According to B.F.Skinner, superstitious behaviors are the result of what? Is it continuous reinforcement or accidental reinforcement?
It looks like its continuous reinforcement.
http://www.essortment.com/all/superstitiousbe_rsqz.htm
I disagree with Ms.Sue.
The reinforcement schedule that you call accidental reinforcement can also be called variable interval, variable ratio or random reinforcement. In other words, you are reinforced "every once in a while" in an unpredictable manner.
This leads to various superstitious rituals in many different areas. In baseball, before getting into the batters box, batters go through specific actions that they believe will increase their success. (At your next baseball game, watch each batter. You will find that each one has a different ritual.)
Gamblers handle their cards in particular ways — for example, not touching their cards until the whole hand has been dealt — because this behavior has been randomly reinforced.
Random reinforcement is extremely hard to bring to extinction. This is a partial explanation for compulsive gambling. In contrast, continuous reinforcement — being reinforced every time you do a response — goes to extinction rather easily.
I hope this helps. Thanks for asking.
According to B.F. Skinner, superstitious behaviors are a result of accidental or non-contingent reinforcement. This means that the behaviors are reinforced by chance occurrences rather than being reinforced directly in response to specific actions. Skinner conducted experiments with pigeons that demonstrated how random reinforcement can lead to the development of superstitious behaviors. For example, he found that if a pigeon happened to be engaging in a certain behavior when it received food, it would continue to repeat that behavior, even though it had no direct connection to the food delivery. So, in summary, superstitious behaviors are the result of accidental reinforcement.
According to B.F. Skinner, superstitious behaviors are the result of accidental reinforcement. Skinner conducted research with pigeons in which they were placed in a controlled environment and provided with food at regular intervals, regardless of their behavior. During this experiment, he observed that some pigeons exhibited various repetitive behaviors, such as turning in circles or pecking at the floor, as if these actions were somehow associated with the delivery of food.
Based on this observation, Skinner concluded that these behaviors were not actually causing the delivery of food (as they were unrelated), but rather they had coincidentally occurred in close proximity to the food delivery. This accidental reinforcement led the pigeons to associate their superstitious behaviors with food, and as a result, the behaviors persisted and became reinforced.
Therefore, according to Skinner, superstitious behaviors are formed through accidental reinforcement rather than continuous reinforcement.