Download Operant Conditioning (Hockenbury pg

Operant Conditioning (Hockenbury pg. 205-226)
Comparing Classical and Operant Conditioning:
 Both classical and operant conditioning use:
 Classical conditioning uses
behavior - behavior that occurs as an
response to some stimulus.
 Ask: Is the organism learning associations between events that it
control?
Classical conditioning.
 Operant conditioning uses operant or
behavior – behavior that is shaped
by
.
 Ask: Is the organism learning associations between its behavior and
events?
Operant Conditioning.
Thorndike’s Law of Effect behavior is likely to occur. Behavior followed by
something unpleasant is
likely to occur.
 Studied cats in puzzle boxes (pg. 206)
B.F. Skinner’s Experiments
 Believed that
factors like thoughts, emotions, and beliefs could
be used
to explain behavior. Instead said that new behaviors were actively chosen by the organism.
 Looked at Operants or active behaviors that are used on the environment to generate
.
Principles of Reinforcement (see table 5.3 on pg. 212)
 Reinforcement – any event that
the likelihood of the behavior being
repeated.
 Punishment - any event that
the likelihood of the behavior being
repeated
Reinforcing/Desirable
Stimulus
Stimulus is presented or
added to animal’s
environment…
Stimulus is removed or taken
away from animal’s
environment…
Aversive Stimulus
 Positive Reinforcement –
a response by presenting a stimulus that you like
after a response. Examples can be a tangible reward, attention, praise, or an activity (study
break) (examples on pg. 208).
 Negative Reinforcement –
a response by reducing or removing an aversive
(
) stimulus. These let you
something you do NOT like.
Examples can be take aspirin to remove your headache, put on safety belt to stop ringing noise,
cigarette removes the pangs for nicotine, pushing the snooze to stop an alarm (more examples
on pg. 209).
EXAMPLE WITH BOTH POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT:
Billy throws a tantrum, his parents give in for the sake of peace and quiet. The child’s tantrum is
reinforced when the parents give in (
reinforcement) and the parents’ behavior
will be reinforced when Billy stops screaming (
reinforcement).
OTHER REINFORCERS:
 Primary reinforcers – are
satisfying – getting food, warmth, water, sex or
removing pain.
 Conditioned or Secondary reinforcers are learned through
with primary
reinforcers. If a rat learns that a light reliably signals that food is coming, the rat will work to
turn on the light. The light is a secondary reinforcer associated with food. (Examples of this
are money, good grades, words of praise, other’s respect)
 Immediate reinforcers – behaviors that immediately
the reinforcer
becomes more likely to occur (This true when training animals. Can’t wait for a long time
before reinforcing or the animal won’t know what behavior you are reinforcing)
 Delayed reinforcers (gratification) – forgoing a
immediate reinforcement for a
reinforcement later. Humans do this with paychecks, grades. When do we not do
this? Stay up late to watch TV when next day we’re tired, smoke for satisfaction now when
later it will kill us.
Punishment
 Its effect is
that of reinforcement – it
the frequency of
behavior.
 Punishment by Application or Positive Punishment – Something is
to the
environment you do
like. A verbal reprimand or something painful (See examples
on pg. 211)
 Punishment by Removal or Negative Punishment – Something is
that you DO
.
Lose a privilege. (See examples on pg. 212)
What makes Punishment Effective?
 If it comes
after the undesired behavior.
 If it is
and not occasional.
Drawbacks to Punishment
 Punished behavior may reappear in “
” settings where punishment is
.
Punishment teaches how to
punishment.
 Can cause
and associating fear with person who administers punishment
rather than fear of behavior or cause learned helplessness.
 Does not guide one to the
behavior. Only tells what not to do while
tells what to do. Combine the two for best results (how do your parents or teachers do this?).
Alternative to punishment?
 Read the In Focus Box on pg. 213 for some ideas.
Discriminative Stimuli
 Discriminative Stimuli – An
stimulus that when in the presence of, a
particular response is
likely to be reinforced and when absent is
likely to
be reinforced. Example: A ringing phone is a discriminative stimulus that sets a particular
response of picking it up and speaking in it.
