Question

mary discovered that her 7-year-old daughter, maggie, was especially motivated by money. mary began a reinforcement program whereby maggie earned 5 cents every time she brushed her teeth. a month later, mary instituted a payment schedule of 10 cents every time maggie went to bed on time without complaining. once these behaviours were firmly established, maggie began earning money for every book she read. what kind of single-subject design did mary employ?

Answer 1

Mary employed a multiple baseline design from behavioral psychology, reinforcing different behaviors in stages using the principles of operant conditioning.

Step-by-step explanation:

The single-subject design Mary employed with her daughter Maggie is known as a multiple baseline design. This design is used within behavioral psychology to assess the impact of an intervention by establishing multiple baselines (or starting measurements) over different behaviors, settings, or individuals and then introducing the intervention at staggered times. Mary started with the behavior of brushing teeth, established the habit, then introduced a new behavior (going to bed on time) with a separate reinforcement, and finally introduced a third behavior (reading books) with its own reinforcement, each at different times. By doing this, she can observe changes in each behavior and attribute those changes to the corresponding intervention. This sort of reinforcement program is based on behavior modification principles, particularly operant conditioning, where behaviors are shaped by consequences such as rewards. In this case, Maggie's behaviors of personal hygiene, punctuality, and reading are being reinforced by monetary rewards.