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1. Punishment - ANSWER punishment, a decrease in the strength of
behavior due to its consequences.
2. Define punishment in terms of its three characteristic features. - ANSWER
a behavior must have a consequence
the behavior must decrease in strength
the reduction in strength must be the result of the consequence.
3. Positive punishment - ANSWER (an aversive event) is added to the
situation.
4. Negative punishment - ANSWER something is subtracted from the
situation.
5. In considering punishment, remember that the behavior concerned is
maintained by _________ - ANSWER reinforcement
,6. The effectiveness of a punishment procedure depends on the _________,
__________, and ____________of reinforcers the behavior produces. -
ANSWER frequency, amount, and quality
7. If a behavior produces _______, it may persist despite aversive
consequences - ANSWER reinforcers
8. An important factor with regards to punishment effectiveness - ANSWER
should provide an alternative way of obtaining reinforcement.
9. Another influence on the effectiveness of punishment is the level of
reinforcer ____________. - ANSWER deprivation
10.Disruption theory of punishment - ANSWER proposed that response
suppression was due to the disruptive effects of aversive stimuli. They
pointed out that when a rat is shocked it may jump, then freeze or run
hurriedly about.
-Research on punishment undermined this explanation by producing two key
findings: First, as we have seen, the effects of punishment are not as transient
as Skinner thought if sufficiently strong aversives are used.
-Second, punishment has a greater suppressive effect on behavior than does
aversive stimulation that is independent of behavior.
,-If punishment reduces behavior rates merely because it arouses incompatible
behavior, then it should make no difference whether the aversive stimuli used
are contingent on behavior. But in fact it makes a great deal of difference.
- the disruption theory of punishment could not explain this discrepancy
between contingent and noncontingent aversives.
11.Two-process theory of punishment - ANSWER says that punishment
involves both Pavlovian and operant procedures
If a rat presses a lever and receives a shock, the lever is paired with the shock.
Through Pavlovian conditioning, the lever then becomes a CS for the same
behavior aroused by the shock, including fear. Put another way, if shock is
aversive, then the lever becomes aversive. The rat may escape the lever by
moving away from it. Moving away from the lever is reinforced by a reduction
of fear. Of course, moving away from the lever necessarily reduces the rate of
lever pressing.
- The theory predicts that punishment would reduce responding in
proportion to its proximity to the punished behavior. However, this is not
always the case.
12.One-process theory of punishment - ANSWER only one process, operant
learning, is involved.
- Punishment, this theory argues, weakens behavior in the same manner that
reinforcement strengthens it.
- Low-probability behavior should punish high-probability behavior. This is, in
fact, what happens (Mazur, 1975). If, for example, a hungry rat is made to
, run following eating, it will eat less. The low-probability behavior (running)
suppresses the high-probability behavior (eating).
13.5 potential problems of using punishment - ANSWER escape,
aggression, apathy, abuse, imitation of punisher.
14.Apathy and punishment - ANSWER a general suppression of behavior. If
aversives are a common consequence of many kinds of behavior, the result
may be a suppression not only of the punished behavior but of behavior in
general.
15.Abuse and punishment - ANSWER Another difficulty with punishment,
especially physical punishment, is the potential for abuse by the punisher.
16.Response prevention - ANSWER One alternative is to prevent the
behavior from occurring by altering the environment in some way, a
procedure called response prevention. Instead of punishing a child for
playing with the family's precious china, we might put the china out of
reach.
17.Using extinction to get rid of unwanted behavior requires first of all
identifying the ________ that maintain it. - ANSWER reinforcers
18.Differential reinforcement - ANSWER Any operant training procedure in
which certain kinds of behavior are systematically reinforced and others are
not