Lecture 3: Basic Principles of Operant Conditioning

Question 1

What is research on operant conditioning characterised by?

Answer 1

an effort to discover general principles that can predict what non reflexive behaviours will produce and under what conditions

Question 2

What did E.L Thorndike investigate?

Answer 2

how an animals non-reflexive behaviour can be modified as a result of its experience e.g. instrumental conditioning

Question 3

What is instrumental conditioning?

Answer 3

whether or not a significant stimulus or event occurs depends on the behaviour of the organism

Question 4

What was Thorndikes measure of performance?

Answer 4

escape latency -

Question 5

What did Thorndike attribute gradual improvement over trials to?

Answer 5

the strengthening of an S-R connection - e.g. law of effect

Question 6

What is the law of effect?

Answer 6

positive reinforcement

Question 7

According to Thorndike, how do we know what is satisfying or discomforting to an animal?

Answer 7

satisfying state - a state that the animal does nothing to avoid - often tries to attend/preserve it
discomforting - animal commonly avoids or abandons it

Question 8

Discuss Guthrie & Horton’s evidence for a mechanical strengthening process

Answer 8

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

Question 9

Discuss cat in a puzzle box

Answer 9

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

Question 10

What does the cat in the puzzle box experiment provide evidence for

Answer 10

a particular version of the law of effect, called the stop-action principle.

Question 11

What is the stop-action principle

Answer 11

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

Question 12

If the subject repeats these on the next trial what will it produce?

Answer 12

a second reinforcer, further strengthening the S-R association

Question 13

What view did Guthrie & Horton favour the view of and why is it incorrect?

Answer 13

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

Question 14

What is the procedure that makes use of behavioural variability

Answer 14

shaping or the method of successive approximations

Question 15

What is an important requirement of the Law of Effect?

Answer 15

the contiguity between response and reinforcer

Question 16

What is shaping frequently used in?

Answer 16

behaviour therapy for individuals with severe behaviour problems

Question 17

What was the scientific question to which skinner sought experimental answers?

Answer 17

What controls the frequency of emitted behaviours (those that occur without any readily identifiable eliciting stimulus)

Question 18

What is a discrete trial procedure?

Answer 18

a trial began each time a subject was placed in the puzzle box, and the subject could make only one response on each trial

Question 19

Procedure that make use of lever pressing, key pecking or similar responses are called?

Answer 19

free operant procedures

Question 20

What is a contingency?

Answer 20

a rule that states that some event will occur if and only if another event occurs

Question 21

Discuss a contingency between response and reinforcer - three-term contingency

Answer 21

operant conditioning - the reinforcer occurs if and only if the response occurs

Question 22

What are the three components in the operant conditioning contingency?

Answer 22

1. the context in which a response occurs (stimuli preceding a response)
2. the response itself
3. the stimuli that follow the response

Question 23

Discuss the magpie example of a discriminative stimulus

Answer 23

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.

Question 24

What is a discriminative stimulus

Answer 24

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

Question 25

What is acquisition in operant conditioning

Answer 25

usually a gradual process involving procedures in which a reinforcing outcome is presented

Question 26

What is extinction in operant conditioning

Answer 26

involves no longer following the operant response with a reinforcer… the response will weaken and eventually disappear

Question 27

What is a primary reinforcer

Answer 27

stimulus that naturally strengthen any response it follows… requires no special training to be effective e.g. often stimuli that are necessary for survival

Question 28

What is an example of a sensory reinforcer

Answer 28

visual stimulation

Question 29

What are secondary reinforcers

Answer 29

not effective from birth - acquire reinforcing properties through experience e.g. money

Question 30

What did Wolfe find about how secondary reinforces can acquire their reinforcing properties?

Answer 30

Through pairing with primary reinforces

Question 31

What are social reinforces?

Answer 31

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

Question 32

Why should a delay of just a few seconds have a devastating effect on learning?

Answer 32

it isn’t that rats can’t remember responses -