Hi guys just have a question about operant conditioning:
Hi Harry!
I remember being confused by this question too - it is rather ambiguous and overly general. In this case, the antecedent is the presence of the red sweat band in the environment. I find that it helps sometimes to actually work backwards from the ABC model to determine the specific antecedent. For example:
Consequence - positive reinforcement, in the form of Arup winning the race. This reinforcement is what leads Arup to learn to continue to wear the red sweat band (as there is a direct link between the behaviour and the consequence).
Behaviour - the behaviour must thus become Arup putting on the red sweat band.
So the antecedent is what
must exist in the environment for Arup to put on the red sweat band - this is the existence of the red sweat band (or the presence of the sweat band in the environment). There is a little bit of confusion here (I originally said the antecedent might be the competition as well) - but if we think of the consequence and behaviour as a direct result of the antecedent with no other factors it helps to see what it may be. So you are definitely on the right track, but rather than it being a state where
someone must exist to complete a behaviour, it is the
thing (object, situation, event) which must exist in order for the
behaviour to occur. It can be seen that without the presence of the red sweat band in the environment, it would be impossible for Arup to act on it to perform the behaviour.
It's actually quite difficult and you had a great question. Sorry for the lengthy response, but I hope this clarified things for you!