When Sami tried to shape her pet squirrel's behavior to fetch marbles in the backyard, things proceeded quite smoothly at first. As time passed, however, the squirrel started burying the marbles rather than bringing them to her. This is an example of:
A) autoshaping.
B) instinctive drift.
C) negative automaintenance.
D) sign tracking.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

This behavior is an example of instinctive drift, where an animal reverts to its natural behaviors that interfere with conditioned responses, in this case, the squirrel's instinct to bury objects rather than fetch them as trained.

When Sami Tried to Shape Her Pet Squirrel's Behavior to Fetch