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Operant Conditioning Paper

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Operant Conditioning Paper
To better understand the idea of operant conditioning and how it works, I have designed a procedure to conduct in order to change the behavior and action of the two dogs that I own. Currently, I have two chihuahuas living in my household. Sugar, the eldest, is eight years old. Her personality is not similar to many dogs as she is introverted and does not bother to associate with humans very often. The youngest, Monkey, is only six years old and is polar opposite to her elder sister. She is completely extroverted, friendly, and loves to be around people. However, the two of them both share the same common behavior that needs to be reversed. Both dogs consistently refuse to come out from under the sofa when it is time to go into the kitchen. In order to reverse this behavior, an operant conditioning plan will be enacted as shown in the table below.
Possible Behaviors
Do I want behavior to be repeated?
Type of Consequence
Example of Consequence
Doesn’t come to the kitchen at all.
No.
Negative punishment.
Does not get to go outside the next day.
Comes to kitchen after being
…show more content…
Both showed that their original behavior did not repeat as frequently, and would go into the kitchen upon being told once. If, in any case, the dog were not to go into the kitchen after being called the first time, they would indefinitely go after being called twice. This behavior was much better than before and is what I wanted to obtain during this process. In the future, I hope that the dogs will continue this behavior without being reminded that they should be doing as they are instructed. As for other operant conditioning processes that the two dogs might need to know in the future, under other circumstances, it is also hoped that they do remember this process in order to shorten the amount of time spent on teaching them. And eventually, it is desired that the dogs do as they are told without having to be conditioned to do so at

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