Chapter 4 - Lecture Flashcards
evolutionarily, why does our attention drift?
so we can notice surroundings
- pretty normal
mindfulness = recognize that your attention has shifted, requires some deliberate effort
Skinner believed that behaviour should be _
studied and explained in the most direct way possible
*radical behaviourism, very little room for flexibility
What are the 3 components of Skinner’s Behaviourism?
1) rely exclusively on directly observable phenomena
2) psychology is considered an objective science
3) analysis of behaviour without appeal to subjective mental events or speculative physiological events
describe Burrhus Frederic Skinner’s past
- one of the giants of 20th century psych
- as a child, read a lot and wanted to be a novelist
- showed remarkable mechanical skills, put these skills to good use in devising and constructing the devices he later used in his experiments
- as undergraduate, skinner majored in english
- obtained phd in psych
- recognized as the leading proponent of the behaviouristic position, a position that he continued to develop and defend throughout life
skinner’s theory is based on 2 fundamental assumptions:
1) human behaviour follows certain laws
2) causes of behaviour are outside the person, and that these can be observed and studied (contrary to introspection)
describe the experimental analysis of behaviour
*allowed for clear way of thinking about cause and effect
manipulated (cause)> measured (effect)
independent variable (cause) > dependent variable (effect)
in classical conditioning, responses elicited by a stimulus are labelled as _
respondents
- organism reacts to the environment
- involuntary
in operant/instrumental learning, responses simply emitted by an organism are labelled _
operants
- organism acts on the environment
- voluntary (major distinction between IC and CC)
most of the important behaviours in which people engage are _. WHat is central are the _ of the behaviours
operant, consequences
what happens to frequency of behaviour with positive and negative reinforcement?
frequency of behaviour increases with both
how does positive and negative reinforcement increase frequency of behaviour?
Positive reinforcement increases the likelihood of a behavior occurring again by adding a desired stimulus, such as food, praise, or money
- negative reinforcement increases the likelihood of a behavior occurring again by removing an aversive (negative) stimulus. ex. dissapointment
contrast negative reinforcement and punishment
NR: a procedure that increases the probability of a behaviour
P: involves introducing a negative contingency or terminating a positive (appetitive) one
which type of reinforcement is used a lot to keep employees engaged
positive reinforcement
- one of the easiest and quickest ways to improve employee happiness and effectiveness
*although management often points out what’s wrong
describe reinforcement schedules
- experimental analysis of behaviour
- dependent variables
- independent variable (the way rewards are administered)
list the dependent variables of reinforcement schedules
- acquisition rate (rate at which they are acquiring behaviour)
- rate of responding (rate at which individual shows behaviour)
- extinction rate (how quickly behaviour decreases over time)
what are the 3 overarching categories for reinforcement schedules?
- continuous reinforcement schedule
- intermittent reinforcement
- combined schedule
define continuous reinforcement schedule
every desired response is reinforced
define combined schedule
a combination of continuous and intermittent reinforcement
define intermittent reinforcement
reinforcement occurs only some of the time
within continuous/intermittent reinforcement, we have
- continuous
- fixed ratio
- fixed interval
- random ratio
- random interval
- concurrent
give an example of fixed ratio
for every 5th correct response, reinforced
give an example of fixed interval
the first correct response is rewarded after a 15 sec lapse
give an example of random interval
reinforcement follows a correct response an average of once every 15 secs but at unpredictable times
give an example of random ratio
an average of one out of every 5 correct responses is rewarded at random
give an example of concurrent schedule
different schedules associated with different behaviours are presented concurrently (multiple behaviours can be rewarded)