L3: Instrumental conditioning Flashcards
what is instrumental conditioning?
Instrumental Conditioning: learning how to control the
environment to acquire desirable and avoid undesirable
objects or achieve a “satisfying” state of affairs. Voluntary. There is awareness unlike cc.
* The animal’s behaviour is instrumental in getting
something that it wants
law of effect?
Edward thorndike (1898): law of effect
Behaviour is modified by its consequences (Principle of
reinforcement)
* A behaviour that brings a satisfying state of affairs will
be stamped in.
* A behaviour that brings an unsatisfying state of affairs
will be stamped out.
Animal in cage. Add lever. As a result of manipulation of certain behaviour animal has positive reward. Pressing lever meant food. Animal learned there would be a reward, changes behaviour.
radical behaviourism?
Radical behaviourism: Burrhus Frederic Skinner
* Operant conditioning
* The organism teaches itself by coming to
associate a behaviour with its consequences
* Extreme empiricist
* The consequences of a behaviour affect the
probability that the behaviour will be repeated
in the future
* No free will (reinforcements from our past)
‘ give me a child and i’ll shape him into anything’
skinner’s method?
Skinners method: the operant chamber (skinners box)
* B.F. Skinner put pigeons and rats into tiny
controlled environments (Skinner box) and
observed their learning (e.g. peck at a target to
obtain food)
* Taught us about the importance of punishment
and reinforcement
types of reinforcement?
something GIVEN to the mouse:
positive reinforcement: mouse given food when lever pressed. Reinforcement- something that increases the likelihood of a certain/repeated behaviour
positive punishment: mouse is shocked when lever is pressed. decreases likelihood of repeated behaviour.
something TAKEN from the mouse
negative reinforcement: loud noise stopped when lever pressed. something taken away increasing likelihood of repeated behaviour.
negative punishment: not applicable in this scenario but drvreases likelihood of repeated behaviour.
aquisition, extinction and discriminant stimuli?
Has acquisition and extinction phase. Pressing lever= food coming out. Repeated behaviour and animal recieves positive reinforcement. Animal in box, loud noise= loud noise dissapears- negative reinforcement.
Positive punishment: animal is shocked when lever pressed. Decreases behaviour of pressing the behaviour.
skinner/other experimenters would display discriminant stimuli so animal associates this stimuli to anticipate electric shock, or food reward etc,
In B.F. Skinner’s experiments on operant conditioning, a discriminative stimulus (SD) is a cue or signal that indicates a particular behavior will be reinforced or punished. The light (or another cue) acted as the discriminative stimulus (SD) because it indicated that pressing the lever would lead to reinforcement (food).
If the light was off, pressing the lever would not give food, so the rat learned not to press it in that condition.
This concept is crucial in behavioral psychology because it shows how behaviors can be shaped by cues in the environment.
?? Skinner could play a specific sound (e.g., a tone or buzzer) through the speaker.
The sound would act as a cue that signaled when pressing the lever would result in food.
If the speaker was silent, pressing the lever would not give food.
what does reinforcement mean in cc and ic?
Different meanings in classical and instrumental conditioning
Classical (Pavlovian) conditioning:
Reinforcement → the unconditioned stimuli
Instrumental conditioning
Reinforcement → the consequences of behaviour
* A reinforcer is something the animal wants
* Reinforcement is contingent on the organisms behaviour
* Any response that leads to reinforcement tends to be repeated
A reinforcer is different from reward
* Reward: something inherently positive
superstitious behaviour?
Skinner published paper on superstitious behaviour. Pigeons in box, animal given reward at random pace = associate anything animal was doing to be behaviour to the action of receiving the food. E.g: if animal was pecking at something and there was food randomly, animal would peck like crazy. If pigeons turned at the time they recieve food they would associate that with the food. So created theory that humans can be superstitious aswell.
- The pigeons learned that the delivery of food pellets
depended on whatever behaviour they were doing just
before the pellets arrived.
6/8 birds developed new and distinctive repetitive behaviours which they produced before the pellets were due. these included turning anti-clockwirse, hopping, head bobbing and swinging. most of these behaviours were consistently performed in the same area of the cage. when the pellets became less frequent the rate which the new behaviours were performed increased.
generalisation and discrimination?
Discriminative stimuli = predict that a response will be followed by reinforcement (or the reverse)
* Behaviour is under stimulus control: elicited only when discriminative stimuli are present
* Organisms can generalise what they have learned to similar stimuli
* Generalisation curbed by discrimination training
what makes reinforcers reinforce?
Primary reinforces- drive reduction. For instance: food is a very primary reinforcer. naturally reinforcing because they satisfy basic biological needs.
Incentive motivation- There are some drivers that can reduce this for instance for some people food is excellent motivation but if person is full, food not a good reinforcer.
Brain stimulation- basal ganglia has system of reward that processes reward, domimanergic system. If we stimulate this area in an experimental scenario can activate this reward and drive. Things like drug can cause an impact in brain stimulation.
Social stimuli- humans are very social animals. When you punish someone by excluding the person- potent punishment
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