Does the information in this brochure make sense so far? What is the definition of baseline behavior in general terms(adhering to my experiment), since I'm a bit confused about its operational meaning

Operant Conditioning is a method of learning in which the recurrence of behavior is influenced through the employance of rewards and punishments. M y E x p erim en t My experiment was based on conditioning a stubborn young child(2-3 years old) to get in the bathtub each night to take a daily bath without resistance. After releasing an ad to the general public searching for a participant, I was able to find a willing family to volunteer their child for this experiment, all in compliance with the APA ethical guidelines, as they signed a release form agreeing to subject their child to this experiment in its testing stages. Since there were prosocial benefits for the subject to this method, there existed no risk of lasting trauma or any negative effects stemming from this experiment. Any and all ethical considerations were noted before O pera n t C on dit io n in g conducting this study. My subject initially held a strong resistance to taking baths.

They would only get in the time willingly 1 out of every 6 times that they were asked. In order to implement operant conditioning, I used positive reinforcement, playtime(stimulus), as a reward after the child demonstrated the target behavior of getting into the bathtub. When the subject got into the bathtub, I would allow them to play for a duration of 30 minutes before going to bed. In order to test with maximum efficacy and a lower risk of extinction, I used a variable ratio schedule when my subject received reinforcement. After a period of six weeks transpired, I started to observe an increase in target behavior of the subject, where, when asked, they would voluntarily get into the bathtub 5 out of 6 times compared to the initial 1 out of 6.

After I took the reinforcer away, following their behavior for the next month, the child continued to get in the tub when asked by an authority figure with the same amount of minimal resistance when it was time for them to take a bath. What w as t h e b ase lin e b eh avio r?

The baseline behavior in this experiment would entail how often the child got in the tub without interference before intervention, P ost S tu dy Q uestio n s What w as t h e t a rg et b eh avio r?

The target behavior of this experiment was complete compliance to authoritative figures when asked to enter the tub without complaint.

which could be measured at 17% of the time(1/6).