Download operant conditioning - socialscienceteacher

Module 10
Operant & Cognitive
Approaches
OPERANT CONDITIONING
also called Instrumental conditioning
• Thorndike’s law of effect
– states that behaviors followed by positive
consequences are strengthened, while
behaviors followed by negative
consequences are weakened
– People/Animals learn to do and not do
things because of the results they get.
Ex: You will study for a test to get a good
grade.
Edward
Thorndike
Puzzle Box Experiment
by E.L. Thorndike
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDujDOLre-8
OPERANT CONDITIONING
• Skinner’s operant conditioning
– focuses on how consequences
(rewards or punishments) affect
behaviors
– Cornerstone of his theory was the
Skinner’s Box
OPERANT CONDITIONING
• Principles and procedures
– Skinner box:
automated to record the animal’s bar presses and deliver
food pellets
• Skinner box is an efficient way to study how an animal’s
ongoing behaviors may be modified by changing the
consequences of what happens after a bar press

• 3 factors in operant conditioning of a rat:
– a hungry rat will be more willing to eat the food reward
– operant response: condition the rat to press the bar
– shaping: procedure in which an experimenter successively
reinforces behaviors that lead up to or approximate the
desired behavior
OPERANT CONDITIONING (CONT.)
• Principles and procedures of the Skinner’s Box
1. A rat is placed in a box, with nothing except a bar
attached to one wall
2. The rat can then be lured to hit the bar when it is
rewarded with a food pellet
3. a hungry rat will then quickly learn that hitting the
bar means getting a food pellet
4. Equally possible would be the ability to stop the rat
pushing on the bar when it is punished with an
electrical shock
Skinner Box
• Shaping (Molding behavior to accomplish a specific task)
1. Facing the bar
a. rat is put in box.
b. when rat finally faces the bar, food pellet is
released
c. rat sniffs the food pellet
2. Touching the bar
d. rat faces and moves towards the bar
e. another pellet is released.
f. Rat eats then wanders. Returning to sniff for a
pellet, another pellet is dropped into the cup. Rat
places a paw on the bar and another pellet is
released.
Skinner Box
• Shaping (To Review)
– Pressing the bar
1. When rat touches bar pellet is released.
Rat eats and then puts paws back on
bar and gets another pellet. Wait for rat
to now push bar then release pellet.
2. Rat soon presses bar over and over
again to get pellets.
3. Rat’s behavior was reinforced as the rat
leads up to, or approximates, the
desired behavior of bar pressing
OPERANT CONDITIONING (CONT.)
• Shaping: the procedure in which an
experimenter successfully reinforces
behaviors that lead up to the desired
behavior
OPERANT CONDITIONING (CONT.)
• Chaining: the individual learns the
final behavior, and then the next to
last, and so on, until the beginning of
the sequence is reached.
OPERANT CONDITIONING (CONT.)
• Immediate reinforcement
a. reinforcer should follow immediately after
the desired behavior
b. if reinforcer is delayed, the animal/human
may be reinforced for some undesired or
non-associated
REINFORCERS
•
Reinforcement is a consequence that increases the chance
that a behavior will continue.
1. Positive Reinforcer
– Increases the chance that a behavior will occur again when
presented. Ex: good grades, treat, pay raise
2. Negative Reinforcer
– Increases the chance that a behavior will occur again when
this is removed. Ex: aspirin, being “ungrounded”
_________________________________________________
Positive and Negative Reinforcers can be both:
1. Primary= unlearned needs ex: food, sex, drinking
2. Secondary: learned needs through experience ex: money,
good grades, being “good”
REINFORCERS (Punishment)
•
Punishment: a stimulus that discourages behavior
(2) types
1. Positive punishment
• refers to presenting an aversive (unpleasant)
stimulus after a response ex: a spanking after
a child is bad
2. Negative punishment
• refers to removing a reinforcing stimulus after
a response ex: a child is bad therefore they
cannot watch any tv
SCHEDULES OF REINFORCEMENT
• Skinner’s contributions
– Schedule of reinforcement
• refers to a program that determines how and
when the occurrence of a response will be
followed by a reinforcer
– Continuous reinforcement
• Behavior is constantly reinforced; behavior
disappears very quickly if the reward is
removed
– Partial reinforcement
• Reward is given only some of the time;
effective in maintaining behavior in the long
run
SCHEDULES OF REINFORCEMENT (CONT.)
• Partial reinforcement schedules
– Fixed-ratio schedule
• a reinforcer occurs only after a fixed
number of responses are made by the
subject ex: You get a bonus for every
100 items you sell
– Fixed-interval schedule
• a reinforcer occurs following the first
response that occurs after a fixed
interval of time ex: earn a sick day after
every 100 days worked
SCHEDULES OF REINFORCEMENT (CONT.)
• Partial reinforcement schedules
– Variable-ratio schedule
• a reinforcer is delivered after an
average number of correct responses
has occurred ex: a slot machine
rewards the user on a variable ratio
– Variable-interval schedule
• reinforcer occurs following the first
correct response after an average
amount of time has passed ex: a soldier
is granted leave ever so often, but
doesn’t know when
OTHER CONDITIONING CONCEPTS
• As with Classical conditioning; concepts such as
Generalization, Discrimination, Extinction, and
Spontaneous Recovery also apply to Operant Conditioning.
– an animal or a person emits the same response to
similar stimuli
Ex: a child stops crying for a candy bar and generalizes to
stop crying for lollipops as well
• Discrimination
– occurs during conditioning when an organism learns to
make a particular response to some stimuli but not to
others
Ex: a baby will stop crying in his mother’s arms but not his
aunt’s
COGNITIVE LEARNING
– Cognitive learning
Involves mental processes such as attention and
memory; learning can occur through observation
and imitation and does not involve any external
rewards.
– Learning can take place even without a reinforcer.
– Animals develop a layout and a process in their
brains.
COGNITIVE LEARNING (CONT.)
• Cognitive Learning established by Albert Bandura
– focused on how humans learn through observing
things
• Social cognitive learning
– results from watching, and modeling and does not
require the observer to perform any observable
behavior or receive any observable reward
EX: A child who witnesses aggression at home may
be aggressive to others at school.
COGNITIVE LEARNING (CONT.)
•
•
Bandura’s social cognitive theory
– emphasizes the importance of observation, imitation, and selfreward in the development and learning of social skills, personal
interactions, and many other behaviors. No external rewards
present
Four processes
1. Attention
• observer must pay attention to what the model says or does
2. Memory
• observer must store or remember the information so that it can be
retrieved and used later
3. Imitation
• observer must be able to use the remembered information to
guide his or her own actions and thus imitate the model’s
behavior
4. Motivation
• observer must have some reason or incentive to imitate the
model’s behavior.
INSIGHT LEARNING
• Insight learning
– Insight
• a mental process marked by the sudden and
expected solution to a problem: a
phenomenon often called the “ah-ha!”
experience.
• Using perception, intelligence, ability to think to
solve a problem. ex: using an instrument to
unlock your car door.
INSIGHT LEARNING
* Famous Study: Wolfgang Kohler observed Sultan
(chimpanzee) attain fruit by using objects and tools to
knock it down.*