Chapter 5 - Instrumental Conditioning: Foundations Flashcards
What is the biggest difference between operant conditioning and instrumental conditioning?
Consciousness - instrumental conditioning is not associated with reflexes
In instrumental conditioning, how is learning produced?
Learning is a product of reinforcement or punishment
What is instrumental conditioning?
A form of learning in which behaviour is modified by administering rewards and/or punishments
Compare classical and instrumental conditioning
Classical conditioning: stimulus paired with another stimulus = a conditioned reflexive response
Operant conditioning: behaviour leads to a consequence = increase or decrease of voluntary behaviour
Describe the basic steps involved in operant conditioning.
step 1: organism reacts or behaves
sept 2: behaviour modification technique is applied
consequence: the reaction behaviour increases or decreases
Define instrumental behaviour?
Behaviour that occurs because it was previously needed for producing certain consequences
What is the rationale behind implementing operant conditioning techniques?
- behaviour that is rewarded or reinforced tends to be repeated (+)
- behaviour that is ignored or punished is less likely to be repeated (-)
Describe the earliest theoretical analysis of operant conditioning
- Done by Edward L. Thorndike (1874-1949)
- created puzzle boxes for cats to escape from
Describe Thorndike’s “Law of Effect”
- if a response in the presence of a stimulus is followed by a satisfying event, association between the stimulus (S) and the response (R) is strengthened
- S-R association is weakened if a response is followed by an undesirable event
What are the two kinds of operant procedures that exist?
- discrete-trial procedures: each trial produces instrumental behaviour (ex. puzzle boxes or maze learning)
- free operant procedures: allow for display of operant behaviour over and over (ex. lever pressing for food); when the instrumental response is defined in terms of its effect on the environment
What is the purpose of shaping?
It reinforces any movement in the direction of the desired response
- rewards gradual successive approximations to the goal
What is the benefit of shaping?
- it is quicker than waiting for the response to occur by chance and then rewarding it
- it is used effectively to condition humans and animals
What are some different types of operant responses?
- lever pressing
- chain pulling
- nose-poking
- pecking
In free operant procedures, what is the dependent variable?
- response rate
- total number of responses
- latency to respond
What is the purpose of a Skinner Box?
to test instrumental conditioning through shaping
What is magazine training?
- trains the animal where it can find the reward
What does shaping involve?
Combining familiar response components into a new activity (once more complex behaviour results in an eliminating of reward)
- depends on inherent response variability
What are the three problems with punishment?
- indicates what behaviour is bad, but not what is good
- leads to negative feelings toward the punisher
- punishment leads to aggression
What is the alternative to using punishment?
Using negative reinforcement (taking away something pleasant)
- withhold reward until desired behaviour is completed
What are some strategies for effective punishment?
- no delay
- intensity - maximum necessary to suppress problem behaviour
- consistency - punish every time
- never punishing out of anger
What are primary reinforcers?
They fulfill basic needs for survival
What are secondary reinforcers?
Acquired or learned by association with other reinforcers (ex. money, good grades)
What are the associations in instrumental conditioning?
Stimulus - Response - Outcome
* the outcome is important
What are some factors that influence the Response-Outcome association?
- the instrumental response
a) stereotypy vs. behavioural variability
- possible to maintain variability of responses using reinforcement
- unless variability is explicitly reinforced, response will be more stereotypical (that is, they will replicate the same behaviour - such as using of the left paw specifically - can be contained within superstitious behaviour
b) belongingness
- easier to train responses that belong with the reinforcer (ex. moving a peg to escape vs. yawning to escape) - the instrumental reinforcer
a) quantity of reinforcer
b) quality of reinforcer
c) prior experience with the reinforcer
- change in quality or quantity of the reward changes the instrumental behaviour (similar to surprise) - the response-reinforcer relation
a) temporal relation: how quick in time between the response and the outcome (immediate is most effective)
- temporal contiguity: reinforcer appears immediately after the response
b) response-reinforcer contingency: the extent to which the response is necessary and sufficient for occurrence of the reinforcer
What is instinctive drift?
Extra responses that are performed instinctively because they are related to the reinforcer - they compete with the response required by the training procedure
What is marking?
Giving an indication that a reward will come - this can overcome any time delay
What is superstitious behaviour?
Instrumental responding acquired though accidental or adventitious reinforcement
- contiguity, not contingency, is important
- periodic presentation of reinforcer produces behavioural regularities based on the interval
What is the learned helplessness effect?
The animal forgoes control of responses due to presentation of unavoidable aversive stimuli
What is the learned helplessness hypothesis?
Animals learn that uncontrollable aversive stimulus leads to an expectation of a lack of control in the future
What is the activity deficit hypothesis?
The animals try to keep their strength to endure the aversive stimulus
How can the learned helplessness effect decrease?
When the aversive stimulus can be predicted
