AP PSYCHOLOGY

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LEARNING

OPERANT CONDITIONING

Question [CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
Bradley is a distractible second-grade student who finds schoolwork boring. After a couple of minutes of working silently, Bradley often starts to misbehave until his teacher, Ms. Skinner, calls his name and scolds him. However, he enjoys this attention from her and continues to misbehave. With respect to Bradley’s misbehavior, Ms. Skinner’s attention serves as
A
punishment
B
positive reinforcement
C
negative reinforcement
D
primary reinforcement
E
differential reinforcement
Explanation: 

Detailed explanation-1: -A child is scolded (unpleasant event) for ignoring homework (undesirable behavior.) A parent gives a child a time-out (unpleasant consequence) for throwing tantrums (unwanted behavior.) The police gives a driver a ticket (unpleasant stimulus) for speeding (unwanted behavior.)

Detailed explanation-2: -A child disobeys his parent, and the child gets punished by losing access to electronics. The desired effect of the punishment is that the child will not disobey again. Reinforcement, on the other hand, is a reward or a prize for doing something right.

Detailed explanation-3: -Confiscating the phone if a student is caught using it is positive punishment. This is a classic operant conditioning example in the classroom. Operant conditioning examples in the classroom also include a teacher scolding a student publicly for repeating mistakes.

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