Chapter 5- Instrumental Conditioning: Foundations Flashcards
Goal Directed/ Instrumental Behaviour:
- Responding is necessary to produce a desired environmental outcome
- Occurs because it was previously effective in producing a certain consequence
Thorndike’s Law of Effect:
- If a response “R”, in the presence of stimulus “S” is followed by a satisfying event, the association between the stimulus and the response becomes strengthened
- If the response is followed by an annoying event, the S-R association is weakened
Discrete-Trial Procedures:
- Limited opportunities to respond, opportunities to respond are scheduled by experimenter
- i.e. Put rat in maze, remove rat from maze between trials
- Runway/ straight alley maze
T maze
Runway/ straight alley maze
◦ Start-> barrier-> goal box
◦ Barrier removed, rat runs to goal box to get food
◦ Running speed
◦ Latency
Running Speed
- How fast rat gets from start box to goal box
* Increases with repeated training trials
Latency
- Time it takes animal to leave start box and begin running
* Decreases as training progresses
T Maze
◦ Start box and alleys arranged in a maze (goal boxes located at end of each arm in T
◦ Test to see if newborn rats can tell their mother apart from another female rat
◦ Placed mother rat at right end of T, other rat at other end, pups learned to turn right, even if female rats were removed
Skinner’s Free-Operant Procedures:
- Allows animal to repeat instrumental response without constraint over and over again until the end of an experimental session
- Small chamber contains lever for rat to push for food, can push as many times as it wants to
Operant Response:
- Depend on the effect that the response has on the environment, not on muscle movements
- i.e. rat can press lever with right paw, left paw…etc
Instrumental Response:
Any response that is required to produce a desired consequence
Magazine Training:
- Carefully designed training steps that guide subject to desired behaviour
- Want to train rat to press lever to get food
- First step is to pair sound of food delivery device (food magazine) with release of food into cup
Response Shaping:
- Learning operant response following magazine training
- Food given to rat if anything related to pressing lever is performed (i.e. stand on hind legs, stand on hind legs over response lever…etc)
Successful Shaping of Behaviour:
- Involves 3 components
- Clearly define final response you want the trainee to perform
- Assess starting level of performance
- Divide progression from starting point to final target behaviour into steps
Positive Reinforcement:
- Instrumental response produces an appetitive stimulus
- i.e. Putting away toys -> gets a cookie
- Positive contingency between instrumental response and appetitive stimulus
- Produces increase in rate of responding
Positive Punishment:
- Instrumental response produces an aversive stimulus
- Positive contingency between the instrumental response and stimulus outcome (outcome is aversive)
- Produces decrease in rate of responding
- i.e. late to a meeting->boss yells at you
Negative Reinforcement (Avoidance):
- Instrumental response turns off aversive stimulus
- Negative contingency between response and aversive stimulus
- Increases instrumental responding
- i.e. opening an umbrella to stop rain from getting you wet
Omission Training/Negative Punishment:
- Instrumental response results in removal of a appetitive stimulus
- Phone taken away after failing a test
- Negative contingency between response and environmental event
- Decrease in instrumental responding
Differential Reinforcement of Other Behaviour (DRO):
In omission training, individual periodically receives appetitive stimulus if they are engaged in behaviour other than the response specified by the procedure (other behaviour reinforced)
Behavioural Variability vs. Stereotypy:
- Instrumental conditioning procedures produce repetitions of same response
- Stereotypy in responding does develop if it is allowed or required by procedure
- Instrumental conditioned can also be used to produce variable responses (behaviour required for reinforcement different from behaviour on preceding trials)
- Response variability increases if variability is required for reinforcement (i.e. need to draw a different square to get reinforced)
Belongingness:
- Certain responses naturally belong with a reinforcer due to animal’s evolutionary history
- i.e. pulling latch are naturally related to release from confinement, yawning and scratching self is not
Instinctive Drift:
- Extra responses that develop in reinforcement situations are due to animals instinctively performing these actions due evolution
- i.e. pigs burying coins instead of putting them in a piggy bank
Negative Behavioural Contrast:
Decrease responding if large reinforcer goes down to small reinforcer (i.e. giving $10 when previously $25 was given)
Positive Behavioural Contrast:
Increase responding when small reinforcer goes up to large reinforcer
Anticipatory Negative Contrast:
- Saccharin solution given to rats before given cocaine
- Find that saccharin flavour loses hedonic value in anticipation of much greater hedonic value of cocaine
- May explain why individuals addicted to cocaine get little satisfaction from other reinforcers that others enjoy
Temporal Relation:
Time between response and reinforcer
Temporal Contiguity:
- Special case of temporal relation
* Delivery of reinforcer immediately after response
Response-Reinforcer Contingency:
- Extent to which instrumental response is necessary and sufficient to produce reinforcer
- Causal relation between response and reinforcer, but learning is disrupted (perfect causal relation is not sufficient to produce vigorous instrumental responding)
Credit Assignment Problem:
- Difficult to determine which response results in delivery of reinforcer if delay is long
- Presentation of conditioned/secondary reinforcer (such as praise) can help over come this problem
Marking Procedure:
Mark target instrumental response to make it distinguishable from other activities of organism (i.e. shine a light after target response)
Superstitious Behaviour:
- Behaviour performed even if food is provided regardless of behaviour
- i.e. pigeon keeps pecking even if food is given if they don’t peck
Accidental/ Adventitious Reinforcement:
Accidental pairing of response with delivery of reinforcer
Terminal Responses:
- Response occurred mainly toward the end of interval between successive reinforcers (i.e. pecking occurred more at end of food- food interval than other times)
- Species typical responses that reflect anticipation of food as time draws closer to next food presentation
- Animal displays focal search responses near food cup
Interim Responses:
- Response more likely to occur toward middle of interval between food deliveries
- Reflecting other sources of motivation that are prominent early in interfood interval, when food presentation is unlikely
- Animals display general search responses that take animal away from food cup
Activity Deficit Hypothesis:
- Inescapable shock group show learning deficit following exposure to inescapable shock because inescapable shocks encourage animals to become inactive or freeze
- Cannot explain instances in which exposure to inescapable shock disrupts choice learning
Attention Deficit Hypothesis
• Inescapable shock reduces extent to which animals pay attention to their own behaviour, which results in learning deficit
Stimulus Relations in Escape Conditioning:
- Examined why exposure to escapable shock is not nearly as bad as exposure to inescapable shock
- Shock cessation feedback cues
Safety signal feedback cues
Shock cessation feedback cues
◦ Reponse produced stimuli experienced at start of escape response, before shock is turned off
◦ i.e. light presented during last 3 seconds of shock presentation
Safety signal feedback cues
◦ Response produced stimuli experienced as animal completes response, just after shock has been turned off
◦ Lights turned off at end of each shock presentation
