Chapter 15 - Skinner

Question 0

What is the law of effect?

Answer 0

Learning takes place mostly because of the effects that follow a response

• satisfiers “stamp in” behaviour
• annoyers inhibit behaviour

Question 1

What two theorists were most influential to Skinner’s theory, and how?

Answer 1

Thorndike - law of effect

Watson - goal of psychology is prediction and control of behaviour, which can be studied objectively

Question 2

Scientific Behaviourism

Answer 2

• human behaviour should
  be studied scientifically
• hypothetical internal mental functions are unnecessary and unobservable
• internal states exist but are outside domain of science
• aim is to predict and control behaviour, not explain its causation

Question 3

What is cosmology?

Answer 3

The realm of philosophy concerned with the nature of causation (which Skinner had no interest in)

Question 4

What is classical conditioning?

Answer 4

Pairing a neutral (conditioned) stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus (usually biologically potent) repeatedly until the conditioned stimulus elicits a conditioned response resembling the original unconditioned response even in the absence of the unconditioned stimulus

Question 4

What is operant conditioning?

Answer 4

Reacting to behaviour with reinforcement or punishment

Question 5

What is shaping?

Answer 5

Gradually molding a complex set of behaviours through progressive reinforcement of successive approximations

Question 6

What is operant discrimination?

Answer 6

Organisms learn to respond to some elements in the environment and not others as a consequence of their reinforcement history

Question 7

What are the types of reinforcement?

Answer 7

Positive - presenting desirable stimulus

Negative - removing aversive stimulus

Question 8

What are the types of punishment?

Answer 8

• removing desirable stimulus

- presenting aversive stimulus

Question 9

What is a conditioned reinforcer?

Answer 9

Something which is indirectly reinforcing due to its association with primary reinforcers
- also called secondary reinforcers

Question 10

What is a generalized reinforcer?

Answer 10

A reinforcer associated with more than one primary reinforcer

Question 11

What are the schedules of reinforcement?

Answer 11

• fixed-ratio
• fixed-interval
• variable-ratio
• variable-interval

Question 12

What is the difference between extinction & operant extinction?

Answer 12

Extinction = tendency of previously acquired response to progressively weaken upon non-reinforcement
Operant extinction = experimenter systematically withholding reinforcement to extinguish a behaviour

Question 13

What three forces shape behaviour and personality, according to Skinner?

Answer 13

• natural selection
• cultural evolution
• individual history of reinforcement

Question 14

What roles do inner states play in Skinner’s theory?

Answer 14

• self-awareness: enables observation of covert behaviour
• drives: could be relevant if we understood them; for now just explanatory fictions
• emotions: positive ones associate with reinforcement
• purpose & intention: physically felt stimuli within an organism that indicate a certain reinforcement which is active

Question 15

How does Skinner explain complex behaviours?

Answer 15

Higher mental processes - reinforced covert behaviours
Creativity - akin to mutations
Unconscious behaviour - behaviour w/ aversive consequences is repressed and denied, but not necessarily extinct
Dreams - wish fulfillments of unconscious behaviours that would be punished in conscious life
Social behaviour - inconsistent reinforcement, inability to leave, or varied reinforcement can keep people in groups that are abusive

Question 16

What are the counteracting strategies which Skinner noted?

Answer 16

Escape, revolt, and passive resistance; the latter is generally a last resort