1) Operant Conditioning

First, review the following website on operant conditioning.http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/behavior/operant.html
Go to your e-Reading Chapter 7 on "Learning" (section 2) and review this material.
Knowing what we know about operant conditioning we should have perfectly behaved children and pets. Why don't we? Think about this question.

Let's just think about how we might use operant conditioning. Then start thinking about your pet.
Now, if you don't have a pet, you could use a friend, your spouse or another family member (if you have their best interests in mind!). Really, the point is, that you try to use operant conditioning in some way to change behavior in some minor way.

Here is the activity for you:

The well-behaved pet

If you have a pet, you can use operant conditioning to teach your animal something you'd like it to do. Choose something simple. One student we know taught her cat to willingly enter the garage for the night by feeding the animal a special treat there each evening at the same time. Soon the cat was "asking" to get into the garage at bedtime! Another student taught her pastured horse to come to her and submit willingly to the halter by rewarding the animal's occasional approach with a carrot. Soon the horse was approaching regularly and could be put on an intermittent schedule of reinforcement. Be creative, and see whether you can make your pet better behaved or more cooperative in some way.

If you don't want to use a pet, or friend or family member, tell us of an experience you have had in which operant conditioning was used. Look over the e-Reading in the chapter on "Learning" section 2 to get some ideas. Try to use some of the ideas and terms in your comments.

Now answer the following.....

Provide an example from everyday life of positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment.

2) Analyze a Childhood Memory

The entire e-Reading chapter 8 on "Memory" will help with this assignment, however, focus on Accuracy and Inaccuracy in Memory and Cognition (Section 3). Next do this exercise.

Write down as much as you can about an incident in your childhood that stands out in your memory. Now ask a friend or family member who was present at the time to write a description of the same event [or you can call and ask them about it on the phone, unless you use email to correspond with your friends/family]. Do your accounts differ? If so, why? What does this exercise tell you about the nature of memory-and about your own personality or present concerns?