Instrumental Conditioning Flashcards
Instrumental (operant) Conditioning
The learning between voluntary behaviour and its consequences (voluntary)
Primary Reinforcers
Satisfy biological need
Secondary Reinforcers
Established through conditioning; use secondary to get primary
Shaping
Rewarding bits until behaviour is achieved
Chaining
Keeping previous behaviours intact
Temporal Proximity
How close the behaviour and the consequence are in time
Thorndike
- studied cats in a puzzle box (food outside box for motivation)
- predicts trials following discovery cat would escape immediately
- but the cat still struggled, only getting a little better in discovering
- rope pulling behaviour gets “stamped in” and random behaviours get “stamped out”
“Stamped in”
Behaviours with positive consequences are stamped in
“Stamped out”
Behaviours with negative consequences are stamped out
Reinforcer
stimulus that, when presented after a response, leads to a change in that rate of response
Reward Training
Presentation of a positive reinforcer; increases the frequency of a behaviour
Punishment Training
Presentation of a negative reinforcer; decreases the frequency of a behaviour
Omission Training
Removal of a positive reinforcer; decrease in the behaviour being reinforced
Escape Training
Removal of a negative reinforcer; increase in the response behaviour
Autoshaping
Behaviours that can be learned without guidance by a higher power
Discriminative Stimulus (SD)
Signals when a contingency between a response and a reinforcement is “on”
S- (Sẟ)
cue which indicates when the contingent relationship is not valid
Continuous Reinforcement
A response leads to a reinforcer on every single trial
Fixed Ratio Schedule
- Reinforcement should be delivered after a constant or “fixed” number of correct responses
- ex. a fixed ratio schedule of 2 means reinforcement is delivered after every 2 correct responses
- pause and run graph - zig zag
Fixed Interval Schedule
- Reinforcement becomes available after a specific period of time
- FI2 would mean reinforcement becomes available after 2 minutes has passed
- graph - line is not constant ‘wavy’
Variable-ratio schedule
- Delivery of reinforcement will “vary” but must average out at a specific number
- reinforcement might give reinforcement after 1 correct response, then after 3
- graph - constant straight line (smaller ratio=steeper)
Variable-interval schedule
- Time periods that must pass before reinforcement will “vary” but must average out at a specific time interval
- Yara organizes her boss’ documents for approx 2 hours, she allows herself 10 minutes of online shopping
- graph - constant straight line
