A psychologist investigating operant conditioning studied a miniature pig's learning behavior. The pig was placed in a pen where it had to push a heavy wooden block with its snout to unblock a hatch containing fresh apple slices.
Over eight consecutive daily trials, the psychologist recorded the latency (in seconds) from the pig entering the pen to successfully pushing the block and accessing the reward.
Table 1: Latency (in seconds) to push the block over eight trials
| Trial 1 | Trial 2 | Trial 3 | Trial 4 | Trial 5 | Trial 6 | Trial 7 | Trial 8 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Latency (seconds) | 150 | 112 | 78 | 45 | 22 | 11 | 6 | 3 |
Using your knowledge of operant conditioning, explain the results shown in Table 1.
84 exam-style questions on AQA A Level Psychology Learning approaches. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.