0010 Ch 6 Gaps (2/3)

What did the Gershoff & Grogan-Kaylor (2016) meta-analysis of over 160,000 children find about spanking?

It is ineffective at improving behavior and is associated with aggression, antisocial behavior, mental health problems, lower self-esteem, and worse parent relationships

What alternatives to spanking does the textbook recommend (Kazdin & Benjet, 2003)?

Time-outs, small fines, and removal of privileges

What clinical and educational uses of shaping does the textbook list?

Social skills for people with psychological disorders, language for children with autism, and self-care skills for people with intellectual disabilities

How is a secondary reinforcer like money established?

Through classical conditioning: money (a neutral CS) paired with food, security, or power (US) becomes meaningful

In Skinner's (1948a) superstition study, how often were the pigeons fed?

Every 15 seconds, regardless of what they were doing

What specific "superstitious" behaviors did Skinner's pigeons develop?

One turned counterclockwise, another thrust its head into a corner, another made pendulum-like head motions — each repeated whatever it happened to be doing when food arrived

What two human tendencies explain why people cling to superstitions?

A strong tendency to associate temporally co-occurring events, plus confirmation bias — noticing confirming evidence while discounting disconfirming evidence

State Premack's theory (1959) of reinforcer value.

A reinforcer's value is set by how much free time a person willingly spends on the behavior — so a more-valued activity can reinforce a less-valued one (the Premack principle)

How can language bridge the delay problem in humans?

By telling the child in the store that punishment will come later at home — the verbal link substitutes for immediacy

What is temporal discounting, and what poor choices does it underlie?

A reward's value diminishes with delay — $10 now is preferred over $20 in a year; it underlies obesity, drug addiction, and failure to save for retirement

Which schedule produces the fastest learning — continuous or partial reinforcement?

Continuous reinforcement (reinforced every time)

What is the scalloping pattern in fixed-interval schedules?

Responding surges as reinforcement time approaches and slacks off afterward — e.g., students cram before exams then slack off

Why do pop quizzes encourage steady studying?

They are a variable-interval schedule — a quiz comes after unpredictable time, so steady responding pays off

Give the textbook's fixed-ratio and variable-ratio real-world examples.

FR: factory workers paid per piece; pizzeria punch card (buy 10, get 1 free). VR: slot machines and gambling

What is the partial-reinforcement extinction effect?

Behavior trained under partial reinforcement persists longer after reinforcement stops than continuously reinforced behavior — it is harder to detect that reinforcement has ended, especially with variable ratios

What is the best practice for durable conditioning?

Start with continuous reinforcement to build acquisition, then shift to partial reinforcement to resist extinction (e.g., toilet training)

What is the equipotentiality principle — and why is it wrong?

The idea that any CS can pair with any US and any behavior can be reinforced; in reality biology constrains what can be learned

What is conditioned taste aversion (Garcia & Koelling, 1966)?

Rapidly avoiding tastes or smells linked to illness — learned in one trial, even with hours-long delays, even when the food did not cause the illness

Why are taste/smell aversions easier to condition than light/sound aversions?

Evolutionary logic: taste and smell are the cues animals actually use to evaluate food

What species differences exist in taste-aversion learning?

Rats and humans (taste-reliant) condition aversions to taste easily; birds (vision-reliant) condition them to visual cues

In the Brelands' work, what happened when a raccoon was trained to deposit coins in a piggy bank?

It reverted to rubbing the coins in its paws — hardwired food-handling behavior overrode the trained response

What did Bolles (1970) find about pigeons learning to avoid shock?

They easily learn to peck a key for food but cannot easily learn to peck to avoid shock — instead they learn wing-flapping, a built-in defensive reaction