Positive Reinforcement of Rats in Operant Conditioning Chamber
Phebe Crane
Western Illinois University Abstract In order to successfully shape the behavior of pressing a lever for delivery of a food pellet, consecutive days of training must take place with the use of fixed-ratio scheduling for the rat to successfully press the lever repeatedly. In a 4 day study over the span of four weeks, it is difficult to achieve shaping a rat to press a lever consistently for the reward of food pellet when there were only four available lab days which were not consecutive.
Positive Reinforcement of Rats in Operant Conditioning Chamber
Introduction
The study of reinforcement is often conducted on …show more content…
Benjamin, Serdahely, and Geppert (1971) completed a study that measured parents’ use of operant conditioning while trying to potty train their children through the night. What they found was that the reinforcers that were the most successful were hugging and kissing, positive reinforcers, while behaviors like shaming, rejecting, spanking and name calling considerably slowed down the potty training process (p. 963). These results prove that positive reinforcement is more effect than negative reinforcement when training children how to not wet the bed during the night because positive reinforcement increases the likelihood of a behavior …show more content…
There were only four days we were able to go to the lab and they were never consecutive. This caused lots of time in between for the rats to forget the behavior that was attempting to be reinforced. In Introduction to Learning and Behavior, Skinner used Thorndike’s theory of the law of effect to help come up with the fact that animals learn to do things gradually, not suddenly. Lots of practice is needed to achieve the wanted outcome. For example, Thorndike conducted a study where he placed cats into a box and they had to solve a puzzle in order to escape the box and obtain food. When the cat accidentally solved the puzzle, the cat did not suddenly remember how to do it and do it right every time; the cat still struggled. The cat slowly began to realize and increase behavior that strengthened chances of gaining food and decreased in behavior that weakened chances of obtaining food. (Pg
Phebe Crane
Western Illinois University Abstract In order to successfully shape the behavior of pressing a lever for delivery of a food pellet, consecutive days of training must take place with the use of fixed-ratio scheduling for the rat to successfully press the lever repeatedly. In a 4 day study over the span of four weeks, it is difficult to achieve shaping a rat to press a lever consistently for the reward of food pellet when there were only four available lab days which were not consecutive.
Positive Reinforcement of Rats in Operant Conditioning Chamber
Introduction
The study of reinforcement is often conducted on …show more content…
Benjamin, Serdahely, and Geppert (1971) completed a study that measured parents’ use of operant conditioning while trying to potty train their children through the night. What they found was that the reinforcers that were the most successful were hugging and kissing, positive reinforcers, while behaviors like shaming, rejecting, spanking and name calling considerably slowed down the potty training process (p. 963). These results prove that positive reinforcement is more effect than negative reinforcement when training children how to not wet the bed during the night because positive reinforcement increases the likelihood of a behavior …show more content…
There were only four days we were able to go to the lab and they were never consecutive. This caused lots of time in between for the rats to forget the behavior that was attempting to be reinforced. In Introduction to Learning and Behavior, Skinner used Thorndike’s theory of the law of effect to help come up with the fact that animals learn to do things gradually, not suddenly. Lots of practice is needed to achieve the wanted outcome. For example, Thorndike conducted a study where he placed cats into a box and they had to solve a puzzle in order to escape the box and obtain food. When the cat accidentally solved the puzzle, the cat did not suddenly remember how to do it and do it right every time; the cat still struggled. The cat slowly began to realize and increase behavior that strengthened chances of gaining food and decreased in behavior that weakened chances of obtaining food. (Pg