Dr. Marcus is conducting a laboratory experiment to investigate how different schedules of reinforcement affect the resistance to extinction of a target-touching behavior in domestic dogs. He trains twenty dogs to touch a red disc with their nose. Group 1 is reinforced with a food treat after every 5 nose-touches (a fixed-ratio schedule), whereas Group 2 is reinforced with a food treat after an unpredictable number of nose-touches that averages out to 5 (a variable-ratio schedule). Once the behavior is firmly established, Dr. Marcus ceases all reinforcement and records the duration (in seconds) that each dog continues to perform the nose-touching behavior before ceasing the response.
State the independent variable (IV) and dependent variable (DV) in this study.
205 exam-style questions on Edexcel A Level Psychology Content, covering Main features of classical conditioning, Pavlov (1927) salivation in dogs, Main features of operant conditioning, Properties of reinforcement, Behaviour modification and shaping, Main features of social learning theory, Social learning stages, Bandura (1961, 1963) Bobo doll experiments, Bandura (1965) vicarious reinforcement, Learning theories and phobias, Treatments for phobias, Individual differences, and Developmental psychology. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.