Chap 4 reinforcement Flashcards
at point is a behaviour said to be strengthened?
when theres an increase in its frequency, duration, intensity, or speed
what is reinforcement?
reinforcement is:
- occurrence of a behaviour
- that is followed by an immediate consequence
- that results in strengthening of the behaviour
what is positive and negative reinforcement?
positive reinforcement is the strengthening of a behaviour by addition of stimuli to environment
negative behaviour is the strengthening of a behaviour by removal of an aversive stimuli from the environment
What is social reinforcement? what are social positive and social negative reinforcement?
social reinforcement is when a behaviour produces a reinforcing consequence through the actions of another person. Social positive reinforcement is asking someone to bring you something. Social negative reinforcement is asking someone to remove an aversive stimuli from your environment (i.e. asking them to turn down the volume)
What is the premack principle?
Type of positive reinforcement
- involves giving person an opportunity to engage in their desired behaviour ONLY IF they complete a not preferred behaviour in order to increase the probability of the non preferred behaviour
What are escape and avoidance behaviours? What are warning stimulus?
they are a type of negative reinforcement
- escape behaviour: occurs when the behaviour produced allows termination or escape from an aversive stimuli
- avoidance behaviour: occurs when the behaviour produced prevents an aversive stimuli to even occur.
- warning stimulus signal the occurrence of an aversive stimulus and gives the person time to engage in avoidance
What are unconditioned and conditioned reinforcers? what are some examples
Conditioned reinforcers are reinforcers that were one neutral, but after being paired with an unconditioned stimulus they became valuable or positive. ex. money, praise, tokens, gold stars …etc
unconditioned reinforcers are natural reinforcers like food,water, sexual stimulation and they all contribute to human survival
What is a generalized conditioned reinforcer? Provide an example
generalized conditioned reinforcers is when a conditioned reinforcer is paired with a wide variety of other reinforcers. A common example is money because its paired and exchanged for a variety of different reinforcers. This also means that money is less likely to diminish in value when accumulated
list the 5 factors that the effectiveness of reinforcement is influenced by
- immediacy
- Contingency
- Motivating Operations
- Individual Differences
- Magnitude
How does immediacy increase the effectiveness of reinforcement?
the time between the behaviour occurring and reinforcement given has to be short so that the animal knows what behaviour they are getting reinforced for. The shorter the time between the behaviour and reinforcement, the stronger the contiguity (recognizable connection between the behaviour and reinforcement).
How does contingency increase the effectiveness of reinforcement?
Contingency exists between the response and the consequence when the response produces the consequence and the consequence does not occur unless the response occurs first
How do motivating operations increase the effectiveness of reinforcement?
-MO’s alter the value of a reinforcer
- an establishing operation (EO) makes a reinforcer more effective and makes the behaviour that produced that reinforcement more likely. Deprivation is a type of establishing operation that increases the effectiveness of most unconditioned reinforcers and some conditioned
- Abolishing Operations (AO) makes a reinforcer less effective and makes the behaviour that produced that reinforcement less likely
Satiation occurs when a person has recently consumed a large amount of a reinforcer or has had a lot of exposure to a reinforcer thus making them less effective at that time. Effects of satiation often diminish over time
How do individual differences increase the effectiveness of reinforcement?
the likelihood of a consequence being a reinforcer is different to each individual
How does magnitude increase the effectiveness of reinforcement?
magnitude GENERALLY increases the effectiveness of reinforcement. The effectiveness of a stimulus as a reinforcer might be greater if the amount or magnitude of stimulus is greater
What are concurrent schedules of reinforcement and what are concurrent operants?
concurrent schedules of reinforcement occurs when a person is engaging in more than one behaviour and they have different schedules of reinforcement
concurrent operants are the number of different behaviours or response options that are concurrently available for the person
