Sara and Sally Rely on the Statements of Alice, an Accountant

question 10

Essay

Sara and Sally rely on the statements of Alice, an accountant. In a lawsuit brought by Sara and Sally against Alice for fraud, Alice seeks to avoid liability based on the fact that neither Sara nor Sally was in privity of contract with Alice. Alice knew Sara might rely on the financial information provided, but Alice did not know of Sally or anyone in her position. Can Sara and Sally recover against Alice?

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Definitions:

Partial Reinforcement

A conditioning schedule where only some responses are reinforced, leading to greater resistance to extinction.

Fixed-Interval Reinforcement

A schedule of reinforcement where the first response is rewarded only after a specified amount of time has elapsed, creating a patterned response rate.

Reinforcement Schedule

A rule or plan that dictates how frequently a behavior is reinforced.

Negative Punishment

A behavior modification technique involving the removal of a desirable stimulus following an unwelcome behavior with the intention of decreasing that behavior's frequency.