Lynn is tired of the nasty remarks she receives from a female coworker.She has tried talking to the woman,returning nasty remarks and doing nice little things for her.Nothing has worked.Finally Lynn decides to ignore the remarks to see if that will extinguish her coworker's rude behavior.To Lynn's surprice,the nasty remarks:

Question

Lynn is tired of the nasty remarks she receives from a female coworker.She has tried talking to the woman,returning nasty remarks and doing nice little things for her.Nothing has worked.Finally Lynn decides to ignore the remarks to see if that will extinguish her coworker's rude behavior.To Lynn's  surprice,the nasty remarks:
A)stop at once
B) increase intensity
C)have been positively reinforced
D) keep coming at the same rate
I THINK CORRCT ANSWER IS B or C

Ms. Sue · Answer

Why do you think it's B or C?

vedrana · Answer

Because reinforcement whether positive or negative increase it.

Ms. Sue · Answer

It seems that this coworker wants the attention that Lynn gave her before. But now that Lynn is ignoring her she's not getting any reinforcement for her rude behavior.

PsyDAG · Answer

Depending on how the behavior was reinforced, extinction will take varying amounts of time. It is most likely to stop over a short period of time rather than "at once." See these articles:

http://www.members.cox.net/dagershaw/lol/Reinforcement.html
http://www.members.cox.net/dagershaw/lol/ReinforceRandom.html
http://www.members.cox.net/dagershaw/lol/RewardTooMuch.html

I hope this helps a little more. Thanks for asking.