A dog owner wants to teach a dog to stop jumping up on people.

[Source: © Nevit Dilmen]

Explain how operant conditioning could be used to train the dog.

a. operant conditioning consists of trial and error ✔

b. operant conditioning uses the consequences of the behaviour to modify the behaviour ✔

c. this can be carried out by positive reinforcement
OR
reward the desired behaviour ✔

d. showing the dog affection/food when it does not jump up ✔

e. can be negative reinforcement
OR
stopping a negative consequence when the appropriate behaviour is observed ✔

f. hold the dog until it no longer wants to jump up ✔

g. can be positive punishment
OR
a negative consequence to undesired behaviour ✔

h. hitting the dog when it jumps up/pushing the dog down/show anger at the dog ✔

i. negative punishment
OR
taking away a desired item ✔

j. tying the dog up/isolating the dog to another place when it jumps up/remove attention/ ignore dog ✔

This longer response question was well answered, and stronger candidates often scored full marks. Even students without a specific knowledge of operant conditioning achieved some marks. Many spent much of the time writing about Pavlov’s experiments, which are irrelevant to this answer. Others wrote about Skinner boxes, which do address operant conditioning but are not directly relevant to the question being asked. Few students showed detailed knowledge or understanding of the distinction between positive and negative reinforcement.