Mary and Jim took their two-year-old to the supermarket this past week.For more than an hour all Little Jimmy did was yell and scream because in the past this would have obtained him an ice cream cone.Jim managed to ignore him.Finally,Little Jimmy stopped yelling and screaming.What operant conditioning concept is illustrated by this story?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The concept illustrated in this story is extinction, which occurs when a behavior that was previously reinforced (in this case, yelling and screaming to get an ice cream cone) no longer produces the desired outcome. When Little Jimmy realizes that his behavior is no longer effective in obtaining an ice cream cone, he eventually stops yelling and screaming. Jim ignoring his behavior is an example of extinction, which involves withdrawing reinforcement for a behavior to decrease its frequency.

Mary and Jim Took Their Two-Year-Old to the Supermarket This