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Psychological Foundations > 1:2 The heyday of behaviourism: Operant learning > Flashcards

1:2 The heyday of behaviourism: Operant learning Flashcards

1
Q

Name a pioneer of behaviorism who also studied animal reflexes and connections and believed MEDIATION is the key to cognitive psychology.

He studied animals to understand what might be seen as distinctly human attributes, such as intelligence, consciousness, and the mind.

A

Edward Thorndike (1974-1949).

He also thought that in humans what we called our mental life, required the assumption of internal events that lay between them and mediated the relationship between the stimulus and the response.

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2
Q

What’s another term for Thorndike’s trial and error learning theory?

A

Connectionism (Thorndike)

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3
Q

What type of learning is based on:

  • The stimulus and a response
  • The subsequent outcome or reward.
A

Operant learning.

Sometimes seen as an example of contingency learning.

Or SR learning (stimulus-response).

Differed from classical conditioning (contiguity learning) US + CS.

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4
Q

What’s another term for classical conditioning?

A

Contiguity learning, based on the temporal contiguity of pairing two stimuli.

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5
Q

Describe the fundamental step in behaviorist thinking that emphasized “effect” during the critical role of an action’s consequences and its role in future behavior.

A

Thorndike’s basic law of effect:

Dissatisfaction –> less likely to repeat behavior.

Satisfaction –> more likely to repeat behavior.

Thorndike’s law of effect lies at the core of later learning theories.

Commonly called: Operant or Instrumental Learning.

SRS Three-term contingency (situation, response, and effect).

Behaviorism was no longer just looking to explain associations between a stimulus and a response, but considered the critical role of the consequences of that response for the organism and its role in future behavior.

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6
Q

Thorndike’s three-term contingency of Situation, Response, and Effect were later replaced by:

A

Discriminative stimulus, response, and reinforcing.

Then later called: antecedent, behavior, and consequence (ABC).

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7
Q

Who was BF Skinner (1904-1990)?

A

Behaviorism’s most famous proponent.

He build on the foundations of:
Thorndike: Focus on consequences of behavior.
and Watson: Common principles for simple and complex behavior.

He defined and codified the conceptual and theoretical framework of behaviorism, standardized the tools to investigate it, and defined its language.

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8
Q

Skinner built on Thorndike’s law of effect.

Skinner’s categorization system described different types of consequences depending on:

A
  1. Whether they INCREASED or DECREASED behavior.
  2. Whether they were positively ADDED or were something that was TAKEN AWAY.

The animal, including humans, learned over time based on the consequences of their actions.

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9
Q

_____ leads to an INCREASE future behavior.

A

Reinforcement.

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10
Q

______ leads to a DECREASE a future behavior.

A

Punishment.

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11
Q

Provide a term for when:

A stimulus is REMOVED contingent on the behavior, which leads to an INCREASE of behavior.

Eg: child cannot watch TB if they don’t tidy their room.

A

Negative reinforcement.

Negative: something is taken away.

Reinforcement: increases a behaviour.

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12
Q

Provide a term for when:

A stimulus is PROVIDED contingent on the behavior, which leads to a DECREASE of behavior in the future.

Eg: something unpleasant, such as denying a privilege, do decrease unwanted behaviour.

A

Positive punishment.

Positive: something is added.

Punishment: decreases a behaviour.

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13
Q

A stimulus is REMOVED contingent on the behaviour, which leads to a DECREASE of behavior in the future.

Eg: a fine for breaking a rule.

A

Negative punishment.

Negative: something is taken away.

Punishment: decreases a behaviour.

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14
Q

Provide a term for when:

A stimulus is PROVIDED contingent on the behavior, which leads to an INCREASE of behavior in the future.

A

Positive reinforcement.

Positive: something is added.

Reinforcement: increases a behaviour.

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15
Q

What is a term for:

Things that are able to influence and change behavior on a universal basis in all humans and animals (eg. food, drink, sex).

A

Primary, natural, or unconditioned reinforcers.

Appetitive stimuli.

We have an appetite for them and a biological drive to satisfy that appetite.

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16
Q

Consequences one seeks to avoid, escape, or withdraw from are known as:

A

Aversive stimuli outcomes.

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17
Q

Reinforcers that have acquired properties by association with another (often primary) reinforcer are called:

A

Secondary or conditioned reinforcers.

