1 Shahzad

Hamna Shahzad

Aaishay Haque

EDU 422

14 February 2023

Question 1

The behaviour that Sarah is trying to target in her students is that the students should smile at her

when they see her. The behaviour of smiling can be overtly observed thus it is a behaviour. A

clear, complete and objective definition for this target behaviour is that the students should

increase the behaviour of smiling at Sarah in class and it should be done regularly, regardless of

whether she is or is not wearing the costume. To make it precise, Sarah should set the target that

at least 15 students should smile at her at least once daily. This will allow her to measure the

behaviour and see if her target is being reached or not.

Question 2

a. The Process that is taking place in Sara’s case is respondent conditioning. It is not

operant conditioning because in operant conditioning the behaviour is controlled by its

immediate consequence. However, in Sara’s case, the behaviour of the students is not

followed by any consequence or reinforcement. This means that the behaviour of the

students is not influenced by any reinforcement or punishment, which is necessary for

operant conditioning. The behaviour of the students was not being controlled by its

immediate consequence as there was no reinforcement or consequence provided. Instead,

there was a prior stimulus that was causing the behaviour. In contrast, in operant
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conditioning, a consequence that happens after the behaviour is what increases or

decreases the frequency or some other dimension of the behaviour. This was not the case

in Sara’s method so it was not operant conditioning.

Furthermore, when Sara takes away the costume, she is still receiving the

behaviour she was targeting for. This means that even if seeing their favourite cartoon

character could have served as a reinforcement, once the reinforcement went away the

behaviour of the students should have decreased or should have changed. However, the

behaviour remained. This goes against operant conditioning. Operant conditioning says

that the frequency or another dimension of the behaviour should change once the

consequence is altered or removed. In fact, getting to see their favourite cartoon here

cannot be a reinforcement as it does not occur after a behaviour, instead, it is an

antecedent. Thus, proving that it is not operant conditioning.

b. Respondent conditioning is taking place in Sara’s method. She pairs a stimulus that does

not elicit a particular response/behaviour with one that already does until the previously

neutral stimulus alone elicits the targetted behaviour. Sara knows that her students like

cartoons and they produce the targetted behaviours, smiling and squealing, when

watching the cartoons. She observes the existing reflexes of her students. She notices that

the unconditional response, smiling and squealing, is produced when they are introduced

to the unconditional stimulus of cartoons or jokes. She has also observed that her

presence, i.e. the neutral stimulus, does not produce the unconditional response i.e.

student’s behaviour of smiling or squealing, by itself. Then, Sarah pairs the neutral

stimulus, herself, with the unconditional stimulus, cartoons. She does this by dressing up

like a cartoon i.e. in mickey mouse ears. She pairs the neutral stimulus, herself, with the
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unconditional stimulus, mickey mouse ears, enough times so that the previously neutral

stimulus, her presence, elicits the previously unconditional response, students’ smiling,

without the unconditioned stimulus, i.e. cartoons. This means that she dresses up in the

mickey mouse ears enough times so that now when she takes off those ears, her presence

can independently produce the behaviour of smiling and squealing from the students. As

Sara mentions that she notices the behaviour of students smiling even on the days she

forgets to wear the ears, this means that the pairing has occurred. Now that an association

has been made between the unconditional stimulus and the conditioned response, the

neutral stimulus, her presence, becomes the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned

response, the students’ smiling, becomes a conditioned response. Thus, by continuously

pairing a stimulus that does not elicit a particular response, herself, with one that already

does, cartoons, she is able to achieve the targetted behaviour of the students

independently i.e. without the need for mickey mouse ears.

c. Sara has to be careful because if the mickey mouse ears are not provided for a good

amount of time, a time will come when the conditional stimulus, her presence, will stop

producing the conditional response, students’ smiling. This process is called extinction.

The continuous introduction of the conditional stimulus in the absence of the

unconditional stimulus will eventually stop producing the conditional response. This

means that if Sara starts coming to class daily without the mickey mouse ears too many

times and continuously, eventually there will come a time when the students will stop

associating her with the cartoons and thus, stop producing the targeted behaviour of

smiling. To avoid this, Sara should continue introducing the conditional stimulus, herself,

in the presence of the unconditional stimulus, the mickey mouse ears, every now and
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then. This will ensure that the pairing between the conditioned stimulus and the

conditioned response does not go extinct.

Question 3

a. Initially, when Zainab joined, she would be the neutral response as students would have

no initial reflex response upon seeing her. However, most children get scared when they

are yelled at, it is an existing reflex. Then Zainab paired herself, a neutral response, with

the unconditional stimulus of yelling at the students which produced an unconditional

response from students of becoming stiff, frowning or avoiding eye contact with Zainab.

Then she repeatedly pairs herself, a neutral response, with the unconditional stimulus,

yelling for an entire month. This is repeated until her presence, the neutral stimuli, now

alone elicit the responses of stiffness or frowning from her students, i.e. without the

unconditioned stimulus of yelling. This means that now conditioning has occurred and

the students will be afraid when they see her even if she is not yelling. Now, the neutral

stimuli, Zainab, becomes the conditional stimuli and her students becoming stiff or

frowning is the conditional response that will occur every time they see her even if she

does not yell at them.

b. Sara’s method did not work for Zainab because the students have already been

conditioned to be afraid of Zainab. This means that they cannot see their favourite jolly

and funny cartoon character in her. Once Zainab has been conditioned to be feared by the

students, they cannot form the conditioning of seeing her as someone opposite to that i.e.

someone who is funny. For example, if a kid is conditioned to be afraid of rats, a rat

dressed up in mickey mouse ears would not make him not fear the rat any longer. Instead,
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for the process to be successful, the extinction of the previously conditioned stimulus

must occur. This means that the students must stop fearing Zainab in order for Sara’s

method to work for her. There should be a weakening of the conditioned response so that

the behaviour of frowning or stiffness can disappear. Once the students stop fearing her,

the application of Sara’s method for her is more likely to work.

Furthermore, the neutral stimulus is not being paired with the unconditional

stimulus consistently and for long enough to have the conditioned stimulus produce the

targetted behaviour. For example, Zainab only puts on mickey mouse ears 2 days a week,

this does not allow the pairing to develop so that the previously neutral stimulus could

elicit the previously unconditioned response all by itself. This is another reason the

students do not show excitement on the days she removes the mickey mouse ears i.e.

unconditional stimulus.

Bonus Question

Circular reasoning is being used when Zainab is described as “She is a Scorpio, it's not in her

nature to be cheerful”. Similarly “Zainab is stubbornly persistent, probably also because she is a

Scorpio. Here, she is described as not being cheerful or stubborn because she is a Scorpio.

Similarly, she is a Scorpio so she is not a cheerful person. This is circular reasoning as no

solution is being provided to explain why she is stubborn or to change her stubbornness. Only

explanations that are not useful are being given. For example, being a Scorpio is not a solution to

the problem that she is not cheerful. A solution would be to analyse her environment and past

experiences to figure out why she is not cheerful or stubborn. Labelling her into a category

(Scorpio) gives no solution or explanation as to why she is stubborn. Neither does it provide
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steps to change it. Thus, this is circular reasoning as such reasonings do not let us reach a useful

explanation or solution.