 Skinner believed from the moment of birth, the environment shapes and determines your
behavior through reinforcing or punishing consequences. “A person does not act upon the
, the
acts upon him.” (Read Critical Thinking Box on pg. 214-215 for
more)
Parts of Operant Conditioning (see table on pg. 215)
Discriminative
Operant Response
Stimulus
Consequence
Effect on Future
Behavior
Shaping & Maintaining Behavior
 Skinner box - soundproof box with a bar that an animal presses or pecks to release a food or
water
, and a device that records these responses.
 Shaping - procedure in which
, such as food, gradually guide an animal’s
behavior toward a desired behavior.
 Successive approximations - shaping method in which you reward responses that are ever
to the final desired behavior and
all other responses.
 Shaping nonverbal animals can show what they
. Train an animal to
discriminate between classes of events or objects. Pg. 324 Myers second paragraph examples.
 How are our behaviors in school, at home and in sports shaped?
Reinforcement Schedules
 Continuous Reinforcement – desired response is reinforced
time it occurs.
Learning happens
but once reinforcement is stopped,
occurs
rapidly. If a normally dependable candy machine fails to deliver a chocolate bar twice in a
row, we stop putting money into it.
 Partial (intermittent) reinforcement –
responses are reinforced,
not. Initial learning is
but greater persistence or resistance to
.
Slot machines are based on this principle. Occasionally giving in to a child’s tantrum can
serve as this too.
4 types or Partial reinforcement and their results
 Fixed-ratio (FR) schedules – behavior is reinforced after a
of responses.
Piecework pay does this to make people work faster to reach their reward. For every 25 pieces
made you get $1. Results in a burst-pause-burst pattern of responses.
 Variable-ratio(VR) schedule – provide reinforcers after an
average
number of responses. High rates of responding with little pause in order to increase the chance
of reinforcers (i.e. gambling and fishing).
 Fixed-interval (FI) schedules – Reinforce the first response after a fixed
.
Long
after reinforcement are common. Checking the oven more often to see if
cookies are done, checking for mail more frequently around delivery time. Produces gradual
responses at first that increase as we get closer to the time of reinforcement.
 Variable-interval schedules – Reinforce the first response after
time intervals.
The unpredictable pop quiz that reinforces studying. Produces
and
responses.
Cognition & Operant Conditioning
 Skinner and Thorndike felt that cognitions or thoughts, perceptions and expectations have
place in psychology as a science.
 Edward Tolman’s maze studies with rats found that they had created a
(mental) map of the maze layout and could do this without a reward. This learning would only
come out when the rat was
by a food reward.
 Latent learning – learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an
to
demonstrate it. Rats that are shown through a maze with no reinforcement are able to complete
the maze as fast an operant conditioned rat when a reinforcer is presented. The rat has
developed a
map of the maze.
 Animals on a fixed-interval reinforcement schedule though respond more frequently as the
time approaches for their reinforcer as if they
that the response will produce the
reward
 Overjustification effect – promising a reward for doing what one
likes to do.
The person may now see the reward, rather than intrinsic interest, as the
for
performing the task. “If I have to be bribed into doing this, then it’s
worth doing
for its own sake.”
 Rewards do help increase interest when used to indicate a job well done.
Learned Helplessness
 Exposure to inescapable and uncontrollable aversive events produces
behavior. If an animal believes or expects it cannot escape a certain result, it will
trying to do a behavior that could result in it escaping from the bad result. Dog experiment on
pg. 223-224.
 To overcome this, one must establish a
over one’s environment and see
some success.
Biological Predispositions
 Easier to condition an animal to perform a
behavior that is associated with the
reinforcer (food) but the animal often reverts to their biological predisposed (
)
behaviors showing “
drift” when asked to do something that is not natural.
(read examples on bottom of pg. 225)
Comparing Classical & Operant Conditioning
 See Table 5.5 on pg. 226 for a review