A supervisor complimented each of his workers as he or she arrived promptly to work every morning. Due to time constraints, the supervisor had to stop this practice, resulting in a much higher rate of tardiness among his workers. Which of the following statements best explains this situation in operant terms?
A) The supervisor's negative reinforcement strategy was stopped, thus extinguishing the behaviour of arriving promptly.
B) The supervisor was using a continuous, immediate reinforcement strategy, and behaviour learned under such conditions is easily extinguishable.
C) The supervisor was using a delayed reinforcement strategy, and behaviour learned under such conditions is easily extinguishable.
D) The supervisor was using a partial reinforcement strategy, and behaviour learned under such conditions is easily extinguishable.
E) The supervisor was inadvertently punishing his workers by not complimenting them, so the workers didn't arrive on time any more.
Ans: B) The supervisor was using a continuous, immediate reinforcement strategy, and behaviour learned under such conditions is easily extinguishable.
You might also like to view...
Josh gets his bike serviced at Dean's Garage even though there's another garage much closer to home. He prefers Dean's because the work is usually done quickly and the staff try to solve the issues with the bike as soon as possible
Dean's Garage excels at which of the following five determinants of service quality? A) reliability B) responsiveness C) assurance D) empathy E) tangibles
Identify a shortcoming of giving the responsibility of new product development to the product managers of a company
A) They would not be familiar with the industry standards. B) Product managers would not have an operational focus. C) Product managers are often busy managing existing lines. D) They will find it difficult to gain support from employees. E) Product managers are less likely to use participative management.