PSYB45H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Caffeine, Acronym, Circular Reasoning
Document Summary
Focusing on strategies that involve the manipulation of antecedent stimuli, to influence behaviour. Partial rules: do not identify all the three aspects of a contingency of reinforcement; but can still control our behaviour: e. g. , consequences can often be implied. Stay in school, do not drink and drive, buckle up in car. When are rules especially helpful: when rapid behaviour change is desirable, when consequences are delayed, when natural reinforcers are highly intermittent, when behaviour will lead to immediate and severe punishment > when trial and error could be costly. Although the reinforcer identified in a rule might be delayed for an individual, there might be other immediate consequences in the interim if the individual follows (or does not follow) the rule. An individual might follow a rule and then immediately make reinforcing statements to himself or herself. Based on our reinforcement history, it may be that following rules is automatically strengthened, whereas failure to follow rules is automatically punished.