5 Punishment Flashcards
-Aversive stimuli and punishment -The efficacy of punishment -Omission -Punishment and fear conditioning
What kind of reinforcement involves positive contingency between the response and an appetitive outcome? Will the response increase/decrease?
Reward (positive reinforcement), response increases
What kind of reinforcement involves negative contingency between the response and an aversive outcome? Will the response increase/decrease?
Negative reinforcement (avoidance), response increases
What did Yerkes & Dodson (1908) find about the relationship between intensity of punishment and learning?
By manipulating shades of grey and the intensity of shock, they found an optimal point in intensity of punishment where learning was most effective. Like reinforcement, punishment follows a normal-curved gradient.
What is the Yerkes-Dodson Law? How does it apply to easy and hard tasks?
Intensity determines the effectiveness of a punishment, following a normal-curve gradient. In difficult tasks, learning increases relative to intensity of punishment up to a point, then decreases (normal curve). With easy tasks that are more difficult to reinforce, performance/learning follows a linear path in relation to intensity, which eventually plateaus. Easy tasks require severer punishment to reinforce.
Why is omission training difficult?
Omission (negative punishment) involves the absence of an event.
What are the similarities between reinforcement and punishment in terms of contiguity, contingency and extinction?
Like reinforcement, punishment is more effective with a shorter delay between response and punishment (contiguity), consistent punishment (contingency), and takes longer to extinguish under a PRF as opposed to a CRF.
Is punishment more effective starting with a weaker punishment or a stronger punishment? Why?
Punishment more effective starting with a stronger punishment, then decreasing in intensity. By starting with a weak punishment and increasing in intensity, the subject becomes habituated to the punishment. THe subject knows what to expect and builds resistance/tolerance to the punishment.
What happens when you punish a reinforced behaviour?
Punishing a reinforced behaviour involves evaluating which is more important: the aversive outcome or the reward.
How does the Premack Principle apply to punishment?
A response is more likely if it is more preferred and less likely if less preferred. Punishment involves engaging in a less preferred response in order to access a more-preferred behaviour.
How is Classical Conditioning involved in punishment?
Punishment can involve a conditioned emotional response, such that certain stimuli can trigger this emotional response. The stimulus can be generalised so that associated stimuli, such as context, gives the expectation of punishment, which evokes conditioned fear.
What are the side effects of punishment?
Neurotic symptoms, aggression, fear, fear conditioning, generalisation of fear (e.g. Watson and Little Albert)
What is Differential Reinforcement of Other (DRO)?
Instead of punishment, the undesirable behaviour is neither rewarded nor punished, and instead another behaviour is rewarded. The reward distracts the individual from the undesired behaviour or the stimulus bringing about undesired behaviour. E.g. training out aggressive behaviour.
This is effective, as it provides an alternative way of behaviour.
What are the requirements that make punishment effective?
- Immediate and consistent
- Contingent on undesirable response.
- Delivered under variety of conditions
- Sufficiently aversive from the outset (strong–>weak)
- Delivered in the presence of alternative responses.
- Accompanied by rational explanations (humans)
What kind of reinforcement involves negative contingency between the response and an appetitive outcome? Will the response increase/decrease?
Omission (negative punishment), response decreases
What are the alternatives to punishment?
Extinction of undesired behaviour, Differential Reinforcement of Other (DRO) behaviours
