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Related Activity Ch. 5
Related Activity Chapter 5: Learning
Schedules of Reinforcement
Oscar H. Suarez
PSY 1010 sp13 Harpster
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Related Activity Ch. 5
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Abstract
People and animals are every day learning, processing information, and adapting to their
environments. The way they learn answering to different stimulus, strengthening conditioned
responses. All behaviors are directly related to the process of learning affecting emotions,
behaviors, thoughts, habits, and responses to particular stimulus. Positive reinforcement, negative
reinforcement and punishment play a big role in the process of learn. They are used on a daily
basis building, correcting, and translating people and animal behavior, and they are the key to
understand these interesting cause/effect processes.
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Related Activity Chapter 5: Learning
For each of the following situations, identify it as an example of positive reinforcement (PR),
negative reinforcement (NR), or punishment (PUN). Provide explanations for your choices.
1. A dog is given a treat for shaking his paw.
(PR)
The dog gets a rewarding stimulus after giving an expected response. The reward would
motivate the dog in the future to shaking its paw more often.
2. A dog is hit with a newspaper for going to the bathroom inside of the house.
(PUN)
The dog gets punished with the newspaper in order to suppress a bad habit. The dog
learns to go to the bathroom outside, and it will relate the newspaper as the punisher for
bad habits.
3. A child stops crying when a parent picks him up.
(NR)
When the parent picks the child up is removing his aversive stimulus. Therefore, the
parent is not solving the infant’s needs because he/her is just preventing the baby of cry.
4. An employee is given a bonus for finishing a project.
(PR)
The employee get bonus as a rewarding stimulus to recognize his/her completion of the
project. In the future, the employee will be motivated to get projects finished with the
hope to get another bonus.
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5. A person is given a speeding ticket for driving over the speed limit.
(PUN)
The person gets punished with a ticket (negative consequence) for exceed the maximum
speed. Law enforcement officers expect people to quit speeding after pay a ticket, and get
a record. The speeder does not want to pay more tickets in the future, and stop speeding.
6. A husband stops nagging his wife once she takes out the trash.
(NR)
When the husband stops nagging his wife, he is removing an aversive stimulus. The wife
will be likely to take the trash out preventing her husband of nag to her.
7. A teacher gives praise to a student.
(PR)
As the teacher laud the student, he is giving social approval to the student’s actions.
Logically, the student could be praised for positive behaviors, but negative ones are
negatively reinforced, or punished.
8. A parent yells at her child for getting poor grades.
(PUN)
The parent yells in response to the student’s performance at school. It is the introduction
of an aversive stimulus to expect the student to get good grades hence to avoid a
reprimand. The student will learn the consequences of poor grades avoiding conflict with
his/her parents in the future.
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9. A rat stops receiving shock to his feet when he pushes a lever.
(NR)
The shock to the rat’s feet is an aversive stimulus that can be obviated pressing the bar.
The rat will push the bar preventing a painful stimulus to his feet.
10. After studying hard for a test, a student earns an “A.”
(PR)
The good grade represents a reward or a positive stimulus in response to study hard. The
student is more likely to study, and get good grades. He/her will know that not studying
hard affects the performance at school.
11. A teenager is grounded for not getting in by curfew.
(PUN)
The teenager is grounded in order to suppress the particular behavior of no get in by
curfew. The parents expect correct the teenager’s behavior, and the teenager will knows
the consequences of not getting in by curfew. He will prevent to be grounded getting
home early.
12. A person takes aspirin to eliminate a headache
(NR)
The headache is an aversive stimulus that can be removed when taking aspirin. The
person relates headaches to aspirin, and he/her will be more likely to take aspirin in the
future when having a headache.
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Operant conditioning is a form of learning in which the consequences of behavior are
strengthen, suppressed or weaken. Behaviors are influenced by different stimulus, and
they determine the likelihood that they will occur.
Reinforcement and punishment could be considered as opposite forms of learning. While
reinforcement strengthens behavior, punishment introduces an aversive stimulus
following a response.
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Reflective Writing
Chapter 5 was very interesting to me. I learned about classical conditioning, operant
conditioning, and cognitive, insight, latent and observational learning. All the concepts contained
in this chapter are related to our daily basis, and I was not able to recognize them until the
reading of this chapter. It is interesting to see how people and animals are conditioned to respond
to different physical and psychological stimulus. There are many concepts to understand why
sometimes we behave in unexplained, or mechanical conditioned ways.
With tis activity I learned to classify positive and negative reinforcements, and punishments.
There is a cause/effect relation behind all of them. I am glad learning about these topics because
it will help me to educate better my son, and to learn ways of strengthening his behavior instead
of punish it
.
Related Activity Ch. 5
References
Nevid, Jeffrey S.. "Learning." Psychology: concepts and applications. Third ed. Boston, MA:
Houghton Mifflin, 2003. 174-207. Print.
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