PSYB45H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Heart Rate Monitor, Finger Snapping, Reinforcement
Document Summary
Chapter 6: decreasing a behaviour with operant conditioning: operant extinction. Telling someone to eat candy and the person stops is not an example of operant extinction. This is because you are not removing a reinforcer, but rather introducing a punisher, which is the reprimand. Parents ignoring a child"s swearing is an example of operant extinction. This is because rather than reinforcing the behaviour by giving it attention, the behaviour is not being followed by a reinforcer, and it eventually just stops. If parents remove a child"s weekly allowance because of swearing, this is also not an example of operant extinction. This is because it is response-cost punishment (removal of allowance). Forgetting is basically when behaviour is weakened as a function of time following its last occurrence. If a behavior that was maintained by positive reinforcement is not reinforced at least once in a while, it will eventually go away.
