Superstition and culture

Question 1

Superstition creation

Answer 1

-If a response occurs at the same time as a reinforcer they will be paired even if they are not related (causation vs correlation)

Question 2

Superstitions

Answer 2

-Widely held by irrational belief in supernatural influences.

Question 3

Adventitious reinforcement

Answer 3

-Behaviour is reinforced whenever it is followed by a reinforcer even if there is no causation e.g. lucky socks: win = lucky, loss = blame others

Question 4

Pigeons superstitions

Answer 4

-Gave them free food on a fixed time schedule. Each bird developed different superstitious behaviour dependent on what they were doing at the time (adventitious reinforcement).

Question 5

Characteristics of superstition

Answer 5

• Drift over time: small variations in behaviour may become the dominant response e.g. wearing dirty lucky socks.
• Persistent: Consistently repeated due to perceived negative reinforcer
• Easy to acquire hard to extinguish

Question 6

Children’s superstitions

Answer 6

-4-6-year olds were put in a room with a robot clown that dispensed marbles on a fixed time schedule. Most developed dominant superstitious behaviour e.g. grimacing, kissing clown, hip swinging, giggling, puckering lips, Produced Scalloped FI pattern of responding

Question 7

Type 2 superstition

Answer 7

• Not about reinforcer but stimulus control

- Environmental event is attributed to the presence of a stimulus e.g. black cat

Question 8

Bias vs discrimination

Answer 8

• VR schedule, pigeons received a reinforcer for pecking the right colored key (yes-no signal detection procedure).
• If pigeon picked the right key delay before reinforcement was short. Whereas if the computer did the delay was longer and more variable so the pigeon had to discriminate between constant short delay and variable long delay
• Pigeons would claim they did it if a larger reinforcer was available.
• 80% of pigeons could discriminate but they would be biased by larger reinforcers and claim they did it even if it was the computer
• This suggests superstition bay be caused by bias not poor discrimination
• Similar to attribution bias if its good claim it if its bad blame someone else

Question 9

Witch trails

Answer 9

• Confession has negative reinforcement of removing torture.
• Accusing someone is positively reinforced as you get their land and possessions, they also get negative reinforcement as they avoid accusation.
• Caused common folk to blame witches for their problems rather than pressuring the rich to redistribute wealth

Question 10

Credit and blame

Answer 10

-We are reinforced for accepting responsibility for the good things we do and blaming other people or events for the bad.

Question 11

Responsibility

Answer 11

• Holding someone responsible for their actions
• Applying punishment or reinforcement to change behaviour
• Giving consequences is reinforcing if successful

Question 12

Values

Answer 12

• influence behaviour based on what we learn is good/bad
• Studying verbal and physical behaviour can help us understand values
• Science can describe behaviour /not how we should behave

Question 13

Culture

Answer 13

-Shared behaviour learnt by a group and transmitted from member to member through rules and social learning even if you havent contacted the behaviour yourself

Question 14

Rule governed behaviour

Answer 14

-Written or Verbal from a speaker of discriminative stimuli that defines a contingency or reinforcement relationship. Useful if there are delayed or ill-defined consequences.