Joe Joins the Circus (or Elephant Love)Part 2

Joe decided to use operant conditioning to train Simon. He brought Simon into the ring and let him wander around. When Simon approached the big heart-shaped box, Joe gave him a plum. Joe did this three times before he quit giving Simon a plum simply for approaching the box. Simon started to investigate the box and Joe gave him another plum. Joe then gave Simon a plum anytime he picked up the box. Eventually Joe provided plums to Simon only when he picked up the box and brought it over to Daisy.

Simon, Daisy, and Joe ran through the rest of theelephant's program, but now Joe had aproblem. Joe wanted Simon to wait until the song played, prompting Daisy to bat her eyes. Simon was then supposed to pick up the box and bring it over to Daisy, but Simon ignored what Daisy was doing and would pick up the box and bring it over to her as soon as he saw it.Joe didn't want him to forget this new learning, so he would give Simon a plum every time hebrought the box to Daisy.

Joe was frustrated, so he quit for the day and asked his clown friend for help. The clown suggested they run through the entire program. The next day, Joe, the elephants, and theclown band gathered in the big top. The clown played "Can't Help Falling in Love" and at theend Daisy began batting her eyes, blinking rapidly as she had been trained to do. Simon walked over to the heart-shaped box, picked it up, and brought it over to Daisy. They then continued through the rest of the routine.

They kept practicing. Whenever Simon broke out of the routine to get the heart box and Daisy was not batting her eyes, Joe did not reinforce him for that behavior. They ran through the introduction several times, with Daisy batting her eyes, and only then did Joe reward Simon with a plum.

The next day Joe brought the elephants into the ring. The circus had not received its shipment of fruit yet, so Joe was running out of plums. He spaced out the plum reward every third time the elephants went through the sequence. The elephants did their routine and George, the owner of the circus, came to watch. He complimented Joe on a job well done and proclaimed that the elephants would do their new routine in the next show.

On Valentine's Day, the elephants performed before a packed crowd. Daisy batted her eyesflirtatiously, Simon brought her a big pink heart-shaped box, and the crowd sighed in appreciation of elephant love. Joe was promoted.

Identify the contingency that Joe used: Positive Reinforcement, Negative Reinforcement, Positive Punishment, or Negative Punishment.

Did Joe use shaping, and if so, describe the specific steps he used and how he arrived at the final result.

Did Joe use a Discriminative Stimulus, and if so, explain how.

Did Joe use continuous reinforcement when he began training Simon? What effect does

continuous reinforcement have on speed and potential for extinction of a learned

response?

As he ran out of plums, Joe started using a partial reinforcement schedule. What

schedule did he use? What effect does this partial reinforcement have on speed and potential for extinction of a learned response?