92. A child is scolded for not doing her homework as soon as she comes home from school. The scolding stops when she does her homework. In the future, she is more likely to do her homework as soon as she comes home from school. The childs increase in doing her homework right after school is a result of
Answer: B
The child's increase in doing her homework right after school is a result of negative reinforcement.
The child learns to do her homework as soon as she comes home from school because the scolding, which is an aversive stimulus, is removed when she completes her homework. This removal of an unpleasant consequence encourages the behavior of doing her homework promptly.
A) positive reinforcement
Positive reinforcement involves the addition of a pleasant stimulus following a desired behavior, which increases the likelihood of that behavior being repeated. In this scenario, the child is not being rewarded with something positive for doing her homework, but rather is avoiding the negative consequence of being scolded.
B) negative reinforcement
Negative reinforcement occurs when a behavior increases because it results in the removal of an unpleasant stimulus. In this case, the unpleasant experience of being scolded for not doing homework is removed when the child completes her assignments, thereby increasing the likelihood that she will do her homework promptly in the future.
C) positive punishment
Positive punishment introduces an unpleasant stimulus in order to decrease a behavior. In this situation, the scolding serves as a punishment, but it does not reduce the behavior of doing homework; instead, it is the removal of this punishment that reinforces the desired behavior.
D) observational learning
Observational learning involves acquiring new behaviors by watching others. The child is not learning from observing someone else in this instance; she is responding to her own experiences and consequences of her actions, which makes this option incorrect.
E) classical conditioning
Classical conditioning entails learning through the association of two stimuli, which is not applicable in this case. The child's behavior is influenced by the consequences of her actions rather than by the pairing of stimuli, thus making this option irrelevant.
Conclusion
The correct answer is negative reinforcement, as it accurately describes the process where the child is motivated to complete her homework to avoid the unpleasant experience of being scolded. All other options fail to capture the essence of the learning principle at play, either misidentifying the nature of the consequences or the learning process involved.