Chapter 5 Flashcards
Operant conditioning is a form of ____ learning.
Associative.
In classical conditioning, do we control the response?
No.
Classical VS operant conditioning?
In classical the outcome occurs regardless, whilst in operant the outcome is dependent on your response.
Operant conditioning is based on avoiding or obtaining a specific ____.
Outcome.
Operant conditioning requires an ____ operate in it’s environment to determine an outcome.
Organism.
Thorndike was the first to study behavioral outputs due to operant conditioning. What was his study? What was the conclusion? What is this idea known as?
Puzzle boxes. Organisms are more likely to repeat actions that produce satisfying consequences, and less likely to repeat actions that do not. This idea is known as law of effect.
The more time an animal spent in Thorndike’s box, the ____ they learned to escape.
Quicker.
Law of effect?
Probability that a particular behavioral response increases or decreases depending on the consequences that have followed that response in the past.
____ -> ____ -> ____
Stimulus, response, outcome.
Thorndike’s learning procedures involved ____ trials. What is this?
Discrete. Operant conditioning paradigm whee the experimenter defines the beginning and end of each trial.
BF Skinner wanted to refine Thorndike’s techniques. How did he do this?
He created a Skinner box, which was opposite from Thorndike’s discrete trial. The Skinner box is a conditioning chamber where reinforcement/punishment is automatically delivered when an animal makes a response (ex: lever pressing) - in this case, the animal is in charge of what was the start an end.
Free Operant Paradigm?
Operant conditioning paradigm where the animal can operate the apparatus “freely”, responding to obtain reinforcement/avoid punishment, whenever it chooses - commonly referred to as operant conditioning
Can we see extinction in operant conditioning?
Yes.
Reinforcement?
Providing consequences to increase probability of behavior occurring again in the future.
Punishment?
Providing consequence to decrease probability of behavior occurring again the in the future.
Adding a stimulus to free operant experiments can make them more elaborate. Example?
S(Light ON)->R(Lever press)->O(Food release)
S(Light OFF)->R(Lever press)->O(NO food release)
According to Thorndike and Skinner, operant conditioning consists of what 3 components?
Stimulus, response, outcome.
Discriminative stimuli?
In operant conditioning, stimuli that signal whether a particular response will lead to a particular outcome.
Example of Shaping?
Little kid learning to write the letter “A”, it looks somewhat similar and they are rewarded it. Then he kept getting closer and closer to a proper A. Shaping: operant conditioning technique in which successive approximations to a desired response are reinforced.
Chaining? Example?
Operant conditioning technique where organisms are gradually trained to execute complicated sequences of discrete responses. I.e. Learning a complicated dance in order to receive smarties? How about you get a smartie after every correct dance move.
Operant conditioning?
Process whereby organisms learn to make responses in order to obtain or avoid important consequences
Operant conditioning
Process whereby organisms learn to make our refrain from making certain responses in order to obtain/avoid a certain outcome.
Thorndike’s cat in box
A cat was placed in a box and when it escaped it was given food so it was more likely to do it again
Law of effect
Given a particular stimulus, a response that leads to a desirable outcome will tend to increase in frequency
Classical vs operant conditioning
Classical: organisms experience an outcome (US) whether or not they have learned the conditioned response (CR)
Operant: the outcome O is wholly dependent on whether the organism performs the response R
How are operant and classical conditioning similar?
Both have a negatively accelerated learning curve (time to do something decreases rapidly and then levels off) and they both show extinction
Discrete trial paradigms
Experimented defined the beginning and end of each trial
Free operant paradigm
The animal can operate freely (i.e running into maze to get food, then running out and that’s when the trial ends.)
Reinforcement does what?
Increase probability of behavior
Skinner box
Cage with lever for food to be dispensed into a little plate thing. The animals would explore the cage and they accidentally hit it and dramatically increased their rate of responding
Punishment does what?
Decrease probability of a certain behavior
Cumulative recorder
height of the line at any given time represents the number of responses that have been made in the entire experiment (cumulative) up to that time
Discriminative stimuli
Stimuli that signal whether a particular response will lead to a particular outcome
Habit slip
Stimulus to response association is so strong that the stimulus seems to evoke the learned response automatically i.e. Making a phone call to a familiar number instead of the number you intended to dial
Protestant ethic effect
Rats that have been trained to press a lever to obtain food will often continue to work to obtain food even though they have free food in their cage
What is a response defined by?
The outcome it produces
Shaping: successive approximations to the desired response are reinforced
When a rat in a Skinner box happens to wander near the food tray, experimenter drops in a piece of food. The rat eats the food and starts to learn an association b/w the tray and food and will spend all its time near the food tray. The experimenter then changes the rules: now rat must also be near the lever before food is dropped. Once the rat has learned this, rules change again: food is dropped only if the animal is actually touching the lever, then rule changes again: only if animal is pressing down the lever.
A reinforcer is a ____.
Consequence
