Join thousands of students who trust us to help them ace their exams!
Multiple Choice
In the context of operant conditioning, lighting a fire on a cold night to get warm is best classified as which type of reinforcement?
A
Punishment
B
Negative reinforcement
C
Extinction
D
Positive reinforcement
0 Comments
Verified step by step guidance
1
Step 1: Understand the key terms in operant conditioning. Reinforcement is a process that increases the likelihood of a behavior occurring again, while punishment decreases it.
Step 2: Differentiate between positive and negative reinforcement. Positive reinforcement involves adding a pleasant stimulus after a behavior, whereas negative reinforcement involves removing an unpleasant stimulus after a behavior.
Step 3: Analyze the behavior in the problem: lighting a fire on a cold night. The unpleasant stimulus here is the cold temperature.
Step 4: Recognize that lighting the fire removes the unpleasant cold, which increases the likelihood of lighting a fire again in similar situations.
Step 5: Conclude that since the behavior removes an unpleasant condition to increase the behavior, it is an example of negative reinforcement.