Dr. Aris investigated operant conditioning in training laboratory rats. The rats were placed in a chamber where a loud, unpleasant high-pitched tone was played continuously. Every time a rat successfully pressed a target lever, the unpleasant tone was immediately turned off for a duration of 30 seconds. Dr. Aris recorded the frequency of lever presses for each rat.
Explain how Dr. Aris used negative reinforcement in this investigation.
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.