In the context of operant conditioning, lighting a fire on a cold night to get warm is best classified as which type of reinforcement?

• A. Punishment
• B. Negative reinforcement
• C. Extinction
• D. Positive reinforcement

Answer: (B)

Verified step by step guidance

1. Step 1: Understand the key terms in operant conditioning. Reinforcement is a process that increases the likelihood of a behavior occurring again, while punishment decreases it.
2. Step 2: Differentiate between positive and negative reinforcement. Positive reinforcement involves adding a pleasant stimulus after a behavior, whereas negative reinforcement involves removing an unpleasant stimulus after a behavior.
3. Step 3: Analyze the behavior in the problem: lighting a fire on a cold night. The unpleasant stimulus here is the cold temperature.
4. Step 4: Recognize that lighting the fire removes the unpleasant cold, which increases the likelihood of lighting a fire again in similar situations.
5. Step 5: Conclude that since the behavior removes an unpleasant condition to increase the behavior, it is an example of negative reinforcement.