manner that he was very tired and would like the boy to play quietly for an hour. This approach worked. For Sandy, the change in his son's behavior was a. positively reinforcing. b. negatively reinforcing

Short Answer

Expert verified
The change in Sandy's son's behavior is a case of negative reinforcement.

Step by step solution

01

Understanding Positive Reinforcement

Positive reinforcement involves the addition of a rewarding stimulus to increase a behavior. For example, praising a student to encourage good performance is positive reinforcement. In this scenario, if Sandy had rewarded his son after being quiet, then it would have been positive reinforcement. But this is not the case here.
02

Understanding Negative Reinforcement

Negative reinforcement involves the removal of an adverse or unpleasant stimulus to increase a behavior, i.e. it is used to strengthen behavior. Here, an unpleasant situation (noise) ends as soon as the preferred behavior (playing quietly) begins. In this exercise, Sandy's son's noisy behavior was causing discomfort to Sandy. Sandy asked his son to play quietly, and this removal of noise when the son started playing quietly strengthened the quiet behaviour of the son.
03

Arriving at the Answer

From the explanation of the two types of reinforcements as stated in the previous steps, it is now clear that because the aversive stimulus of noise was removed when the son began his quiet play, the situation presented is a case of negative reinforcement.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

Match the type of reinforcement schedule with its definition. 1\. Reinforcement occurs after a set time period. 2\. Reinforcement occurs after a set number of responses. 3\. Reinforcement occurs after a varying time period. 4\. Reinforcement occurs after a varying number of responses. a. fixed-ratio b. variable-interval c. fixed-interval d. variable-ratio

__________ conditioning describes learning that occurs as a result of reinforcement.

In a __________ reinforcement schedule, behavior is reinforced some of the time, whereas in a __________ reinforcement schedule, behavior is reinforced all the time.

Match the type of operant learning with its definition: 1\. An unpleasant stimulus is presented to decrease behavior. 2\. An unpleasant stimulus is removed to increase behavior. 3\. A pleasant stimulus is presented to increase behavior. 4\. A pleasant stimulus is removed to decrease behavior. a. positive reinforcement b. negative reinforcement c. positive punishment d. negative punishment
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