Behavior Analysis and Learning, Fourth Edition

Study Questions - Chapter 6

Behavior Analysis and Learning, Fourth Edition is an essential textbook covering the basic principles in the field of behavior analysis and learned behaviors, as pioneered by B. F. Skinner.

  1. 1. Define and give an example of primary and conditioned aversive stimuli. (p. 121) According to Azrin and Holz (1966), why is punishment a fact of life? (p. 122)
  2. Define the terms punishment and punisher. (p. 122) Discuss positive punishment and extend the analysis to a child who is spanked for hitting a friend. (p. 122)
  3. Outline the procedure of negative punishment. (p. 123) Give an example of negative punishment involving a child who is watching television. (p. 123) Distinguish between negative punishment and extinction. (p. 123)
  4. Discuss punishment and the Premack principle, indicating how punishment is relative and not absolute. In your analysis refer to the relativity of wheel running as punishment for drinking. (pp. 123-124)
  5. Does punishment teach new behavior? (p. 124) Why is it important to study the contingencies of punishment? (p. 124) What complicates the study of punishment (hint: How is behavior usually maintained before it is punished?)? (p. 124)
  6. Outline the effects of gradual and sudden punishment. (p. 124) Give an example of graduated punishment involving a messy kid playing with Mike's new disk player. (p. 124)
  7. How does the intensity of positive punishment relate to response suppression? (p. 124) Why have Skinner and others argued that punishment only produces temporary suppression of behavior? (pp. 124-125) What does the research indicate? (p. 125)
  8. Discuss immediacy of positive punishment and how reflexive behavior may disrupt operant responding. In your answer refer to the Estes (1944) experiment. (p. 125) What is the most effective schedule of positive punishment? (p. 125) Why? (pp. 125-126)
  9. FOCUS ON: Outline the issues about use of aversive procedures in behavior therapy. (p. 126) What are two possible side effects in the use of positive punishment? (p. 126) Discuss Solomon's recommendation to solve disputes about punishment. (p. 126) Why has it not worked? (pp. 126-127) What could account for the lack of modern research on punishment? (pp. 126-127)
  10. How effective is punishment at different levels of food deprivation? Be sure to refer to Azrin, Holtz, and Hake (1963). (p. 127) Discuss the practical implications of the satiation and effectiveness of punishment by pointing to the modification of self-destructive behavior (Lovaas & Simmons, 1969). (pp. 127-128)
  11. Outline how response alternatives make punishment more effective. (p. 128) Give an everyday example of response alternatives and punishment. (p. 129)
  12. Distinguish between escape and avoidance. (p. 129) Define negative reinforcement and negative reinforcer. (p. 129) The distinction between positive and negative reinforcement is occasionally uncertain. Discuss. (p. 129) Why is the distinction between escape and avoidance somewhat artificial? Use shock-shock (S-S) interval and response-shock (R-S) interval in your answer. (p. 129)
  13. Give some examples of escape conditioning. (p. 129) Be able to write the Mechner notation for an escape contingency, as in Figure 6.5. (p. 130) Why are escape responses more easily acquired than avoidance behavior? (pp. 130-131) Discuss escape conditioning and the compatibility of reflexive and operant behavior. (p. 131)
  14. Define avoidance and give some common examples. (p. 131) Outline discriminative avoidance and write the Mechner notation for this contingency, as in Figure 6.6. (p. 131) Discuss the rate of acquisition for discriminative avoidance and the controlling variables. (pp. 131-132) What did Modaresi (1990) find? (p. 132)
  15. Comment on nondiscriminative avoidance as compared with discriminative avoidance. (p. 133) In a Sidman avoidance procedure, what determines how quickly the operant is acquired? (p. 133)
  16. FOCUS ON: Analyze the S-S and R-S intervals and the effectiveness of an avoidance contingency. (p. 133) Discuss the relationship between shock frequency and avoidance, referring to the molar and molecular views. (pp. 133-134) What is Hineline's view on the molar versus molecular distinction? (p. 134)
  17. What happens when a period of avoidance precedes or follows a session of food reinforcement (Hakenberg & Hineline, 1987)? (pp. 134-135) Discuss the experiment in everyday language and draw out the implications. (p. 135) 18. Be able to outline Skinner's argument against aversive techniques and side effects of aversive procedures. (p. 136) 19. Discuss behavioral persistence as a side effect of punishment, referring to operant-respondent interactions. (p. 136) How could you place avoidance behavior on extinction? (pp. 136-137) Provide an example of behavioral persistence in the Nazi concentration camps. (pp. 136-137)
  18. What is learned helplessness? (p. 137) How is this behavior acquired in animals (Seligman & Maier, 1967)? (p. 137) Does learned helplessness occur in people? Give an example. (p. 137) Explain how learned helplessness is a side effect of aversive control. (pp. 137-138) Discuss helplessness induced by indiscriminant punishment of avoidance behavior as a way of understanding how so many Jewish people went to their deaths without strong resistance. (pp. 137-138)
  19. Analyze the relationship between learned helplessness and depression, referring to relevant studies. (p. 138) Discuss behavioral treatment (prevention) of depression based on learned helplessness. (p. 139) What does neuroscience research say about learned helplessness and depression? (pp. 138-139) Are behavioral treatments at odds with neuroscience interventions? (p. 139)
  20. FOCUS ON: Describe the social defeat procedure used by Berton et al. (2006) and what happens to an animal that repeatedly experiences defeat by an aggressor. (p. 139) What drugs reduced social withdrawal by defeated animals and what are the neural pathways are associated with social aversion induced by defeat-be able to state the role of BDNF and the dopamine areas of the brain? (p. 139) Discuss practical implications of this neuroscience research? (pp. 139-140)
  21. Describe reflexive (pain-elicited) aggression as a side effect of aversive control, indicating the appropriate studies. (pp. 140-141) As the frequency of shocks increases, what happens to reflexive aggression? (pp. 140-141)
  22. Describe the effects of shocks on reflexive aggression in squirrel monkeys. (p. 141) Does the same kind of aversive stimulus lead to aggression in humans? (p. 141) Draw out the implication of the research on reflexive aggression. (p. 141)
  23. What is operant aggression? (p. 141) Give an example. (p. 141) Within the aggressive episode, how is aggressive behavior maintained by negative reinforcement? (p. 141)
  24. Discuss the problems of investigating human aggression in the laboratory. (p. 142) Provide a behavior analysis of how aggression breeds aggression, referring to Skinner's account of the sailors' game during the 18th century. (p. 142)
  25. What have controlled experiments with humans shown about how aggression breeds aggression? (p. 142) How do insults affect human aggression? (p. 142) What does a "culture of honor" do to human aggression? (p. 143) Describe an experiment on social exclusion and aggressive behavior. (p. 143)
  26. Discuss the side effect of punishment known as social disruption. (p. 143) Why does this side effect occur? (p. 144)
  27. ON THE APPLIED SIDE: What is coercion-refer to Sidman's (2001) usage and the note on definitions of coercion? Based on Sidman's (2001) analysis of coercion, why do children drop out of school? Can anything be done to turn dropping out into "tuning in"? (p. 145)

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