Eg: Little Albert - animal is avoided when paired with loud noise.

Eg. Money - through it’s association with primary reinforcers, such as food or drink.

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18
Q

Describe the one-factor theory.

A

In operant terms, reinforcement and punishment lie at different ends of a single continuum.

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19
Q

Describe the two-factor theory.

A

Reinforcement and punishment are distinct and operate on behaviour in fundamentally different ways.

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20
Q

A puzzle box, operant chamber or Skinner box all have the three following features:

A
  • A means of providing a stimulus (eg. sound or light).
  • A means of the animal making a response (eg. lever that can be pressed).
  • A means of delivering a reinforcer or punishment (eg. food or shock).
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21
Q

Operant learning measures behavior in what simple parameters?

A

Speed
Intensity
Duration

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22
Q

What is the name of a simple reinforcement schedule that occurs every time a response is made?

Eg. put money in the coffee machine, get coffee

Eg. rat receives food every time it presses lever

A

Continuous reinforcement schedule (CRF).
FR1 schedule.

(An example of a simple schedule)

23
Q

What’s the term for simple a reinforcement schedule that occurs only after some responses, not after all responses.

A

Intermittent or partial reinforcement schedules.

24
Q

What are two parameters for simple schedules?

A
  1. Timing / quantity of responses

2. Certainty or predictability that the response will lead to reinforcement

25
Q

What is:

Fixed ratio / FR
vs
Variable ratio / VR schedule

A

Fixed ratio (FR): every nth RESPONSE (exactly)

Eg. FR2 schedule - rat gets food every second response.

Variable ratio (VR): every nth RESPONSE (on average - unpredictable

Eg. Gambling machines; Roulette wheels.

26
Q

What is:

Fixed interval (FI)
vs
Variable Interval (VI)
A 
Fixed interval (FI):  response every t MINUTES
(eg. push start on coffee machine, one minute later get coffee)

Variable interval (VI): response every t MINUTES (on average)

27
Q

What are two types of intermittent interval schedules?

A

Fixed interval (FI): response every t minutes

AND

Variable interval (VI): response every t minutes (on average)

28
Q

What are two types of intermittent ratio schedules?

A

Fixed ratio (FR): every nth response (exactly)

AND

Variable ratio (VR): every nth response (on average)

29
Q

What type of schedule is important in early learning?

A

A continuous reinforcement schedule or one with a high probability of reinforcement.

To ensure the initial trial and error response is reinforced and is likely to be repeated.

30
Q

What is the process of shaping?

A

Once a subject has learned a trial-and-error response, the reinforcement ratio can be increased across trials so it happens less and less often while maintaining responses.

31
Q

What types of schedules is a staircase pattern record characteristic of?

A
  1. Fixed ratio schedule.

Duration of the pause and behavior increases systematically with the ratio.

The more response needed to obtain a reward = the longer the pause after reinforcement before the animal resumes responding.

  1. Variable ratio schedule in extinction.
32
Q

What type of schedule is a scallop-shaped curve characteristic of?

A

Fixed interval schedule.

Once the animal has learned the interval, they tend to slow or stop the rate of responding after obtaining the reward / and start responding more quickly as the duration increases toward the end of the expected interval.

33
Q

What type of learning curve does a variable interval schedule create?

A

Due to uncertainty, there is almost continuous behavior.

The animal is adaptive and keeps responding just in case.

However, it might slow down over time to adjust its energy expenditure.

34
Q

Describe the pattern of extinction

A

When a response stops being reinforced and the animal no longer expects a reward.

Typically see a continuation in behavior, which may even increase (due to uncertainty = “PRE-EXTINCTION BURST” in fixed schedules) before eventually stopping.

35
Q

In extinction, which type of schedule would behaviour likely continue longer for: fixed or variable?

A

Variable because there is greater uncertainty about when the next reward is expected.

36
Q

What is the partial reinforcement extinction effect?

A

Intermittent or partial reinforcement (in either fixed or variable schedules) is more resistant to extinction than when an animal has been previously continuously reinforced every response.

37
Q

What was one of Thorndike’s practical contributions?

A

The development of specific apparatus to measure aspects of animal intelligence.

His experiments and apparatus subsequently became refined by later behaviorists.

Eg: His puzzle box that he used to study learning in cats (how long it takes to escape to get food).

