Ghostbusters

Ghostbusters (1984)

21 corrections since 10 Jul '18, 00:00

(15 votes)

Corrected entry: At the beginning of Ghostbusters, Peter Venkman says that he studies the effects of negative reinforcement on ESP ability, when, in fact, he actually studies the effects of positive punishment on ESP ability. This can be seen in the fact that he adds an aversive stimulus to the subject when the subject "gets it wrong" in order to decrease that behavior, which is positive punishment. If he was studying negative reinforcement, he would have to make the shock occur at all times unless the subject guessed the right card, at which point, the shock would be removed. Of course, Peter's methods were shown to be less than sound.

Correction: The "negative reinforcement" occurs with the female subject. She sees that the punishment for getting a wrong answer is electric shock. When she gets the right answer (or so Venkman tells her) she escapes that aversive stimulus. *That* is negative reinforcement. The experiment is bunk anyway, because Venkman is lying to them both.

Phixius

You could just as easily say that she's receiving positive reinforcement because he keeps complimenting her. The only thing that's for sure here is that his experimental design and conduct has a faulty member is poor.

Correction: The shock isn't the only stimulus. He's is also either being overtly obvious that he's helping the woman OR could be that the stimulus is the woman getting all the right answers.

Or that Venkman is a hack and doesn't know the difference between negative reinforcement and positive punishment.

jimba

Revealing mistake: There's a scene where Dana's building is falling apart and stones and stuff are falling to the street below. One of the huge boulders bounces off a wooden police barricade in the bottom left hand corner of the screen, and then off a person. (01:29:14)

More mistakes in Ghostbusters

Ray Stantz: Everything was fine with our system until the power grid was shut off by dickless here.
Walter Peck: They caused an explosion!
Mayor: Is this true?
Peter Venkman: Yes, it's true. This man has no dick.

More quotes from Ghostbusters

Trivia: When Peter Venkman mentions the time Egon Spengler tried to drill a hole in his head, Egon replies, "That would have worked if you hadn't stopped me". This line was ad-libbed by Harold Ramis.

More trivia for Ghostbusters

Question: I heard that Ron Jeremy had a walk on part in this film, does anyone know in which scene he is in?

Answer: Ron Jeremy can be seen in the crowd outside the firehouse right after the containment unit is shut off.

More questions & answers from Ghostbusters

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.