Classical & Operant Conditioning

Question 0

C and UC S & R

Answer 0

UCS: food
UCR: salivate
CS: bell
CR: salivation from bell

Question 1

Ivan Pavlov

Answer 1

Dog salivation, bell ringing, food

Question 2

Acquisition (classical conditioning)

Answer 2

Period during which an organism learns the association of the stimuli

Question 3

Extinction (classical conditioning)

Answer 3

Loses unconditioned response (eventually stops salivating at the sound of the bell)

Question 4

Spontaneous recovery

Answer 4

After extinction, if you give the subject a period of rest, and then present the CS (bell) again, the UCR will again occur but at a weak level (salivate)

Question 5

Generalization (classical conditioning)

Answer 5

Tendency for stimuli similar to the CS to elicit the CR.

Ex. Dog might salivate to bell of different pitch or timbre.

Question 6

Second-order conditioning

Answer 6

a neutral stimulus is paired with a conditioned stimulus (rather than an unconditioned stimulus)
Ex. Flash of light before bell and dog will learn to salivate at flash of light
Can even do third order by presenting, say, a metronome before the flash of light and the dog will learn to salivate to metronome

Question 8

Sensory preconditioning

Answer 8

Two neutral stimuli are paired together, then one of the neutral stimuli is paired with an UCS.
Ex. flash of light paired first with bell; then bell is paired with food –> bell and flash of light independently elicit salivation

Question 9

Robert Rescorla (late 1960s)

Answer 9

Performed experiments suggesting that classical conditioning was a matter of learning signals for the UCS; this approach is called the “contingency explanation of classical conditioning”
The CS and UCS become associated when the CS (bell) is a good predictor of the UCS (food).

Question 10

Criticism of Rescorla’s explanation of CC:

Blocking

Answer 10

The CS and UCS must not only be contingent, the CS must also provide nonredundant information about the occurrence of the UCS in order for conditioning to occur.

Question 11

Blocking: Experimental Procedure

Answer 11

First stage: rats heard hissing noise and then given shock. After repetition, rats showed fear at hissing alone.
Second stage: Hissing noise and light presented at the same time, followed by UCS (shock). When light was presented alone, rat did not show fear (light did not become associated with shock)
Suggests that the light did not provide additional information useful for predicting the shock –> rats ignored the light. Conclusion: CS must not only be contingent with UCS, but must provide USEFUL (nonredundant) information about the occurrence of the UCS

Question 12

Operant Conditioning

Answer 12

“instrumental conditioning” or reward learning; learn the relationship between a behavior and its consequence

Question 13

E. L. Thorndike

Answer 13

law of effect (proposed around 1900): if a response is followed by an unwanted or bothersome consequence, the animal will reduce likeliness for same response in the future

Question 14

B. F. Skinner

Answer 14

Rejected Thorndike’s terms like “satisfying” or “annoying” in terms of the consequence. Replaced the concepts with four types of consequences: PR, NR, PP, NP (“extinction”)

Question 15

Positive and Negative Reinforcement

Answer 15

To increase probability of behavior
PR: behavior is rewarded
Two types of NR: escape & avoidance
Escape: removes undesirable stimulus
Avoidance: avoids undesirable stimulus (ex. stopping at stop sign to AVOID ticket/accident)

Question 16

Pos. and Neg. Punishment (extinction)

Answer 16

To decrease probability of behavior
PP: behavior followed by delivering undesirable stimulus
NP (extinction): behavior followed by removal of rewarding stimulus

Question 17

Discriminative Stimulus (OC)

Answer 17

A stimulus condition that indicates the organism’s behavior will have consequence
Ex. When a light is illuminated over pecking key, bird will receive a pellet (reward); when light is not illuminated, no reward will follow pecking.
Light is discriminative stimulus (SD) here.

Question 18

Generalization (OC)

Answer 18

Train an animal to peck for food when green light is on (light is SD); bird will also peck when similarly colored light is on

Question 19

Partial reinforcement effect

Answer 19

Occasional reinforcement (rat receives pellet after only every other lever press) takes longer to extinguish by extinction 
Gambling is a good example of partial reinforcement effect (only receive occasional reinforcement, but takes a very long time for extinction to extinguish behavior)

Question 20

Four types of partial reinforcement:

Schedules of Reinforcement

Answer 20

Fixed-ratio (FR): reward follows fixed number of responses
Variable-ratio (VR): reinforcement occurs after varying number of responses (VR5 schedule means, average number of presses required is 5)
Fixed-interval (FI): reward follows first response after fixed interval of time since last reinforcement (ex. FI 45 second schedule)
Variable-interval (VI):reward follows first response made after variable amount of time has elapsed since last reinforcer (named, again, for average)

Question 21

Continuous reinforcement schedule

Answer 21

FR 1 schedule (every response is rewarded)

Question 22

Some examples of Schedules of Reinforcement (FR, VR, VI)

Answer 22

FR: paid $x for every 100 enveloped stuffed
VR: slot machine
VI: parent responding to baby crying (after responding to a cry, parent will wait some amount of time before reinforcing the child for crying again; time interval varies depending on situation)

Question 23

Schedule of Reinforcement most resistant to extinction:

Answer 23

VR (variable-ratio) is very resistant to extinction

Question 24

Shaping or “Differential Reinforcement” (operant)

Answer 24

series of responses rewarded in order to guide behavior toward a specific response

(ex. dog fetching your slippers. First reward the dog every time she looks at the slippers. Then stop. Then reinforce her every time she walks toward your slippers. Then stop. Then reinforce her only for picking up the slippers, and so on. Requires much smaller steps, in reality.)