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103.
An obese man who is trying to lose weight observes that he enjoys nibbling on certain foods while watching television; you advise him to limit his eating to the kitchen and to refrain from nibbling on anything while watching television. Which of the following learning mechanisms is involved?
A. Stimulus control
B. Desensitization
C. Fixed interval reinforcement
D. Variable ratio reinforcement
E. Variable interval reinforcement
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The answer is: A
The female patient is engaged in a fixed interval schedule of reinforcement. While this may not be a desirable procedure for the patient's health, she has adopted it as a way of coping with a requirement. By establishing a fixed interval checkup, the physician may have unwittingly allowed the patient too many opportunities to avoid adherence to the dietary component of the program. A variable interval schedule or some other means of monitoring the adherence and the weight could have produced a better result. An on-call checkup would be an example of a variable interval schedule. Behavior established with a variable interval schedule will also be sustained for a longer period of time and is less easily extinguished.
Stimulus control is an attempt to limit or exclude certain stimuli or cues that tend to trigger certain behaviors. Studies of eating behavior have found that many persons are stimulated to eat by cues (e.g., the presence of food, a comfortable environment, or a commercial interlude on television), resulting in the consumption of excess calories that maintain or increase their obesity. By attempting to identify and eliminate such environmental cues (stimulus control), one can reduce or eliminate unwanted behaviors. Stimulus control is also effective in programs for cessation of smoking. The goal is to reduce or eliminate specific stressful situations (e.g., interpersonal encounters) or environments (e.g., the smoking section in a restaurant) that may serve as a cue to reach for and to smoke a cigarette.
In desensitization, one is attempting to reduce the reaction to a stimulus to which the patient has become oversensitized. This is usually related to a phobia or anxiety reaction. An effective therapeutic procedure would be to identify a hierarchy of fear responses and work to desensitize the patient's responses from the least to the most severe.
A variable ratio reinforcement is best illustrated by a slot machine player, who may be rewarded after 6 lever pulls, again after only 3 pulls, but next after 20 pulls. The person is motivated to continue to play and at an increased number of pulls. A variable ratio schedule is most resistant to extinction.
