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Operant conditioning - learning in which a certain action is reinforced or punished, resulting in
corresponding increases or decreases occurerences.
Reinforcement – stimulus or event that follows a response and incrases the likelihood that the
response will be repeated
· BF Skinner associated with operant conditioning.
· Believed a persons behavior is influenced by their history of rewards and punishments
· Rat experiment – it learned to press the bar to get food
Reinforcement – stimulus or event that follows a response and incrases the likelihood that the
response will be repeated
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Examples: social approval, money and extra privileges.
Positive reinforcement – giving something they want
Negative reinforcement – taken it away
Primary reinforce – satisfies a biological need such as hunger, thirst or sleep
Secondary reinforce – rewarding through its link with the Primary reinforce
Shaping is a process in which reinforcement is used to sculpt new responses out of old ones
For example:
Teach a rat do something he has never done before. he can shape it
the rat probably will not perform this unusual action by accident
the experimental will reward that rat for any actions similar the wanted response
using reinforcement to produce closer approximation of the desired behaviour
shaping has been used to teach animals tricks
if shaping is done properly almost any animal can learn some unusual tricks
Combining Responses-Chaining:
Response chains: Responses that follow one another in a sequence are combining into rest.
Complex skill of swimming has 3 major chains that are combined to make the whole swim
pattern an arm stroking chain and breathing, and a leg-aching chain. After the practice , you no
longer have to think about the different steps. Chains of responses flow naturally as soon as you
dive in the water.
Negative Reinforcement:
In negative reinforcement , a painful or unpleasant stimulus is removed. It helps you to
understand negative reinforcement if you remember that it fall-less and negatives takes away, on
aversive stimulus.
Two uses of negative reinforcement that psychologists studied are escape conditioning and
avoidance conditioning.
In Escaping conditioning , a persons behavior causes an unpleasant event to stop.
Avoidance Conditioning : When the person behavior has the effect of preventing an unpleasant
situation from happening.
Avarice Control : Process of influencing behavior by means or unpleasant stimuli.
Schedules of Reinforcement
 Continuous Schedule: behaviour that is reinforced every time it occurs.
 Partial Schedule: Positive reinforcement occurs only intermittently.
o More stable
Example: When a person or animal that is continuously reinforced for a behaviour only when is
the reinforcement is given. If the reinforcement stops, the behaviour quickly undergoes
extinction (the gradual disappearance of a conditioned response when the conditioned stimulus
is repeated presented without unconditioned stimulus.)
Skinner’s Theory:
 Partial reinforcement have stronger response.
o When Skinner’s equipment broke down the rat still kept responding even if the
reinforcements were random.
Methods of Partial Reinforcement
 Fixed Schedules
o Fixed Ratio: a pattern of reinforcement in which a specific number of correct
responses is required before reinforcement can be obtained.
 being paid for every 10 pizzas made
 being ejected from a basket ball game after five fouls.
o Fixed interval: Fixed interval: a pattern of reinforcement in which a specific
amount of time must elapse before a response will elicit reinforcement.
 Cramming for an exam
 picking up your check from your part-time job
 Variable Schedules
o
o
Variable Ratio: a pattern of reinforcement in which an unpredictable number of
responses are required before reinforcement can be obtained
 playing a slot machine
 sales commission
Variable interval: a pattern of reinforcement in which changing amounts of time
must elapse before a response will obtain reinforcement.
PUNISHMENT
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It is the most obvious form of aversive control
Unpleasant consequence occurs and decreases the frequency of the behavior that
produced it.
Negativity and punishment act oppositely
In the negative reinforcement, escape behavior is repeated or increased.
In punishment, behavior is not repeated or decreased
EXAMPLE: a father caught his son smoking and he shouted at him “HOW DARE YOU” and then punished
him for a period of time. This is an example of punishers.
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Punishers depend on the effect of the punished.
EXAMPLE: a child who seeks attention needs to be reprimanded
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Sending a child to his room as a punishment is the unpleasant stimulus
DISADVANTAGES OF PUNISHMENT
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Rage aggression and fear are unwanted side effects that are produced by the aversive
stimuli. Instead of having one problem to deal with it will change into two or more, exp:
a child got punished and the second problem is the aggressiveness of the child increases
making it another problem.
Children learn to stay away from parents or teachers when they get punished
Punishment does not teach the appropriate and acceptable behavior
If the child does not get positive and acceptable role modeling and coaching he may
never learn the correct behavior and understand what the parents want him to do.