Instrumental Conditioning Flashcards
Who was E. Thorndike?
in 1900 invented puzzle boxes to test whether or not animals could think. found out there was not problem solving thinking but instead when animal got a good response would repeat that behaviour.
what does the law of effect state?
that once a situation is rewarded it increases the liklihood of repetition assuming all else stays the same.
what is the difference between classical and instrumental conditioning?
classical conditioning associates two events with one another and elicits a response based on the conditioning of these two events whereas instrumental conditioning changes the liklihood of response based on the consequence
what was B.F Skinner responsible for?
raised daughter in air crib - behaviourism. 1904 - 1990
what does ‘positive reinforcement’ mean in regards to instrumental conditioning?
a stimulus is added after an event that increases the behaviour - reward
what does ‘negative reinforcement’ mean in regards to instrumental conditioning?
there is something being done to prevent a negative consequence happening.
what does reinforcement do?
increases the liklihood of a behaviour
what does positive punishment mean?
adding a stimulus that decreases the behaviour - punishment
what is negative punishment?
when there is something taken away to prevent a negative behaviour.
difference between negative reinforcement and negative punishment
negative reinforcement is when something is done (stimulus) to avoid a negative response (prevention) whereas negative punishment is when something is taken away to avoid the repetition of unwanted behaviour (punishment happens after).
what is a primary reinforcer/punisher
something that is instinctually rewarding/punishing
what is a token reinforcer?
something that can be exchanged for primary reinforcers, e.g. money
what is fixed ratio reinforcement and what are the distinctive features of it?
when a reward is given after a fixed AMOUNT of RESPONSES. time inbetween behaviour burts changes but time between non-rewarded responses stays the same
what is variable ratio reinforcement and what are the distinctive features?
a reward is given after a VARYING amont of RESPONSES. there will be a high, steady maintenance rate as the subject does not know when the reinforcement will occur
what is fixed interval schedule reinforcement?
when a reward is given after a FIXED amount of TIME. after reward, rate decreases but then increases towards end of fixed time.
what is a variable ratio schedule?
when there is no signal to tell when the reward is happening and will occur at random. there is a high, steady rate of response but slightly lower than with variable ratio responses.
why is extinction less effective on partial reinforcement?
very robust form of conditioning. there is more hope that reinforcement will follow the next time as they are used to not getting a response all of the time so are used to a changing response.
what is time out a form of?
negative punishment - removing lots of +ve reinforcers - done after the behaviour to prevent it happening again.
what is Premack’s Principle
instead of reinforces as stimuli as they are constantly changing, focusses on the probability of the behaviour. high probability behaviour should follow low probabilty behaviour.
ehow did mice prove the Premack Principle?
baseline run and drink levels measured. running > drinking. when water deprived then baseline drinking increased and then forced to run, drinking decreased. as running acts as both a reinforcer and a punisher of drinking there needed new idea about probabilities of behaviour.
what is the name of the stimuli that initiates instrumental behaviour at the right time?
Antecedent Stimuli
does a decrease in a reward size increase or decrease the generalisation of a gradient of a stimulus?
decrease
is natural instinct stronger than instrumental conditioning?
yes
what did breland and breland do?
used operant conditioning to train animals for advertising. used racoons which could pick up tokens but struggled to put it in the tin. also used pigs to put $1 coins into a piggybank. found out natural instinct overrides conditioning
