Question

Question 3: An early criticism of reinforcement theory is that it can only account for the repetition of highly stereotyped behaviors produced in response to specifically trained stimuli (i.e. cannot account for behavior variability, or for the ability of novel stimuli to elicit learned behavior). Describe at least two experiments that refute this criticism.

Answer 1

According to B. F. Skinner the behavior can be changed by using reinforcement these are positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment.

The behavior that is changed by using positive reinforcement means something is added to improve the behavior,

Negative reinforcement is said to be one when something is taken away to improve the behavior.

Scolding, warning or explaining the child the consequences of the negative behavior is negative punishment.

Positive punishment is removing the pleasant stimuli it is similar to negative reinforcement.

The reinforcement strengthens the behavior while the punishment suppresses the behavior and once the fear of punishment is gone the behavior can emerge again it can again resurface the feeling of aggression and anger.

Once the behavior is strengthened it can become strong and remain for a longer time.

Behavioral variability depends upon the time taken to respond to a stimulus that is called reaction time.

According to Edward C. Tolman's experiment on rats explained that the behavior can be learned if there are no external stimuli this is in contrast to the theory that the behavior is learned through reinforcement.

He put hungry rats in the maze with no reinforcement and the food is placed in the maze he observed that the rats found out their way to food even without reinforcement. In the comparison group he placed rats and reinforcement is used whenever the food was provided after 10 repeated experiment it was found that the rats who were not reinforced were able to find their way to the food with much ease the moment they have the feeling that the food is placed that happened because of their cognitive ability. The time taken by the experiment group and the other group was the same. Thus it refutes that the reinforcement is only responsible for strengthening behavior.

The second experiment is the social learning theory of Bandura, (1977) that children learn through observation of the behavior of adults, it was well explained by Bobo Doll experiment where the children were made to watch the aggressive behavior of the adults with Bobo Doll when the children were given the opportunity to play with the doll, the displayed the same behavior of aggression with the doll.

This shows that the behavior varies depending upon the reaction time it varies depending upon the situation as well, An aggressive employee would be mild in front of his boss because he cannot be aggressive otherwise he will be punished, and whatever amount of positive reinforcement given to him he would remain mild with the boss because the situation does not permit him to exhibit the same behavior.

Thus the behavior is developed not only due to reinforcement and punishment it varies depending upon the cognitive ability, observation and inherited quality.