Question

Susan trained her rat to press a bar in a Skinner box in order to get a food pellet. Susan's rat pressed the bar a lot. However, later when Susan ran out of food pellets her rat eventually stopped pressing the bar. What had happened?

a.conditioned aversion
b.satiation
c.extinction
d.withdrawal

Answer 1

Susan's rat stopped pressing the bar in the Skinner box due to extinction, which occurs when a reinforced behavior is no longer followed by a reward, causing the behavior to diminish.

Step-by-step explanation:

When Susan's rat stopped pressing the bar in the Skinner box after running out of food pellets, the behavior we see is an example of extinction. This occurs in operant conditioning when the reinforced behavior (pressing the bar) is no longer followed by the rewarding stimulus (food pellets). Without the food reward, the rat's behavior of pressing the bar gradually diminishes. In operant conditioning, a behavior that is not reinforced tends to be extinguished over time because the association between the behavior and the reward weakens.