Instrumental Conditioning

Question 1

Thorndike’s puzzle box

Answer 1

the cats showed a gradual decline in time it takes to escape across repeated trials;
not the pattern that would be expected if a human were placed repeatedly in the same situation

Question 2

Law of effect

Answer 2

a response followed by a satisfying effect is strengthened and likely to occur again in that situation (stamped in);
a response followed by an unsatisfying effect is weakened and less likely to occur again in that situation (stamped out)

Question 3

Instrumental conditioning

Answer 3

forming an association between a stimulus and a behavioural response; learning of a contingency between behaviour and consequence

Question 4

Reinforcers

Answer 4

primary reinforcers = intrinsic value (food, water, mate), instrumental conditioning;
secondary reinforcers = come through previous learning (money), classical conditioning

Question 5

Operant chamber

Answer 5

chamber with lever or mechanisms by which an animal could respond to produce a reinforcer such as a food pellet; better version of Thorndike

Question 6

Discriminate stimluli

Answer 6

positive (SD) = signals that relationship is valid;

negative (S-delta) = signals that relationship is invalid

Question 7

Differences between CS and SD

Answer 7

CS = automatically elicits a response (classical);
SD = set the occasion for a response (instrumental)

Question 8

Acquisition

Answer 8

leads to learning the contingency between a response and its consequences

Question 9

Reward training

Answer 9

occurs when the arrival of an appetitive stimulus following a response increases the probability that the response will occur again

Question 10

Escape training

Answer 10

occurs when the removal of an aversive stimulus follows a response and leads to an increase in the probability that the response will occur again

Question 11

Punishment training

Answer 11

occurs when the arrival of an aversive stimulus follows a response, decreasing the likelihood that the response will occur again

Question 12

Omission training

Answer 12

occurs when a response leads to the removal of an appetitive stimulus, which decreases the probability of the response happening again

Question 13

Immediate vs delayed consequences

Answer 13

reinforcement and punishment are most effective when the consequence immediately follows the target behaviour;
allows an organism to accurately associate the correct behaviour with the reinforcer

Question 14

Autoshaping

Answer 14

learning without direct guidance

Question 15

Shaping

Answer 15

used for more complex behaviours; target behaviour can be broken down into successive approximations; reduces acquisition time

Question 16

Chaining

Answer 16

develop a sequence of responses to build even more complex behaviours; a response is reinforced with the opportunity to perform the next response

Question 17

Contrast effects

Answer 17

negative contrast = going from high reward to low reward respond at a slower rate;
positive contrast = going from low reward to high reward respond at a faster rate

Question 18

Overjustification effect

Answer 18

a task that was previously regarded as having intrinsic value now becomes viewed as with extrinsic value

Question 19

Continuous reinforcement

Answer 19

reinforcer follow every correct response

Question 20

Partial reinforcement

Answer 20

reinforcer follows only some of the responses; more resistant to extinction

Question 21

Fixed ratio

Answer 21

following reinforcement, there is a post-reinforcement pause, where there is a stop in responses before starting up again

Question 22

Ratio strain

Answer 22

as the number of responses increases, the post-reinforcement pause becomes longer; can lead to a breakpoint

Question 23

Variable ratio

Answer 23

produce high, steady rates of responding without the post-reinforcement pause

Question 24

Fixed interval

Answer 24

FI scallop = responses are typically produced at a low rate early in the interval, with the response rate gradually increasing over the interval

Question 25

Variable interval

Answer 25

results in a steady rate of responding

Question 26

Associative learning

Answer 26

in both classical and instrumental conditioning, learning occurs as a result of direct experience

Question 27

Mirror neurons

Answer 27

cell that responds in the same way when performing an action a it does when the animal possessing that cell observes someone else perform the action or imagines performing the action