38
Q

Contingency learning or SR learning is from:

A

Operant conditioning.

39
Q

Contiguity learning of pairing of two stimuli (US + CS) is from:

A

Classical conditioning.

40
Q

A crucial element of Thorndike’s theory was the role of the positive or negative effects of the behavior, and whether it left the animal ______ or _____.

A

Satisfied or dissatisfied.

Stated in Thorndike’s law of effect.

Where a response led to satisfaction, escape from the box and getting the food, that is reward, the same behavior was more likely to be repeated on the next occasion.

41
Q

Thorndike’s basic law of learning lies at the core of which later learning theories?

How did the SR change to a three-term contingency?

A

Operant or instrumental learning.

SRS
Situation - response - effect.

42
Q

The debate about the nature of mediation and mediating events (and whether they are necessary for a comprehensive model of the mind) lies between which two psychological traditions?

A

Behaviorism and cognitive traditions.

43
Q

You are leaving your house and looking up as you leave and see that there are dark clouds gathering. You continue, it rains, and you get wet. The next day as you leave the house, you see that it is cloudy again. You go back and get your umbrella, just in case. Sure enough, it starts to rain but this time you have your umbrella and arrive at your destination nice and dry. The next day, it is sunny, so you don’t bother to take your umbrella.

What type of contingency learning is this an example of?

A

Three-term contingency (Thorndike’s law of effect).
ABC / SRE.

It illustrates associative learning in action.

Situation / Response / Effect

Antecedent / Behavior / Consequence

Stimulus / Response / Stimulus

44
Q

True or false: Skinner considered that there was no fundamental distinction between the process that shapes the learning and execution of simple acts and the most complex behaviors.

A

True.

45
Q

What are two other terms for the puzzle box?

A

The operant chamber.

The Skinner box.

46
Q

What are three common features of an operant chamber?

A
  1. There is a means of providing a stimulus, often a siren or a light.
  2. A means of the animal making a response, such as a lever that can be pressed.
  3. A means of delivering a reinforcer or punishment, often a small quantity of food delivered or a mild electric shock.
47
Q

Why are reinforcement schedules important?

A
  1. LEARNING TIME: The choice of schedule has a marked effect on how long it takes to learn to make a specific response when presented with a specific stimulus.
  2. It influences the INTENSITY AND PATTERN OF RESPONDING over time.
  3. It affects the PERSISTENCE OF A LEARNED BEHAVIOR, even after the reinforcer is withdrawn.
48
Q

What is SHAPING in continuous reinforcement schedules?

A
  • Early in learning, it is usually necessary to have a continuous reinforcement schedule or one with a high probability of reinforcement.
    • This makes sure that the initial trial and error response is reinforced and is likely to be repeated.
    • Once learned, the ratio can be slowly increased across trials so that reinforcement happens less and less often while maintaining responding.
49
Q

A teenager repeatedly fails to tidy their room despite being asked. Their parents ground them for a week. The following week they keep their room clean. This is an example of:

A

A negative reinforcement.

Something was removed (social contact with friends) to lead to the change in behavior.

50
Q

A teenager fails to tide their room. Their parents promise them their favorite meal if they tidy their room every day for a week. They manage to keep their room tidy. The meal was:

A

A positive reinforcer.

A favorite meal was added to lead to the change in behavior.

51
Q

A teenager is kept behind in class for being disruptive and is not allowed out during break with their friends. They next day, they behaved better in class. The detention was:

A

A negative punishment.

Something was removed (social contact with friends), which led to the reduction in behavior (disruptiveness).

52
Q

In the past, a teenager might have been caned or hit by a teacher for being disruptive. After being caned, the pupil was less disruptive. Being caned was:

A

A positive punishment.

Something was added (pain) to reduce the undesired behavior (disruptiveness).

53
Q

What types of learning were developed by Pavlov vs. Thorndike?

A

PAVLOV:
S-S
Contiguity learning
Classical conditioning

THORNDIKE:
S-R
Contingency learning
Operant conditioning

54
Q

What was the biggest difference between Tolman’s neo-behaviorist approach and radical behaviorism?

A

For Tolman, the INTERVENING VARIBALE or MEDIATING internal representations fundamentally transform the input-output relationship.

For radical behaviorism, their existence was not denied, simply ignored as unhelpful and unnecessary for explanation.

Psychological Foundations (14 decks)

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