Psy101
2.After returning from a shopping trip with his mother, little Tommy reported, “I goed to the store and eated candy.” Why might a behaviorist such as B. F. Skinner have had some difficulty explaining Tommy's incorrect grammatical construction? What sort of theory could explain the errors? What would that explanation be?
B.F Skinner was an American Psychologist who invented the operant conditioning chamber. The chamber he set up had rats in it and a lever, once the rats pulled the lever they were given a piece of food. After this happened the rate of bar pressing would increase dramatically and remain high until the rat was no longer hungry. He was a firm believer of the idea that human free will was actually an illusion and any human action was the result of the consequences of that same action. If the consequences were bad, there was a high chance that the action would not be repeated; however if the consequences were good, the actions that lead to it would be reinforced. He called this the principle of reinforcement.
B. F. Skinner’s operant conditioning theory would lead him to believe Tommy's parents spoke the way Tommy did after leaving the store, and his parents had no consequences for Tommy speaking in such a way but instead of giving him positive reinforcement for the incorrect grammar. The fact That Tommy has a learning disability which causes him to absorb words used around him, instead of absorbing both the vocabulary and the grammatical rules. Tommy’s grammatical errors show that language is acquired through osmosis, and that there is more to it than just memorization.
Skinner’s way of operant conditioning mainly focused on cause and effect; by doing something good you are rewarded and by doing something bad you are punished. Even though tommy’s parents don’t reward him it would seem to Skinner that his grammatical errors were positively reinforced making it difficult for Skinner to provide an explanation for Tommy’s grammatical errors.
Myers, D.G
B.F Skinner was an American Psychologist who invented the operant conditioning chamber. The chamber he set up had rats in it and a lever, once the rats pulled the lever they were given a piece of food. After this happened the rate of bar pressing would increase dramatically and remain high until the rat was no longer hungry. He was a firm believer of the idea that human free will was actually an illusion and any human action was the result of the consequences of that same action. If the consequences were bad, there was a high chance that the action would not be repeated; however if the consequences were good, the actions that lead to it would be reinforced. He called this the principle of reinforcement.
B. F. Skinner’s operant conditioning theory would lead him to believe Tommy's parents spoke the way Tommy did after leaving the store, and his parents had no consequences for Tommy speaking in such a way but instead of giving him positive reinforcement for the incorrect grammar. The fact That Tommy has a learning disability which causes him to absorb words used around him, instead of absorbing both the vocabulary and the grammatical rules. Tommy’s grammatical errors show that language is acquired through osmosis, and that there is more to it than just memorization.
Skinner’s way of operant conditioning mainly focused on cause and effect; by doing something good you are rewarded and by doing something bad you are punished. Even though tommy’s parents don’t reward him it would seem to Skinner that his grammatical errors were positively reinforced making it difficult for Skinner to provide an explanation for Tommy’s grammatical errors.
Myers, D.G