Lecture 3: Basic Principles of Operant Conditioning Flashcards
What is research on operant conditioning characterised by?
an effort to discover general principles that can predict what non reflexive behaviours will produce and under what conditions
What did E.L Thorndike investigate?
how an animals non-reflexive behaviour can be modified as a result of its experience e.g. instrumental conditioning
What is instrumental conditioning?
whether or not a significant stimulus or event occurs depends on the behaviour of the organism
What was Thorndikes measure of performance?
escape latency -
What did Thorndike attribute gradual improvement over trials to?
the strengthening of an S-R connection - e.g. law of effect
What is the law of effect?
positive reinforcement
According to Thorndike, how do we know what is satisfying or discomforting to an animal?
satisfying state - a state that the animal does nothing to avoid - often tries to attend/preserve it
discomforting - animal commonly avoids or abandons it
Discuss Guthrie & Horton’s evidence for a mechanical strengthening process
provided more convincing evidence that the learning that took place inside a puzzle box involved strengthening whatever behaviour happened to be followed by escape and food
Discuss cat in a puzzle box
pole in the centre of the chamber had only to be tipped in any direction to open the door
- at first each cats behaviour at moment of reinforcement cats behaviour varied greatly from trial to trial
- after a few trials each settled on a particular method of manipulating the pole
What does the cat in the puzzle box experiment provide evidence for
a particular version of the law of effect, called the stop-action principle.
What is the stop-action principle
the occurrence of a reinforcer serves to stop the animal’s ongoing behaviour and strengthen the association between the situation (puzzle box) and those behaviours that were occurring at the moment of reinforcement
If the subject repeats these on the next trial what will it produce?
a second reinforcer, further strengthening the S-R association
What view did Guthrie & Horton favour the view of and why is it incorrect?
They favoured the view that a specific set of muscle movements and bodily positions was strengthened at the moment of reinforcement - yet this is wrong b/c a certain amount of variability in bodily position from trial to trial is also evident
What is the procedure that makes use of behavioural variability
shaping or the method of successive approximations
What is an important requirement of the Law of Effect?
the contiguity between response and reinforcer
What is shaping frequently used in?
behaviour therapy for individuals with severe behaviour problems
What was the scientific question to which skinner sought experimental answers?
What controls the frequency of emitted behaviours (those that occur without any readily identifiable eliciting stimulus)
What is a discrete trial procedure?
a trial began each time a subject was placed in the puzzle box, and the subject could make only one response on each trial
Procedure that make use of lever pressing, key pecking or similar responses are called?
free operant procedures
What is a contingency?
a rule that states that some event will occur if and only if another event occurs
Discuss a contingency between response and reinforcer - three-term contingency
operant conditioning - the reinforcer occurs if and only if the response occurs
What are the three components in the operant conditioning contingency?
- the context in which a response occurs (stimuli preceding a response)
- the response itself
- the stimuli that follow the response
Discuss the magpie example of a discriminative stimulus
magpies peck for worms when they’re on the ground, but not when they’re flying - the ground is a discriminative stimulus for pecking behaviour.
What is a discriminative stimulus
it sets the stage for the response, but does not automatically elicit it in the way an object moving towards your eye elicits a blink
What is acquisition in operant conditioning
usually a gradual process involving procedures in which a reinforcing outcome is presented
What is extinction in operant conditioning
involves no longer following the operant response with a reinforcer… the response will weaken and eventually disappear
What is a primary reinforcer
stimulus that naturally strengthen any response it follows… requires no special training to be effective e.g. often stimuli that are necessary for survival
What is an example of a sensory reinforcer
visual stimulation
What are secondary reinforcers
not effective from birth - acquire reinforcing properties through experience e.g. money
What did Wolfe find about how secondary reinforces can acquire their reinforcing properties?
Through pairing with primary reinforces
What are social reinforces?
Stimuli whose reinforcing properties derive uniquely from the behaviour of other members of the same species - blend b/w primary and secondary reinforces e.g. affection
Why should a delay of just a few seconds have a devastating effect on learning?
it isn’t that rats can’t remember responses -
