Principles of operant conditioning have been used to help explain why people get attached to "lucky" hats,charms,and rituals.Using these principles,explain how an athlete might show this type of behaviour.How did Skinner demonstrate the phenomenon of superstitious behaviour with pigeons in his laboratory?

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The Answer is Athletes experience variable reinforcement when they pitch well,or catch a fly ball.In cases where they are successful they will be looking for a reason why they were successful that time (but not other times)and will look at things they did differently in the scenario where they found success.So an article of clothing or particular action that preceded the successful,reinforcing,event may be mistakenly thought to have been somehow linked to the reinforcing event.If an athlete chooses a superstition and is successful,this just reinforces the superstition further and causes more attachment to the item or behaviour.Skinner demonstrated superstitious behaviour with pigeons by reinforcing the pigeons every 15 seconds no matter what action they were doing.He noted that the pigeons tended to repeat the behaviour they were doing right before they were last reinforced even though it was unrelated to reinforcement.

Principles of Operant Conditioning Have Been Used to Help Explain