Download operant conditioning (part ii)

OPERANT CONDITIONING
Part II
Ivan Pavlov, Legacy in
Conditioning
Pavlov dedicated many of his studies to conditioning, it
was a phenomenon that captured his attention and
triggered his experiments.
 Pavlov’s work paved the way for objective conditioning
principles and their practical applications.
 Pavlov’s classical conditioning, established the idea of
an organism associating different stimuli that it cannot
control.

EX: suspense/action/slasher movies use
overexposed women parts and associate their
promiscuity with violence or negative outcomes, such as
murders.

Our organism associates actions with consequences.
 Responses to consequences are very often automatic.

B.F. Skinner, Contrasting
Understanding to Conditioning

Skinner showed that when placed in an effect
of primary and secondary reinforcers, slower,
or faster acquisition is targeted. Punishment is
most effective when strong and immediate,
but most importantly when constant.

Skinner stimulated intellectual debate on the
nature of human freedom and strategies and
ethics of managing people. However, his
principles are applied today.
So what is Operant
Conditioning?

Through operant conditioning, people associate behaviors with their consequences.
They become likely to repeat actions that result with rewards as a consequence as
opposed to a punishment.
Classical conditioning and operant conditioning go hand in hand, both involve:
 Acquisition
 Extinction
 Spontaneous recovery
 Generalization
 Discrimination
However, classical conditioning involves more of a respondent behavior ..
Ex: salivating when hungry

Operant conditioning involves operant behavior which basically operates on surrounding
environment.
Ex: behavior strengthened if followed by reinforcement or behavior
diminished if followed by a punisher.
CONDITIONING
(According to Skinner and Pavlov)
SHAPING BEHAVIOR
First and foremost, the successive approximations- rewarding responses that almost reach the
final goal.
Ex: when a baby is being potty trained and are rewarded if they warn that they need
to go, later when they make an attempt to sit in the bathroom, and finally when they are
potty trained.
The above is how behavior in humans is shaped.

Reinforcer- any event which strengthens the behavior it follows.

Primary reinforcer- reinforcing stimulus, such as one that satisfies a biological need.

Conditioned reinforcer- stimulus which gains power through its association with a primary
reinforcer.
The words above demonstrate the pattern seen in a shaping situation such as one like the
following:
 A child asks his parents to get a cookie from the top shelf of the pantry
 The parent ignores the child
 The child continues to ask for the cookie
 The parent delays getting the cookie because they are busy
 The child whines and throws a tantrum
 The parent tells the child not to whine and asks the child which cookie they want.

The tantrum is positively enforced while the dad’s response is negatively enforced.
Skinner’s Experiments
Pavlov’s Experiments
Reinforcement Schedules

Discrimination- the ability to distinguish among similar signals or stimuli
Ex: fire alarms and school bells.

Extinction- the loss of a behavior when no consequence follows it.
Ex: not using the same chess strategy when you realize you do not win
when you use it.

Continuous Reinforcement- reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs

Partial Reinforcement- reinforcing a response only part of the time which results in a
slower acquisition of a response but much greater resistant to extinction than does
continuous reinforcement

Fixed ratio schedule- in operant conditioning, a schedule of reinforcement that reinforces
a response after an unpredictable number of responses.

Variable ratio schedule- a schedule of reinforcement that reinforces a response only after
a specified time has elapsed

Variable interval schedule- a schedule of reinforcement that reinforces a response at
unpredictable time intervals.
Role of Cognition and Biology

Evidence of cognitive processes have come from studying rate sin mazes. The rats
develop a cognitive map or a mental representation of the maze to help them get
to the goal.

During explorations of “the maze” in this case, rats would experience latent
learning which is apparent only when there is some incentive to demonstrate it.
Over justification effect, this phenomenon occurs when an already justifiable
activity becomes over justified by the promise or reward.
 Intrinsic motivation undermines the desire to perform a behavior effectively
and for its own sake.
 Extrinsic motivation is seeking external rewards and avoiding threatened
punishment.


Biological predispositions are more likely to be seen in animals, it is easier to
reinforce when an animal digs, jumps, or runs, because they are biologically
predisposed to do those things. The are not things that need rewards in order for
them to be accomplished. However, goals such as getting an animal to walk on its
hind legs, are harder to accomplish because they are not predisposed to this
behavior and would therefore need consistent and strong reinforcement.
WORKS CITED
MYERS, DAVID G. PSYCHOLOGY
SEVENTH EDITION 2003. PRINT.
 THINKING ABOUT PSYCHOLOGY
(THE SCIENCE OF MIND AND BEHAVIOR)
SECOND EDITION. PRINT.
