At 1:22 PM -0600 11/17/99, Shannon Gadbois wrote:
>My vote is also for classical conditioning. What if we think of this
>example considering the temporal element? The whistle and bird seed are
>"presented" at the same time THEN the birds flock. In operant conditioning
>the reinforcer (consequence) should follow the behaviour. So, if this is
>an example of operant conditioning: the whistle is the discriminative
>stimulus which "signals" that flocking (the behaviour) will be reinforced
>(with presentation of bird seed). The problem is that the reinforcer (bird
>seed) precedes the behaviour of flocking to the field (as the example was
>initially presented).
>Any comments?
It's not when the reinforcer is presented, it's when the subject contacts
the contingency.
IFF the temporal sequence (from the pigeons' point of view) is:
Whistle --> flocking --> eating bird seed
then it would fit the operant conditioning paradigm.
The problem is that (from the apochryphal anecdote) we don't know exactly
what thoise flocking pigeons are actually doing!
* PAUL K. BRANDON [EMAIL PROTECTED] *
* Psychology Dept Minnesota State University, Mankato *
* 23 Armstrong Hall, Mankato, MN 56001 ph 507-389-6217 *
* http://www.mankato.msus.edu/dept/psych/welcome.html *
