Operant conditioning and extinction learning show up in the every day lives of parents. Parents will often reward children for good behavior in order to increase the likelihood that the behavior will continue into the future. Similarly, parents may punish children for bad behaviors in order to stop those behaviors from occurring again. However, for some behaviors, simply getting a parent's attention is enough of a reinforcement for a behavior to continue, even if there's also a punishment. Tantrums, for example, often get the child attention and sometimes might even get them whatever it is they wanted in the first place. Even parents with the best intention may unintentionally reinforce behaviors they would much rather go extinct. Sometimes, the best course of action for stopping bad behaviors is to ignore those behaviors and therefore remove any potential reinforcement (this is this process of extinction learning).

Can you think of an example from your own life that you have experienced or witnessed in which operant conditioning was utilized in parenting? What were the reinforcements or punishments involved? What do you think is the best way to deal with a child's tantrum?

Lastly, consider what you've learned about cognitive biases. How do you think concepts like the confirmation bias or availability heuristic could play into decisions about parenting a certain way?