L3 - Instrumental/Operant Conditioning Flashcards
What is classical conditioning?
One stimulus is followed by another stimulus
Their two activated mental representations become associated
What are the comparisons of classical and instrumental conditioning?
Similarity - Arises from pairing of two events in the world
Difference - R, not CS, is paired with US
Tidy up (R), praise (US) - happy (UR)
Where does the response come from?
The first event in the association depends on the learner
Making response is under their control
Can be followed by the US when another stimulus is present
What is a discriminative stimulus?
When the response is only followed by the US when another stimulus is present
There is always going to be present stimuli, cannot get rid of it
What is Thorndike’s law of effect?
If a response produces something nice we do it
If a response produces something nasty we don’t do it
It does require a response
There must always be a stimuli present
What is the difference between Thorndike’s view and the modern view?
Thorndike - US not incorporated in learning, respond because S is there, a habit
Modern view - US incorporated in learning, respond to ger US because it has value, goal directed action
What is reinforcement and punishment?
Positive reinforcement - getting something nice e.g. food
Negative reinforcement - omitting something nasty e.g. cancelling a shock
Positive punishment - getting something nasty
Negative punishment - omitting something nice
What are operant techniques?
Punishment - response > shock
Escape - response > no shock
Avoidance - response > no shock
What are the types of avoidance?
Passive - rat must stay where it is to avoid shock
Active - rat must move to other chamber to avoid shock
Signalled - explicit SC signal for shock
Sideman avoidance - Shock every 5 seconds but if they do action to avoid it it will go off every 10 seconds
What is being learned about the response?
A negative response is also an inhibitor
If you expect something bad to happen an it doesn’t it makes you happy
Why do you make the avoidance response?
Buzzer = shock
Buzzer + avoidance response = no shock
Responding leads to the omission of the shock which is a nice thing
What did Solomon and Wynne 1953 find regarding the persistence of avoidance response?
Dogs continued to jump for over 490 trials after the shock had stopped
Response is a conditioned inhibitor predicting absence of shock preventing CS from extinguishing
Why is it important to understand avoidance?
OCD
People develop persistent avoidance responses
What is appetitive reinforcement?
Operant technique
Response followed by appetitive US e.g. food
Scheduled reinforcement
Continuous reinforcement
Partial reinforcement
What are the different interval schedules?
Fixed - exactly every minute, get pocket money every Sunday, responding usually happens close to reinforcement
Variable - average, receive pocket money on random days, low steady rate of response
