PSYB45H3 Chapter 5: Chapter 5
Document Summary
Early on, the trainer pairs the sound from a hand-held clicker with the delivery of fish to a dolphin. A fish is a backup reinforcer, and after a number of pairings the clicking sounds becomes a conditioned reinforcer. However, backup reinforcers for a conditioned reinforcer could also be other conditioned reinforcers: a category of stimuli that are not commonly recognized as a conditioned reinforcers includes stimuli that have been paired with addictive drugs. Included smell or taste of substances containing the drug or the sight of the paraphernalia to prepare or administer the drug. The possible outcome of this unthinking procedure is that scolding could become a conditioned reinforcer that would maintain, not eliminate, the behavior it follows. The result is that the stamped happy faces eventually lose whatever reinforcing power they may have had when they were first introduced.
