Download Operant Conditioning

Operant
Conditioning
I. The Basics
 Discovered by Edward Thorndike and made
popular by B.F. Skinner
 If a response is followed by a reward, that
response is more likely to be used again in the
future.
 Rewards are used to increase the use of behaviors
 Punishments are used to decrease the use of
behaviors
 The individual must operate on the environment to
get the reward or avoid the punishment
II. B.F. Skinner
 Skinner Box
 A small cage
containing a lever that
can be pushed by a
rat or a disk that can
be pecked by a
pigeon. (most of
Skinner’s research
involved rats &
pigeons)
II. Skinner Cont.
 Skinner Box
 The box can be programmed in a variety of ways
 Examples:
 Pressing the lever or pecking the disk results in food
= the animal learns to make the response
 A light may signal when pressing or pecking will result
in the delivery of food = the animal can be trained
when to press or peck.
 There may be a grid on the floor through which the
animal can be shocked = the animal can be trained to
press a lever to turn off a painful shock.
The case of the pigeon
& the guided missile
 Role in Human Behavior
III. Skinners view of
society
 B.F. Skinner saw the world as one big Skinner box and
the Skinner box as a model of society.
 Skinner wrote a novel outlining how rewards and
punishments could be used to create a utopian society.
 Experimental communities were created based on his
ideas
 One of these still exists. An upbeat attitude is instilled
in children by only rewarding positive statements like “I
like it” and “I’m happy.” Negative statements are
ignored.
 Behavioral engineering
IV. Token Economies
 Psychologists use operant conditioning to
teach hospitalized psychiatric patients to
use more normal behaviors. Specifically,
whenever the patients behave in normal
ways they are given tokens which they
can later exchange for rewards such as
additional television time, better living
accommodations, or hospital passes.
This is known as a “token economy.”
V. Reinforcement and
Punishment


Reinforcement: what is given to an individual
after a response to increase the likelihood the
response will be used again.
Two types:
1. Positive Reinforcement: increases the likelihood
that a response will be used again. (Praise)
2. Negative Reinforcement: something which when
it is terminated increases the likelihood that a
response will be used again. (mother stops
nagging once a child complies, will increase
compliance to avoid nagging)
V. Reinforcement and
Punishment Cont.
 Punishment: Something that reduces the use
of a behavior. (speeding ticket may prevent
that person from speeding in the future)
 Punishment behaviors are not unlearned or
forgotten. Rather, they are suppressed. When the
possibility of punishment is withdrawn, the behavior
likely will return.
 It is better to reinforce desired behaviors than to
punish undesirable behaviors
Operant Conditioning
Demonstration
VI. Avoidance
Conditioning
 Punishment can be used to increase
behaviors
 This is achieved when behaviors enable
an individual to avoid punishment
 Skinner box/electric shock
 Avoidance Conditioning is why students
study.
 They study to avoid getting a bad grade
VII. Shaping
 Successive Approximations