TOEFL Speaking Task 3

The concept of 'behavioral momentum' refers to the tendency of a behavior to persist even when the original reinforcement is removed or changed. It is based on the idea that behaviors established under a high rate of reinforcement are more resistant to disruption than those reinforced inconsistently. In other words, the more frequently a behavior has been rewarded in the past, the more likely it is to continue when conditions change, such as when a reward is delayed or stopped. This concept is often applied in psychology to understand why some habits are hard to break.

Professor: Let me give you a real example. I had a colleague who trained her dog to sit by giving it a treat every single time. She did this for weeks, so the dog’s behavior was very strongly reinforced. Then one day, she decided to stop giving treats. The dog still sat immediately every time she asked, even though no treat followed. In fact, it took several weeks before the dog’s sitting behavior started to slow down. Now compare that with another dog, which was trained to sit but only got a treat occasionally, maybe every third time. When the treats stopped altogether, that second dog stopped sitting within just a few days. The first dog had higher behavioral momentum because its behavior was reinforced more consistently, so it kept going longer without rewards.