Learning

Question 1

The Law of Effect

Answer 1

If a piece of behaviour is followed by a favourable consequence, the probability that the behaviour will be repeated is increased
Proposed by EL Thorndike

Question 2

What is operant (instrumental) conditioning?

Answer 2

Learning an association between a response and its consequences

Question 3

What is operant (instrumental) conditioning?

Answer 3

Behaviour that is controlled by its consequences (what follows behaviour - reinforcing/punishment)

Question 4

What is a reinforcer?

Answer 4

A stimulus (environmental event) which increases the probability, or rate, of responses which it follows

Question 5

What is shaping / method of successive approximations?

Answer 5

Reinforcing closer and closer to the desired behaviour
Invented by BF Skinner

Question 6

Describe primary reinforcer and give example

Answer 6

A stimulus that increases the probability of responses which it follows due to its intrinsic biological significance/survival value to the organism
Eg food

Question 7

Describe secondary reinforcers and give example

Answer 7

A previously neutral stimulus which has acquired its reinforcing effect due to its repeated pairing with a primary reinforcer
Eg “good boy” before giving food to a dog

Question 8

What is positive reinforcement + effect on behaviour

Answer 8

An appetitive/favourable stimulus is presented contingent on a response
Giving something good
Increases behaviour

Question 9

What is negative reinforcement + effect on behaviour

Answer 9

An aversive stimulus is withdrawn contingent on a response
Take away something bad
Increases behaviour
Eg taking hand off hot stove, pain is negative stimulus

Question 10

What is positive punishment + effect on behaviour

Answer 10

An aversive stimulus is presented contingent on a response
Give something bad
Decreases behaviour
Eg shock collar on dog when leaves property

Question 11

What is negative punishment + effect on behaviour

Answer 11

An appetitive stimulus is withdrawn contingent on response
Take away something good
Decreases behaviour
Eg drivers license taken away for reckless driving

Question 12

What is extinction + effect on behaviour

Answer 12

A response that has no consequences (neither reinforced or punished)
Decreases behaviour
Eg kid cries for food, no reaction from parent, behaviour will decrease

Question 13

What is continuous reinforcement?

Answer 13

When every response is reinforced

Question 14

What is intermittent reinforcement?

Answer 14

Only some responses are reinforced, according to a schedule of reinforcement
Persists much longer during extinction than continuous

Question 15

What is the partial reinforcement effect (PRE)?

Answer 15

States that responding that has been reinforced intermittently will be harder to extinguish than responding which has been reinforced continuously
The transition to extinction is harder to detect

Question 16

What is a schedule of reinforcement?

Answer 16

A specification of the relation between responding and reinforcement
By Skinner - didn’t have food pellets for whole weekend

Question 17

What is a fixed interval schedule and example

Answer 17

A response is reinforced when a fixed amount of time has elapsed since the last reinforcer
A response is needed
Eg pigeons keypeck is reinforced with food when 30s passed since last reinforcer

Question 18

What is a variable interval schedule and give example

Answer 18

A response is reinforced when a variable amount of time has elapsed since the last reinforcer
Eg fishing

Question 19

Why are there pauses/no pauses with interval schedules?

Answer 19

Fixed - pauses- time to eat food, or predicting the reinforcer/eg when they will receive the feed
Variable - no pauses - from other explanations means predicting behaviour

Question 20

What is omission training/DRO?

Answer 20

DRO - differential reinforcement of other behaviour
A reinforcer is delivered when a fixed amount of time has elapsed since the last response
Explicitly reinforces non-responding
Eg when feeding cats, give food after stopped jumping, increase time waiting

Question 21

What is stimulus control?

Answer 21

The extent to which stimuli which precede or accompany behaviour control the rate or probability of the behaviour

Question 22

What is discrimination?

Answer 22

Responding differently in the presence of different stimuli

Question 23

What is generalisation?

Answer 23

Responding in a similar way in the presence of stimuli similar to the training stimulus

Question 24

What is the generalisation test?

Answer 24

When a range of stimuli, all drawn from the same dimension, are presented in extinction and the number of responses to each his recorded. If responding depends on the stimulus in a systematic way, we can conclude that the dimension was controlling the behaviour

Question 25

What is a generalisation gradient?

Answer 25

The minter of responses at several different points along one stimulus dimension
Obtained by conducting a generalisation test and used to measure stimulus control by the dimension as a whole

Question 26

Explain a decremental generalization gradient

Answer 26

A gradient where the must responses occur at the original training stimulus, and responding decreases progressively as stimuli become more different from the training stimulus
Usually obtained when the training stimulus was associated with reinforcement
Also known as positive or excitatory gradient

Question 27

What is a concurrent schedule of reinforcement?

Answer 27

Two or more simple schedules of reinforcement are available at the same time, each signaled by its own discriminative stimulus
Subject is free to respond on either schedule at any time
Used in study of choice behaviour

Question 28

What is the Matching Law?

Answer 28

In a concurrent schedule, the proportion of responses an organism will emit on one alternative is equal to (matches) the proportion of reinforces it obtains from that alternative
Examples of holding in real life
- choice between time at work + time with family
- self-control + commitment
- ducks being fed bread from two sides of a pond

Question 29

What does under matching mean?

Answer 29

Part of the matching law
Choice is a little less extreme than the matching law predicts
Eg if 80% of reinforces earned from one alternative there will be around 75% of the behaveer on that alternative

Question 30

What is an adventitious reinforcer?

Answer 30

A reinforcer that follows a response by chance, not because there was a contingency between the response and the reinforcer
Also called response-independent behaviour

Question 31

What is superstitious behaviour?

Answer 31

Behaviour that is maintained by adventitious reinforcement
More likely that ‘nothing bad happens’ over ‘something good happens’