Instrumental Conditioning I Flashcards
Who was Edward thorndike and what did he study?
American psychologist who studied animal behaviour in the early 20th century
- one of the first to apply psychological theories to the field of learning
What did thorndike do with cats?
Placed cats inside wooden boxe that had a door which the cat could open to escape
- opening the door involved pulling/ pressing various levers and chains inside the box
- measured time for the cats to escape across trials
What did it appear about the cats in the law of effect for thorndikes law of effect?
Appears the cats understand the mechanics of the lever
What did thorndike show about the learned skill for the cat?
Cats only escaped by performing correct actions by chance
- no insight on behalf of the cats
- learned a law of effect (pull levers to escape box) by trial and error
What was found about positive and negative outcomes in behaviour?
Behaviors that have a positive outcome are more likely to be repeated, while
behaviors that have a negative outcome are less likely to be repeated.
Who is B.F skinner and operant conditioning?
American psychologists who made major contributions to the field of behaviourism
- focused on the idea that behaviour is shaped by its consequences
- environment controls human behaviour
What did B.F skinner investigate?
Trial and error
What did B.F skinner proprose?
behaviour of lab rats could be controlled by altering the consequences
of that behaviour
What concept did B.F skinner refine?
Refined the concept of operant conditioning and the Law of Effect
Whats the terminology for operant learning?
• R: Instrumental response (e.g., lever press)
• rf: Reinforcement (e.g., access to food)
• Sd*: Discriminative stimulus; a stimulus that informs the animal about the
availability of the reinforcement
Define measure in instrumental conditioning task?
Number of lever responses per minute
Whats the pathway for the law of effect learning?
Lever
Response
Food
What happens in the rats test under thorndikes law of effect?
During training, rats press a lever to
obtain food.
• Conceptual nervous system that
represents elements of the environment.
• An association forms between the
stimulus and the response
What does the learning associating guiding the animal behaviour not include?
Representation of the outcome like the reinforcer
If the mental representation of learning is an association between the stimulus and response…?
then the animals cannot predict the
consequences of their behaviour
What did Adam’s and Dickinson do with rats?
• In phase 1, the Sd (a lever) indicates that rats can respond (lever press) to access a
reinforcer (food)
• In phase 2, the reinforcer (food) is paired with illness for the experimental group, but
not the control group
• At test, we measure how many times the rat responds (lever press) in the presence of
the Sd (the lever)
According to the law and effect what do we learn about Adams’s and Dickinson?
the food reinforcer is not part of the mental
representation of learning
What did rats in the experimental group do in Adam’s and dickinsons study?
Rats in the experimental group press the
lever much less than rats in the control
group.
Challenges law and effect – as there is a
representation of the outcome
Rats in the experimental group press the
lever less, as they no longer want food that
makes them ill.
What two concepts did B.F skinner introduce?
Reinforcement - pos and neg
Punishment - pos and neg
Whats positive reinforcement?
The addition of a motivating event that increases the rate of responding
- effort or good work being rewarded with stickers
Whats negative reinforcement?
The removal of an aversive event that increases the rate of responding
- teacher cancels hw because of good in-class performance
Whats positive punishment?
The addition of an aversive event that decreases the rate of responding
- dentition for being consistent bad behaviour
Whats negative punishment?
The removal of motivating even that decreases the rate of responding
- student remove from seat near next to their friend for consistent talking
In learning theory what does the terms pos and neg not refer to?
Valence and event in the world is
What did Silvermann find?
Conducted study with cocaine and heroin users in Baltimore, USA
- time of study admission to hospitals to use of these drugs highest in USA
- concerns about spread of HIV by sharing injection in heroin users
What’s the treatment of drug addiction?
Most herion addicts treated with methadone
Substitute drugs that prevents other al symptoms from heroin
Idea that it gradually reduces methadone dose over time whilst never taking heroin it many methadone patients still used Cocaine at high rates
What did silvermann do for the drugs experiment?
Voucher reigorment intervention based on operant conditioning
- participant gave urine sample 3 days per week
Intervention group given voucher for cocaine free sample - $1000 over 12 weeks
What was the positive reinforcement in Silverman’s study?
The addition of the voucher itself acts
as a reward for abstinence
• The value of the voucher increased
with successive cocaine free tests
Whats the negative punishment in Silverman’s study?
The value of the voucher reset is a
cocaine positive test was returned
following a run of cocaine free tests
Whats the interventions in Silverman’s study?
- reinforce no drug taking
Punish drug taking
Points on Silverman’s study about cost?
Could be quite a costly intervention to
conduct on a wide scale
• Although probably less costly than
hospital treatments
- looked at whether interventions could be implemented in workplace settings
- addicts given jobs where wages depend on job performance and cocaine free sample
Whats ABA therapy?
Evidence-based interventions to help adults and children who operate on the
autism spectrum
Whats the central three contingency or the so called ABC or ABA?
Antecedent – the prompts leading to the behavior.
•Behavior – the actions performed as a result of the antecedent.
•Consequence – the outcome of those actions as they affect the person
acting.
What does ABA therapists sometimes modify?
ABA therapists sometimes modify
the antecedent, changing the
environment to lead to different
behaviors
