Instrumental Conditioning Research Paper

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Instrumental Conditioning

One of the key principals in psychology is instrumental conditioning. This is when punishment or reinforcement is utilized to encourage the subject to engage in particular types of behavior. The basic idea behind this approach is to increase the chances that a specific kind of action will take place in the future. Once this happens, is when there can be a transformation in how the subject is reacting to the stimuli that they will see, hear or feel. (Cherry, 2011) This is significant, because it is showing how this is utilized as a basic strategy to subtly change the way someone is responding to various events. To fully understand this technique we will examine how this kind of conditioning is used by someone who is learning to ride a bike. This will be accomplished by: comparing positive / negative reinforcement that relate to the situation, examining the role of rewards / punishment and looking at what forms of instrumental conditioning would be most effective in this situation. Once this occurs, is when we can be able to comprehend how this can influence their behavior and the way someone is reacting to various situations.

Describe your selected learning situation.

When someone is learning to ride a bicycle there is both positive and negative reinforcement that they are receiving. As far as positive reinforcement is concerned, the individual is learning to ride a bike based on the fact that they are receiving encouragement from others and can see an improvement in their ability to balance themselves on the bicycle. While negative reinforcement is when the individual will feel pain associated from falling off the bike on to the ground. The key for being successful in learning to ride a bike is to offer the person continuous positive reinforcement. This will help them to overcome the challenges that they are facing from the negative reinforcement. Once this takes place is when there will be a transformation in how they are reacting to these events and their ability to continually keep practicing these techniques (until they can maintain their balance on a regular basis).

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Compare and contrast the concepts of positive and negative reinforcement as they relate to your selected situation.

Like what was stated previously, positive reinforcement is when the subject will receive continuous encouragement that will help them with riding the bike despite the short-term pain they are facing. This is accomplished by offering the person simple rewards for climbing on the bike and attempting to ride it. For example, to overcome the negative association with the short-term pain, the respondent might be offered some kind of candy bar or treat immediately after they ride the bicycle. At the same time, there will be positive verbal encouragement to help them to continue with this behavior in the future. This is important, because this approach will assist the subject in overcoming the negative associations related to the short-term pain that they will feel. ("Conditioned Responses," 2009) (Robbins, 1992, pp. 52 -- 72)

Negative reinforcement is when the individual will feel pain associated with riding the bicycle. In this particular case, the physical pain of losing their balance and falling on the ground is linked with this kind of reinforcement. If left unchecked, this can lead to larger problems in the future with most people using this as a crutch to affect their ability to ride the bike. This is because they will immediately feel sudden pain and will instinctively take steps to avoid any of these kinds of issues. To counter this there must be some kind of positive reinforcement that the subject will receive. This is when they can be able to overcome the short-term negatives associated with learning to ride the bicycle. ("Conditioned Responses," 2009) (Robbins, 1992, pp. 52 -- 72)

Explain the role of reward and punishment in your selected learning situation.

Rewards are when you are offering the subject some kind of positive encouragement for engaging in various activities. For example, when….....

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