An Examination of the Two Videos on Operant Conditioning and Positive Punishment

Skinner Box

The first video was of a rat figuring out that if he presses the lever, a treat would come down. The rat continues to press the lever multiple times to get multiple treats. That is an example of operant conditioning. Because the rat pulled the lever, he got the treat. So he did something and got rewarded because of it. This is also an example of positive reinforcement. The people doing the experiment wanted the rat to do a certain thing, so he was rewarded for doing that thing.

It was positive because they were adding something to the situation, and it was a reinforcement because it will increase the likelihood the behavior the rat showed will happen again. The positive reinforcement worked on the rat because it was something he wanted. One thing we learned is that positive reinforcement does not always work because you have to reward the person/ animal with something that would benefit them or something that they would want.

This is also an example of continuous reinforcement. That means the rat is positively reinforced every time a certain behavior occurred. So in the rat’s case, getting the treat is what happened when he pulled the lever. He got the treat because he did something good.

In the second video we see a man press a button and the first couple times he pressed it it would give a warning by saying “warning”. Then he pressed it a third time and it looked like it might have shocked him and sent him flying backwards.

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This is an exar punishment. The positive part because it is bringing something in to make the man stop doing something. Like the shock that sent him flying. It is a punishment because it will decrease the likelihood that that would happen again. Then the man continues to go on and press the button again, and then he threw a rock at a thing that made music play and a fish thing came out.

And then what looked like beans came out of the shoot. Then water started pouring out of a pipe. So because he pressed the button again he got water and some sort of food. This would be an example of variable ratio reinforcement. The behavior was reinforced after an unpredictable number of times doing something. The man did not know what was going to come out or what would happen when he pressed the button, so he kept doing it even after being punished the first time.

Another thing that happened in that clip was the man stopped working to go kiss that woman, and because he stopped working, another man got angry at that and ran and him and beat him with a gun. He was then put in this prison cell type thing for his behavior. This is an example of negative punishment. It is negative because they are taking away the man’s freedom by putting him in a holding cell. It is a punishment because it will decrease the likelihood that he will do that again.