Question

Diamond has decided she does not want her son to whine anymore. So she is planning on ignoring him whenever he whines. Diamond did not always reinforce her son for whining; she tended to give in to him when he whined approximately every 4 times. What is likely going to happen?

A) It will likely take a long time for Diamond to extinguish her son's whining.
B) It will likely be very quick for Diamond to extinguish her son's whining.

Answer 1

Diamond's son is resistant to the extinction of his whining behavior due to previously being reinforced on a variable-ratio schedule, implying that it will likely take a long time for the behavior to be extinguished. Therefore the correct answer is A) It will likely take a long time for Diamond to extinguish her son's whining.

Step-by-step explanation:

The scenario with Diamond and her son revolves around the psychological concept of extinction in operant conditioning, which refers to the gradual decrease in a learned behavior when it is no longer reinforced. Since Diamond's son was inconsistently reinforced for his whining behavior—approximately one out of every four times—it is likely that it will take a long time for Diamond to extinguish her son's whining behavior. This is due to the reinforcement schedule known as a variable-ratio schedule which tends to create a high and persistent level of response, making the behavior more resistant to extinction. Hence, the correct answer is A) It will likely take a long time for Diamond to extinguish her son's whining.