Homework #3 Answers. You re reinforcing his crying behavior by feeding him when he cries (2pts).

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Aron Green
5 years ago
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1 Homework #3 The purpose of this homework is to give you practice solving problems in a systematic manner and categorizing techniques into the appropriate category of operant conditioning. It s important to be able to categorize techniques appropriately in order to avoid arguments with those who are familiar but not as well versed in operant conditioning. A. Solving Behavior Problems (20 pts-5 pts each) 1. Often when you watch T.V., your Labrador retriever comes over and nudges you which bothers you. Often he then climbs into your lap. He does this even if you yell at him and push him away. He s a great dog otherwise. He loves to play fetch and to be petted and he often follows you around the house. He s very affectionate. a. Why do you think he does this? (2pt) You are reinforcing this behavior by giving him attention when he nudges you or climbs into your lap. b. How should you fix the problem? (2pt) Remove the reinforcement by ignoring him or standing up if he tries to climb in your lap. Only give him attention when he is near but not doing these behaviors (eg. When he s sitting or lying down). 1. Every morning your cat wakes you up at 5:00a.m. He cries and cries and even climbs all over you when you re lying in bed. Sometimes you push him off the bed but he continues anyway. Usually feeding him finally gets him to shut up though. a. Why do you think the cat wakes you up early every morning? You re reinforcing his crying behavior by feeding him when he cries (2pts). b. How should you fix the problem? Remove the reinforcement by ignoring him when he cries (2pts). Only feed him after he s been quiet. 3. You re shopping for groceries and you notice a 5 year old child making a scene. He s whining and whining because he wants his mother to buy him some candy. He s very noisy and it s irritating. 1

2 a. Why does this kid whine so noisily and persistently for candy? You re reinforcing his crying behavior by feeding him or buying the candy when he cries (2pts). b. How should the parent fix the problem? The parent should ignore the child when he is making a scene, and reward the child when he has been well-behaved at the store (with kids, you can tell them to behave well and they will get a reward later. Or you can tell them to be good and without telling them to expect a reward but later if they are good you can give a reward and tell them they were good earlier and that s why they are getting the reward.. 4. Every day when you go to feed your horse, your horse impatiently kicks the stall door with his front hoof. He only does this around feeding time. This behavior bothers the stable owner and seems to be getting worse. a. Why does your horse do this? You have probably reinforced this behavior by feeding the horse faster when he got excited. The horse then learned that it could get its food faster by making noise through kicking the door. b. How should you fix the problem? You should ignore the kicking behavior (wait until he stops), and only feed the horse when he is standing quietly. 2

3 B. Part 2: Categories of Operant Conditioning (25 points) 1. Your new puppy is really cute but he frequently nips at your hands and arms when he wants to play. You usually tell him no and pull your arms away so that he ll stop grabbing it but he still continues to nip. What should you do? a. Define the behavior(s) you want to fix and then describe a technique for each category of operant conditioning (there are four categories so you will list 4 techniques some of which may be similar). 8 pts Increase: Note: not biting is not a behavior. You must define a specific behavior you want to increase such as sitting politely or Or playing with mouth away from you. Decrease: nipping behavior Positive reinforcement: give treat when he sits politely in order to increase sitting politely (instead of nipping). Or play with him only when he s playing politely-with mouth away from you in order to increase this play without nipping. Negative reinforcement: Spray with a squirt gun but remove the squirting as soon as he starts playing calmly or with mouth away from you or as soon as he sits politely in order to increase the behavior of playing without nipping or sitting politely. Positive punishment: give dog a firm tap on the nose or spray him with water from a squirt gun when he nips to stop the nipping(in order to decrease nipping). Negative punishment: take away your attention as soon as he starts nipping (e.g. stop moving completely or leave the room). I.e. Remove your attention as soon as he starts nipping in order to decrease the likelihood that he will continue nipping). 3

4 2. Your pet parrot is noisy and likes attention. Usually you can cope with the noise, but he s especially bad when you re on the phone or watching T.V. a. Define the behavior(s) you want to fix and then describe a technique for each category of operant conditioning (there are four categories so you will list 4 techniques some of which may be similar). 8 pts Increase: quiet behavior (not screeching is not a specific behavior). Decrease: loud behavior, screeching Positive reinforcement: give the bird attention as soon as he is quiet (in order to increase the quiet behavior) Negative reinforcement: Spray the bird with water when he s screeching and immediately remove the spray as soon as he s quiet (in order to increase the quiet behavior). Positive punishment: Rattle the bird s cage when he screeches screeching in order to stop the screeching (in order to decrease the behavior of screeching). Negative punishment: take away your attention as soon as the bird starts screeching (in order to stop the screeching or to decrease the likelihood that he will screech). c. Why do you think the bird is noisiest at these specific times? 4 pts The bird is loudest at these times because these are times when your attention is directed at something else, and likely you reinforce the noise by repeatedly trying to shush the bird or being near him to keep him quiet. 4

5 3. In general, which technique or combination of techniques would you use and why? (5 pts) In general positive reinforcement works the best. (Answer can contain other forms but must mention positive reinforcement as the best in general). One reason that positive reinforcement works the best is that the animal forms a good association with the person administering the technique. When aversives are used, the animal may become fearful (thus unsafe) and develop a bad association with the person administering the technique. Remember that animals also have problems learning when they are fearful. Also, although I didn t say this in class, aversives suppress behavior rather than encouraging a wide variety of behavior. So it would be difficult to free-shape a dog to stand in a box using negative reinforcement (this refers to the demo video of my dog standing in the box) because the animals tend to just stop trying behaviors. The others categories can all work but if you say that positive punishment work because it lets that animal know exactly what s wrong (i.e. vs negative punishment which does the same), that is incorrect. With all forms of training, timing must be exactly correct. That is, letting the animal know exactly what it right or wrong is a function of good timing, not of the category you re using). 5

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