I had a question today on using rubber band snapping to deal with a craving in the context of operant and classical conditioning. This was the method famously used by Larry Hagman to quit smoking.
It appears to have elements of both classical and operant conditioning but it got especially tricky when we tried to determine the operant elements. If you look at the situation of the craving as the discriminative stimulus and the rubber band popping as the operant response and the pain as the consequence, it seems that the pain would be most likely to reduce the operant response (the rubber band popping) and not the craving. I assume, if this works at all, it is not due to the operant conditioning element (but there must be some consequence that would increase the operant response of rubber band popping for it to continue and that consequence must be stronger than the aversive element. It would be much easier if the rubber band popping just occurred without any intervention on the part of the person that needs an operant explanation. Any ideas? Rick Dr. Rick Froman, Chair Division of Humanities and Social Sciences Professor of Psychology Box 3055 John Brown University 2000 W. University Siloam Springs, AR 72761 [email protected] (479)524-7295 http://tinyurl.com/DrFroman "The LORD detests both Type I and Type II errors." Proverbs 17:15 --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=8944 or send a blank email to leave-8944-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
