I need someone who actually knows psychology to help with what I think is a behavioral analysis question:
Conversation
parents online are obsessed with infant sleep and 2 theories make sense from the armchair but I don't know what contact each makes with reality.
baseline scenario: newborn cries at night, you assume it's hungry and feed it.
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over time, sometimes it seems a separation occurs between true physiological hunger and the habit, food/being held is highly rewarding for baby.
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hypothesis 1: if you wait longer and longer after the baby cries to feed it, you will eventually extinguish this crying
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(assuming baby has capacity to self-soothe, eats enough during day, etc. extinguishing "true" hunger may not be possible, except for learned helplessness like Romanian orphans etc)
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hypothesis 2: by waiting to feed the baby, you simply "teach" it to become MORE persistent in crying
i.e. the opposite of what you want in the middle of the night.
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anecdotes are split (surprise surprise).
I'm trying to figure out the general principle.
when/how/to what extent does delaying a reward matter?
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there's this - "delay discounting"
"Value declines steeply with shorter delays, but more shallowly with longer delays."
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I hate feeling like I only know enough psychology to be dangerous.
on the other hand, post replication crisis, it's hard to know even where to turn to learn anything reliable about psychology.
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hm, maybe I should go to bed instead of shopping for psychology textbooks
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