Ch. 9 - Escape, Avoidance, and Punishment Flashcards
what two types of behaviours are associated with negative reinforcement?
- escape (stops aversive stimulus)
- avoidance (prevents aversive stimulus)
Typically, one first learns to ____ from an aversive stimulus and then to ____ it
escape, avoid
- once an association is learned and a descriminative stimulus is established
what does “lack of change” being used as a reinforcer refer to?
during escape behaviours, the rat is clearly moving from one aversive side of the box to the other nonaversive side of the box. However, avoidance behaviour means the rat isn’t being shocked or anything but the discriminative stimulus suggests he might so he moves from one non aversive environment to another non aversive environment
- successfully avoiding the shock is the reinforcer (they never actually feel the shock)
two-process theory of avoidance
- proposes that avoidance behaviour is the result of classical conditioning and operant conditioning
- a classically conditioned association is first developed and then used as the warning signal for the operant conditioning process of negative reinforcement (ex. reinforced by a reduction in fear)
why are aversive responses so persistent?
anxiety conservation hypothesis
- seems like the response should extinguish but it doesn’t seem to
- ACH - usually avoidance responses are so automatic and quick that there isn’t really time to test whether the aversive stimulus is actually still occuring so the animal just prepares for the worst anyway
do animals seem to still show fear after many avoidance trials with no CS?
no, it’s another difficulty with the two-process theory because they seem to just get used to the response and keep doing it even if their real fear subsides
whats a limitation to the human generalizability of phobic experiments done on animals
- human phobias develop much faster (sometimes only takes one experience with something to develop a full phobia)
how does an avoidance response maintain phobic behaviour?
- the avoidance behaviour occurs early on in the sequence of events leading to the phobia
- this allows the individual to experience the phobia for as little as possible or not at all
- minimizes effort involved in avoiding the stimulus if you just get it over with and leave ASAP
Exposure and response prevention (ERP)
- method of treating OCD that involves prolonged exposure to the anxiety-arousing event while not engaging in the compulsive behaviour pattern that reduces the anxiety
- thought to lead to extinction
positive punishment
- presentation (positive) of something following a behaviour leads to the decrease (punishment) of frequency in the future
negative punishment
- removal (negative) of something following behaviour that leads to the decrease (punishment) in future frequency
- ex. time-out
negative punishment
time-out
- loss of access to positive reinforcers for a brief period of time following the occurrence of a problem behaviour
- usually don’t work very well (ex. sending them to their room is actually more fun for them than sitting at the dinner table)
- they are also usually too long
negative punishment
response cost
- removal of a specific reinforcer following the occurrence of a problem behaviour
intrinsic punishment
- the activity itself is punishing (ex. push-ups)
- leads to a decrease in future behaviour
extrinsic punishment
- ex. sara judging me when I vape
- punishment as a result of a certain behaviour that leads to the decrease of future occurrences
primary (unconditioned) punisher
- an event that is innately punishing
- something we are born to dislike
secondary (conditioned) punisher
- something wer aren’t initially averse to but we learn an association
- ex. shock is primary, tone paired with shock is secondary
generalized (secondary) punisher
- something that has become punishing because it has been associated with many other instances of punishment
- ex. gotten a dissaproving stare for many different behaviours
skinner
conditioned suppression theory of punishment
- assumes that punishment does not weaken a behaviour but instead produces an emotional response that interferes with the occurrence of the behaviour
- ex. the shock upsets the rat so much that it loses interest in the food but if the shock is withdrawn, the rat will continue to eat the food once it has calmed down
avoidance theory of punishment
- punishment involves a type of avoidance conditioning where the avoidance response is simply any behaviour other than the one being punished
- “do literally anything else”
premack principle of punishment
- low probability behaviour can be used to punish the high probability behaviour
- if you participate in the high p behaviour (preferred behaviour) but are punished by having to perform a low p (undesirable behaviour) you’ll be less likely to engage in the high-p behaviour again
learned helplessness
- decrement in learning ability that results from repeated exposure to uncontrollable aversive events
