Instrumental Conditioning Flashcards
T/F: elicited behaviors and classical conditioning requires participants to make a particular response to obtain CS or UCS
F: they elicit responses but they are not required
what type of behavior requires a response to produce a desired environmental outcome
instrumental or goal-directed behavior
what animals did Edward Thorndike study and what was the study
cats in puzzle boxes
with experience, what are the results of the edward thordike study and the name he gave the principle
less frequent ineffective responses
more frequent successful responses
“Law of effect”
what did throdikes study give birth to
learning curves: time it takes to get out decreases w/ nb of trials
what is the law of effect
responses that produce satisfying effect in particular situation become more liekley to occur again in that istuation and responses that produce a discomforting effect become less likely to occur again in that situation
what is a synonym for law of effect
reinforcement
reinforcement states that: through learning, the cues, condition,context,state of an individual will trigger a response if that repsonse previously resulted in smth ___________
positive
what is an example of reinforcement
cat presses lever to get food
what type of learning is reinforcement
S-R learning: stim elicits a particular response
who discovered instrumental/operant conditioning
jerzy Konorski
who popularized operant bhv and respondent bhv
B.F. Skinner
what is operant bhv
an item of bhv that is initially spontaneous rather than a response to a prior stimulus but whose consequences may reinforce or inhibit recurrence of that bhv
what did skinner invent
skinner box
what is a method for measuring instrumental bhv
discrete-trial procedures
distinct trials w/ beginning and end
Start box to Goal box
what type of discrete-trial procedures are used (material)
runway (straight-alley maze)
T-maze
what do the 2 types of mazes measure
runway: running speed or latency
T-maze: choice btw 2 outcomes
what do discrete trials infer
expeirmenter must start and stop each trial: reduces learning and performance opportunities
what do free operant procedures allow
animal can repeat responses without constraint
what animals were typically used for the skinner box and which are used now
pigeons
small rodents (rats, mice)
what is a false myth abt skinner
skinner box on daughter
what is in a skinner box
operandi such as lever where animal can perform an operant response
what are some examples of operant responses
lever, nsoepokes, keypecks…
can animals use differetn ways to performe the same operant response
yes
what is normally triggered by operant response
reward (food, water, drugs)
how is learning measured in skinner box
response rate, how often responses happen
what is essential in operant training
careful shaping of bhv by training small, easy, successive steps
get rat to look at lever, get closer, touch, press
what is shaping
shape bhv through successive approximation
initially rewarding bhv close to intended outcome
is pushing a lever a natural bhv for rats
nope
what did skinner argue that operant conditioning can be used as
to produce extremely complex bhv (language)
with rewards and punishments, encourage organism closer to desired bhv each time
shaping is at the origin of _____ _____ ________
behavioral modification therapies
stickers
T.F. in all instrumental conditioning, participant response does not necessarily produce outcome or consequence
F. yes it does
what form can be the outcome or consequence
pleasant or unpleasant
what is the name for a pleasant outcome
appetitive stimulus
what is the name for an unpleasant outcome
aversive stimulus
how can operant response affect the outcome
elicit or prevent the outcome
what is the goal of reinforcement vs punishment
r: icrease bhv
p:decrease bhv
what is +/- reinforcement
+: add smth good (candy, praise)
-: remove smth bad (nagging, shock)
what is +/- punishment
+: add smth bad (shock, spanking)
-: remove smth good (privileges, phone) omission training
what term is often misused in relation to punishm and reinforcem
negative reinforcem when meaning positive punishment
what categories can be made of negative reinforcement
escape: remove noxious stim (turn off alarm)
active avoidance: bhv avoids noxious stim (study to avoid bad grade)
what are some limitations with animals for instrumental conditioning
trial and err approach:
- animal does nothing
- animal never does wanted bhv
what are some problems concerning punishment
- punished bhv is suppressed not forgotten (bhv returns when no punishm)
- increased aggression
- creates fear that can generalize to unwanted bhv (fear school cuz bad grades –> stop going to school)
- doesnt guide to wanted bhv
what are some limitations with the world for reinforcem and punishm + exmaples
often unclear or contradictory
- crash car (punishm), then emptahy and support from friends and fam(reward)
- friends celebrate (rew) when u dont do homework to hang out (puni)
- underage drinking: cool (rew), gets arrested (puni)
what can happen if punishm is provided in the form of attention
can reinforce > punish bhv
- kid gets attention they want so keep doing bhv
how can attention seeking w/ punishm be avoided and the complications
omission training - differential reiforcement of other bhv (DRO) (ignore bad bhv)
- ignore kid shamish window while praising good
could lead to even more extreme bad bhv to get ur attention
what did thorndike discover when trying to condition bhvs
belongingness: some responses more naturally belonged to reinforcer, some bhv are harder to condition than others
- diff to condition cats to yawn to get out of box compared to pulling string
which bhv belong with the reinforcer
ones that become more likely when hungry are readily reinforced with food
vs
responses less likely when hungry are diff to train as instrumental repsonses
- racoon washes coin cuz associated with food
- they will behave in relation/intention of UCS
what determines the effectiveness of a reinforcer
quantity and quality (work harder for better rewards)
what is the crespi effect
previous history of reinforcement affects value of reward
- positive/neg bhv contrast effects
- small/large or large/small
what can devalue other forms of reward with drug addiction
anticipatory negativev contrast
- had 4, then 14 :))
- had 64, then 14 :(((
never gonna b as good as drug
more value for drug, less for everything else
relationship btw response and reinforcer determine _____
learning
what are the 2 relationship variables btw response and reinforcer
contiguity and contingency
what is the temporal relation btw resp and reinf
temporal contingency: dilvery of reinforcer immediately after response (how close they r in time)
what is the causal relation and a synonyme
response-reinforcer contingency
how necessary and sufficient the instrumental repsonse is to produce the reinforcer
temporal and causal factors are _______ of each other
independent
strong temporal relation =/= strong causal
how is gambling related to temporal and causal factors
strong temporal: every slot = reponse
low causal: few slots = reward
what type of temporal relation is most effective, why
immediate reinforcement
credit assignment bias: delay makes it hard to determine what response causes reinforcer
what are secondary/conditioned reinforcers
stimuli previously associated with the reinforcer that helps bridge gap during the delay
- marking procedure to mark successful completion of the task improves learning
what are the results for close vs far marking procedures
- close: fast learning, the light after pressing shows that it did smth
- far: reduce learning, the light b4 food tells animal that pressing didnt do anything and the light just predicts food and nothing predicts the light
what is repsonse-reinforcer contingency
causal factor
what can lead to superstitious bhv
reward delivered at intervals irrespective of what the animal does
- accidental reinforcement: animal thinks turning causes it, but its just every 10 seconds
what are examples of superstitious bhv in humans
- gambling (slot machines promote superstitious bhv)
- professional sports (lucky shorts, rituals b4 game)
what was skinners superstitious experiment
pigeons reinforced /15sec, what they were doing at the time of the food, re-do
dont try to do nothing cuz odds are x causes y
what can happen if there is no contingency and causal link btw response and outcome
learned helplessness effect (lack of control)
- animal exposed to shock stop trying to learn how to stop it cuz nothing does
what is the consequence of learned helplessness effect
undermines ability to learn a new instrumental response (they learned absence of pwr and control
what could reduce learned helplessness effect
learning to predict shock termination/absence
- reduce harmful effects of stress
they feel like they have more control, awareness, less powerless, intellectual control
