At 1:18 PM -0500 7/29/01, Rick Froman wrote:
>It is avoidance learning. There are some behavioristic explanations for it
>but there are problems. If it is operant, what is reinforcing the behavior?
>Not hitting your head? Can a lack of a stimulus be a reinforcer?
>If so then
>why doesn't not hitting your head reinforce all kinds of other behaviors?
Sometimes it _does_!
This is known as superstitious conditioning (other terms: accidental,
adventitious).
However, since there is usually a stronger relationship between behaviors
that actually cause some outcome to occur less frequently and those
outcomes, the functional behaviors are more likely to be reinforced.
* 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 *
