Download What is reinforcement?

1. Why are children of abusive parents
more likely to be aggressive? What
causes this?
2. The fact that learning can occur
without reinforcement is most
clearly demonstrated in studies of
_____________.
AP Psych DMA
• DMA
• Turn in FRQ # 1 & 2
• Chap. 8
• Finish Pavlov
• Skinner
Homework:
• Chap. 8 notes due Thursday, Oct. 27th
• Chap. 8 test – Thursday, Oct. 27th
• FRQ #3 due Monday, Oct. 24th
Today’s Agenda
Pavlov didn’t use a bell
Step 1
Step 2
UCS (food)
UCR (salivation)
NS (metronome) +UCS (food) U CR (salivation)
Step 3
Repeat step 2 several times
Step 4
CS (metronome)
CR (salivation)
Why the heck do we care?
Think about how we explain the following:
• Phobias
• Why you dislike certain foods
• How advertising works
• What arouses you sexually
• The source of your emotions
• Why you feel anxiety before a test
Extinction…
• When the pairing of NS and UCS no longer
happens
• eventually the CR goes away.
What was the:
• UCS
• UCR
• NS
• CS
• CR
“Pavlov” & Powder
What was the:
• UCS – powder
• UCR - drooling
• NS - “Pavlov”
• CS - “Pavlov”
• CR- drooling
“Pavlov” & Powder
B. F. Skinner
Superstitious Pigeon
What is the
behaviorist approach
to Psychology?
Discuss with a neighbor…
Intro Video
Clip
Skinner believed that EVERYTHING
psychological is essentially behavioral.
This belief includes both..
• public, or external
• private, or internal (events such as feelings and
thoughts)
Radical Behaviorist
What are some
behaviors that you were
punished for as a child?
In any given situation, your behavior is
likely to be followed by consequences.
• Some will make behavior more likely to be
repeated in the future. Reinforced.
• Some will tend to make the behavior less
likely to be repeated in the future.
Punished.
In simple terms:
What does it mean
when something goes
“extinct”?
When a behavior has been reinforced in
the past
• and then the reinforcement is
withdrawn
• the likelihood of the behavior
reoccurring will slowly decrease until
the behavior is effectively suppressed.
And of course, extinction
• You use operant conditioning and positive
reinforcement to train Fido to fetch.
• You can quit reinforcing Fido’s habit of
begging at the table by not reinforcing
him with food
• thus triggering extinction of the begging
behavior.
People are o.k. when this applies to Fido
• Skinner maintained that all human behavior is
created and maintained in precisely the same
way.
• It is just that the exact behaviors and
consequences are not always so easy to identify.
• According to Skinner - just because you can’t
identify the reinforcer, doesn’t mean it’s not there.
But, of course, apply it Fred and people get antsy.
What are some
superstitions?
• Skinner believed that superstition occurs when
people’s behavior is accidentally reinforced once
• Twice
• or even several times.
• Skinner called this noncontingent reinforcement
• A reward that is not contingent on any particular
behavior.
Which brings us to superstition
• Skinner boxes
• You saw one in the video clip
• Skinner’s operant chamber (box) was used, but with an
important distinction
• the food pellet chamber was rigged to drop food at 15 second
intervals
• regardless of what the pigeon was doing at the time.
• Each pigeon was placed in the cage for a few minutes each
day and left alone.
• After several days of conditioning in this way, two independent
observers recorded the birds’ behavior.
Pigeons & superstitions
• None of the behaviors were observed
in the pigeons before the experiment.
Note:
• One bird turned counterclockwise in the cage,
making 2 turns before the reinforcement.
• One repeatedly thrust its head into one of the
upper corners of the cage.
• One developed a tossing response as if placing it
head beneath an invisible bar and lifting it
repeatedly. (Bobbing motion.)
• Two developed a pendulum motion of the head
and body.
Results
• Skinner increased the time interval between reinforcements
for one of the head bobbing birds
• which actually increased the behaviors
• the pigeon’s bob became a full on food dance.
• Extinction did work on all of the birds, but the
one above kept the hopping dance up for over
10,000 hops.
Messing with the birds
• Superstitions are resistant to extinction.
• Expectations stay high that the behavior
might work to produce the reinforcing
consequences.
So what does this tell us?
Please take out a
piece of paper…
I need a
volunteer…
You will get wet 
Was Wheeler using classical conditioning (Pavlov) or
operant conditioning (Skinner)?
Please identify each of these for the squirt bottle
experiment.
• NS, UCS, UCR, CS and CR
Please answer these
questions on your paper…
• What is reinforcement?
• What is the difference between positive & negative
reinforcement? Please give examples
More questions to answer on your paper…
What is reinforcement?
• Any event that increases the frequency of a preceding
action.
What is the difference between positive & negative
reinforcement?
• Positive – strengthens a response by presenting a
(typically) pleasurable stimulus.
• Food, attention, approval, money…
• Negative – strengthens a response by reducing or
removing an averse stimulus.
• Taking an Aspirin for a headache, smoking a cigarette
to calm down, hitting the snooze button…
Office Clip
Clip
• Identify the NS, UCS, UCR, CS and CR from The Office
clip.
On your paper, please answer
Conditioning &
Gaming…
Clip