Question

Dr. Gauche likes to make fun of student comments in class. She finds that every time she does this, students make fewer comments the rest of the class period. Apparently, Dr. Gauche’s jokes are _________ the students for talking in class.a. ​negatively reinforcing
b. ​imitating
c. ​positively reinforcing
d. punishing

Answer 1

Answer:

d. punishing

Explanation:

In psychology and classical and operant conditioning, the term reinforcement refers to a stimulus that increases the chances that a certain behavior is repeated in the future. In other words, it refers to something that makes the behavior be more frequent.

On the other hand, the term punishment refers to to a stimulus that decreases the chances that a certain behavior is repeated in the future, in other words, it is something that makes the behavior happen less frequently.

In this example, Dr. Gauche makes fun of student comments in class and every time she does this, students make fewer comments. We can see that the fact that she is making fun of the comments is making the comments happen less frequently and the behavior decreases. Therefore, this would be an example of punishing.