Download Operant Conditioning

Operant Conditioning
Chapter 9: Section 2
Operant Conditioning
• Learning in which a certain action is reinforced
or punished, resulting in corresponding
increases or decreases in occurrence
• “Operant” is used because the subject
operates on (causes) some change in the
environment.
• They choose to repeat or eliminate their own
behavior.
B.F. Skinner
 Trained hungry rats to
respond in Skinner Box
 Had to learn how to get
the food to appear in a
cup
 The answer was to
press a bar down.
 When they got closer
to the bar, a piece of
food dropped.
Reinforcement
• A stimulus or event that follows a response and
increases the likelihood that the response will be
repeated
• I.e. Social acceptance, money, extra privileges
• Positive Reinforcement- something is added after
an action
• Negative Reinforcement- something unpleasant is
taken away after an action
• Primary reinforcer- stimulus that is naturally
rewarding, such as food or water
• Secondary reinforcer- stimulus such as money,
that becomes rewarding through its link with a
primary reinforcer
Schedules Of Reinforcement
1. Fixed-Ratio Schedule- a pattern of
reinforcement in which a specific number of
correct responses is required before
reinforcement can be obtained
– A dentist making the same amount of money for
every cavity filled
2. Variable-Ratio Schedule- a pattern of
reinforcement in which an unpredictable
number of responses are required before
reinforcement can be obtained
– I.e. A person working on commission
3. Fixed-Interval Schedule- a pattern of
reinforcement in which a specific amount of time
must elapse before a response will elicit
reinforcement
– I.e. Cramming for an exam
4. Variable-Interval Schedule- a pattern of
reinforcement in which changing amounts of time
must elapse before a response will obtain
reinforcement
– I.e. Surprise pop quizzes in class
Shaping
• Technique in which the desired behavior is
“molded” by first rewarding any act similar to
that behavior and then requiring ever-closer
approximations to the desired behavior before
giving the reward
• Sculpting new responses out of old ones
Chaining
• Response chain- learned reactions that follow
one another in sequence, each reaction
producing the signal for the next
• I.e. Swimming requires learning how to
breathe, move arms, and kick.
Aversive Control
• Process of influencing behavior by means of
unpleasant stimuli
• Negative Reinforcement
– Escape Conditioning- training to remove an
unpleasant stimulus
– Avoidance Conditioning- training to respond so as to
prevent the occurrence of an unpleasant stimulus
• Punishment- stimuli the causes behavior to
decrease
– Disadvantages Of Punishment
• Can produce unwanted side effects (rage, fear, etc.)
• Avoidance of the punisher
• Just eliminate behavior, not add positive behavior