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Name: ________________________
Date: ____________
Examples of Positive and Negative Reinforcement and Punishment
Positive Reinforcement
o Giving a child a compliment or candy for a job well done.
o Getting paid for a completed task.
o Watching your favorite TV show after doing all your homework.
o Dolphin gets a fish for doing a trick.
o Dog gets a treat for sitting, laying, rolling over.
o Get a candy bar for putting money in the machine.
Negative Reinforcement
“the removal of a negative stimulus following a response”
o Scratching an insect bite that itches (reinforces scratching behavior by removing itch)
o Rubbing itchy eyes (reinforces rubbing behavior by removing itch)
o Daydreaming or doodling in boring class (reinforces daydreaming behavior by removing
boredom)
o Studying when you worry about a test (reinforces study behavior by reducing worry)
OR
o Watching TV when you worry about a test (procrastination or giving up on it) (reinforces
TV watching behavior by removing worry)
o Taking a pain reliever to reduce pain (reinforces pill-taking behavior by removing pain)
Positive Punishment
o Yelling “No!” at a dog jumping up on a person (adds scold to reduce behavior)
o Spanking a child
o Swatting a dog with a newspaper for peeing on the carpet.
o A speeding ticket for speeding.
o Squirting a cat for eating the plants.
o Burning your hand when you touch a hot stove.
o Getting nauseous after eating rotten food.
Negative Punishment
o Child has a toy taken away for fighting with his sister.
o Teen is grounded for misbehavior.
o Dolphin trainer walks away with fish bucket when the dolphin gets aggressive.
o One person in a relationship stops talking to the other in response to a behavior.
Schedules of Reinforcement
Continuous Reinforcement
o Using a token to ride the subway.
o Putting a dime in the parking meter.
o Putting coins in a vending machine to get candy or soda.
Partial Schedules of Reinforcement
Fixed-Ratio
o Taking a multi-item test. As soon as you finish the those items, you can leave (also an
examples of negative reinforcement).
o Garment worker gets paid per each 100 dresses sewn.
o Frequent-flyer programs.
o Teenager jobs when getting paid for a completed job, not hourly (ex: $20 each time you
mow the neighbor’s lawn).
o Doing 20 sit-ups to keep fit.
o Mailman on route – must visit the same amount of houses each day to go home.
Variable-Ratio
o Playing a slot machine – the machine is programmed to pay off after a certain number of
responses have been made, but that number keeps changing. This type of schedules creates
a steady rate of responding, because players know if they play long enough, they will win.
It could be the next pull.
o Hunting – you probably won’t hit something every time you fire, but it’s not the amount of
time that passes, but the number of times you shoot at a prey that will determine how much
game you will catch.
o Sales commission – you have to talk to many customers before you make a sale, and you
never know whether the next one will buy.
o Phone sales – same as commission.
o Buying lottery tickets.
o Playing bingo.
o Signaling while hitchhiking.
o Fishing (think fly-fishing or lure-fishing, where it depends on the cast, not sitting by a
bobber, which would be VI).
o Custodian cleaning the school – sometimes rooms are already fairly clean, sometimes they
have to clean after a lab or “party.”
Fixed-Interval
o Test preparation when you know the date and time of the test ahead of time. As the time
goes by and you haven’t studied, you have to make up for it all by the predetermined time –
and this means cramming.
o Picking up a salary check – every week or once every two weeks.
o Looking at your watch during a lecture.
o Checking cookies in the oven when you know how long it takes to bake.
Variable-Interval
o Pop quizzes – theoretically causes a steady rate of studying because you never know when
they’ll occur, so you have to be prepared all the time.
o Dialing a friend and getting a busy signal – this means that you’ll have to keep dialing every
few minutes because you don’t know when the line will be available. Reinforcement
doesn’t depend on the number of times you dial, but the unknown amount of time that
passes.
o Watching a football game, waiting for a touchdown. It could happen anytime – if you leave
the room, you may miss it, so you have to keep watching continuously.
o Speed traps on the highway.
Operant Conditioning Terms
Thorndike’s Law of Effect – behavior followed by
favorable consequences becomes more likely;
behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences
become less likely
Skinner Box – a chamber containing a bar that
an animal can manipulate to obtain a food or
water reinforcer; devices are attached to
record the animal’s rate of bar pressing
Shaping – an operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide
behavior toward closer and closer approximations of a desired goal
Primary Reinforcer – an innately reinforcing
stimulus, such as one that satisfies a biological
need
Secondary Reinforcer – a conditioned reinforcer, a
stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through
its association with a primary reinforcer
Cognitive Map – a mental representation of
the layout of one’s environment
Latent learning – learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an
incentive to demonstrate it
Overjustification Effect – the effect of promising a reward for doing what
one already likes to do
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
Fill in the missing information as you listen and discuss classical conditioning. You may want to
write more notes in the margin to help you better remember and understand the material.
Classical Conditioning: learning through association; a tendency to connect events that occur
together in time and space and anticipate one based on the presence of the other.
Ivan Pavlov - Russian Psychologist (1849-1936)
A _____________________ ELICITS A ___________________
DEFINITION
DOG EXAMPLE
CLASS EXAMPLE
UCS –
Unconditioned
Stimulus
UCR –
Unconditioned
Response
NS –
Neutral Stimulus
CS –
Conditioned
Stimulus
CR –
Conditioned
Response
Classical Conditioning Examples:
(UCS)
(UCR)
(NS)
(NS)
(UCS)
(UCS)
(UCR)
(CS)
(CR)
(UCS)
(UCR)
(UCS)
(UCR)
(CS)
(CR)
(UCS)
(UCS)
(UCS)
(UCS)
(UCS)
(UCS)
Taking a step back…
Reflexes – involuntary and almost instantaneous response to a stimulus.
o Rooting reflex
o Sucking reflex
o Stepping reflex
o Grasp reflex
o Babinski reflex
Why do infants have these reflexes?
Why and when do they disappear?