For this assignment, imagine you are the parent of Tommy, an eleven-year-old boy
For this assignment, imagine you are the parent of Tommy, an eleven-year-old boy. He is a good child and rarely gets into trouble. He maintains good grades at school and is a responsible big brother, always keeping a watchful eye out for his little sister. In his free time, Tommy loves playing video games. He would play them every day, all day long if allowed, but you have set a rather strict time limit. Tommy can only play video games for one hour through the week and two hours each day over the weekend. Your one frustration with Tommy is his constant forgetting to take out the trash on Mondays and Thursdays. This is his one and only household chore. Most often it is you that must take out the trash and bring in the empty cans. Tommy apologizes for forgetting and explains how he will remember next time. However, next time repeats the process of forgetting and apologizing. Step 1: You have decided to use operant conditioning to get Tommy to consistently take out the trash. To develop an effective plan to operantly condition Tommy, answer the following questions: Prompt 1: In no more than two complete sentences, explain why using operant conditioning is a more effective strategy than using classical conditioning to obtain the desired behavioral outcome. Prompt 2: What type of consequence will be more effective in modifying Tommy’s behavior, reinforcement or punishment? Why? Prompt 3: Describe in detail the operant conditioning process you would implement to modify Tommy’s behavior. What reinforcement or punishment would use for Tommy? Be sure to identify the attributes of the reinforcement or punishment, such as primary or secondary/conditioned reinforcer of positive reinforcement; escape or avoidance conditioning of negative reinforcement; and/or positive or negative punishment. Prompt 4: What sort of schedule would you use with Tommy, such as continuous or partial? If you select partial, what kind of schedule of reinforcement would you use? What is your rationale for your selected schedule?
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