Does Reinforcement Affect Individual Differences in Behavior?
Sierra Spencer
Psychology 101-001
Indiana State University
18 November 2016 Does Reinforcement Affect Individual Differences in Behavior? There are two different kinds of reinforcement, positive and negative. Both types end in a desired behavior, but positive adds a stimulus and a negative takes away a stimulus. The question that comes to mind is do individuals respond differently to them or not. There are numerous different articles that discuss how individuals respond to the reinforcement and each one is different. Under what circumstances does reinforcement affect individual differences in behavior? Different kinds of research have been done that can lead to an answer …show more content…
The chimpanzees are being tested to see how they react when the reinforcement is present and when it is not on timed intervals. The results of the experiment show that response was higher with the time outs than without the time outs. The article shows the rates at which they are responding under time-out conditions ranged from 5.1 and 2.3 for Chimpanzee No. 67 and then 3.7 and 1.6 for Chimpanzee No. 97 (Ferster, 1958). The time outs, indicated by a red light, the first day were for one minute and for 30 seconds on the second day. This shows that having a time-out gives a time where the stimulus, food, is present which acts as the positive reinforcer and then when it is not present it acts as a negative reinforcer. This logic makes sense because when the positive reinforcement is there then it makes the chimpanzees want the food and when the negative reinforcement occurs, by taking the food away, the chimpanzees will want the food back. However, the chimpanzees both had different reaction results. Chimpanzee No. 67 had higher response numbers than Chimpanzee No. 97. The affect that these reinforcements have on how the individual chimpanzees act can show how the reinforcements can affect the behaviors of individual humans as well. Later in the article the same test was done on pigeons that were at 80% of their eating weight (Ferster, 1958). The results from here confirmed the earlier experiment with the …show more content…
Different kinds of research have been done that can lead to an answer for this question. First there is the time-out experiment with the chimpanzees and the pigeons, the experiment where they read facial expressions, and the research with the smokers. We can see that under certain circumstances that individuals react differently in terms of their behavior. All of the research and experiments that have been done that I have discussed can help make a reasonable answer to the question. Under certain circumstances reinforcement does, in fact, affect individual differences in
Sierra Spencer
Psychology 101-001
Indiana State University
18 November 2016 Does Reinforcement Affect Individual Differences in Behavior? There are two different kinds of reinforcement, positive and negative. Both types end in a desired behavior, but positive adds a stimulus and a negative takes away a stimulus. The question that comes to mind is do individuals respond differently to them or not. There are numerous different articles that discuss how individuals respond to the reinforcement and each one is different. Under what circumstances does reinforcement affect individual differences in behavior? Different kinds of research have been done that can lead to an answer …show more content…
The chimpanzees are being tested to see how they react when the reinforcement is present and when it is not on timed intervals. The results of the experiment show that response was higher with the time outs than without the time outs. The article shows the rates at which they are responding under time-out conditions ranged from 5.1 and 2.3 for Chimpanzee No. 67 and then 3.7 and 1.6 for Chimpanzee No. 97 (Ferster, 1958). The time outs, indicated by a red light, the first day were for one minute and for 30 seconds on the second day. This shows that having a time-out gives a time where the stimulus, food, is present which acts as the positive reinforcer and then when it is not present it acts as a negative reinforcer. This logic makes sense because when the positive reinforcement is there then it makes the chimpanzees want the food and when the negative reinforcement occurs, by taking the food away, the chimpanzees will want the food back. However, the chimpanzees both had different reaction results. Chimpanzee No. 67 had higher response numbers than Chimpanzee No. 97. The affect that these reinforcements have on how the individual chimpanzees act can show how the reinforcements can affect the behaviors of individual humans as well. Later in the article the same test was done on pigeons that were at 80% of their eating weight (Ferster, 1958). The results from here confirmed the earlier experiment with the …show more content…
Different kinds of research have been done that can lead to an answer for this question. First there is the time-out experiment with the chimpanzees and the pigeons, the experiment where they read facial expressions, and the research with the smokers. We can see that under certain circumstances that individuals react differently in terms of their behavior. All of the research and experiments that have been done that I have discussed can help make a reasonable answer to the question. Under certain circumstances reinforcement does, in fact, affect individual differences in