1. Knock Wood! Liam Bradshaw

2. Radical Behaviorism ● BF Skinner ● Every situation has consequences ● reward = more likely to do again ● punishment = less likely to do agian ● operant conditioning

3. Extinction ● When reinforcement is stopped ● Behavior is suppressed Example: ● dog begging

4. Noncontingent reinforcement ● Have you behaved superstitiously? ● behavior was accidentally reinforced ● noncontingent reinforcement: ● a reward that is not contingent on any particular behavior ● not only humans do it

5. Method: skinner box ● empty cage except for food plate ● normally it had a bar/plate to peck This experiment ● used hungry pigeons ● no bar to press ● food came every 15 seconds ● after a few days results were recorded

6. Results ● many birds developed superstitious behavior Ex: pecking in the corner ● None of these actions made them get food ● They had become superstitious pigeons ● Skinner began to increase rewards ● the pigeons began to “dance” ● the behavior was put on extinction

7. Recent Applications ● Studying superstition related to reinforcement. ● Superstition is used to prevent bad things rather than create good ones ● The study of ADHD ● Kids with ADHD have less ability to handle delays in reinforcement