Exam 6: Reinforcement: Beyond Habit

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The basic laboratory procedure for establishing superstitious behavior involves the use of an operant conditioning paradigm. In this procedure, an animal, often a pigeon or a rat, is placed in a controlled environment, such as a Skinner box, where it has to perform a certain behavior, such as pecking a key or pressing a lever, to receive a reward, such as food. However, in this procedure, the delivery of the reward is not contingent on the specific behavior of the animal. Instead, the reward is delivered at random intervals, regardless of what the animal is doing at the time.

As a result, the animal may start to associate its random behaviors with the delivery of the reward, even though there is no actual causal relationship between the two. For example, if the reward is delivered while the animal is turning in circles, it may start to believe that turning in circles is what causes the reward to be delivered. This leads to the development of superstitious behavior, where the animal will continue to perform the random behaviors in the hope of receiving the reward.

It is usually difficult to specify in advance what superstitious behavior will result from this procedure because it depends on the individual characteristics and experiences of the animal. Different animals may develop different superstitious behaviors in the same experimental conditions, and even the same animal may develop different superstitious behaviors in different experimental sessions. Additionally, the random nature of the reward delivery means that any behavior the animal happens to be performing at the time of the reward could become associated with the reward, leading to a wide range of potential superstitious behaviors. Therefore, it is challenging to predict and specify in advance what specific superstitious behavior will result from the procedure.