Lesson 3- Behaviourist approach- Operant conditioning & Skinner’s research Flashcards
What is operant conditioning?
Operant conditioning- form of learning where 🏃♂ shaped & maintained by consequences (punishment, ➕ or ➖ reinforcement)
What is positive ➕ reinforcement?
Positive ➕ reinforcement- ➕ reward when doing 🏃♂ e.g. sticker for competing HW
What is negative ➖ reinforcement?
Negative ➖ reinforcement- perform 🏃♂ to avoid some thing unpleasant e.g. doing HW to ✖️ get detention
What is punishment?
Punishment- unpleasant consequences caused by certain 🏃♂ e.g. shouted at by 👩🏫 for ✖️ doing HW
Who investigated operant conditioning & when did they do so?
Skinner (1953)
What animals did Skinner conduct his research on?
Skinner- conducted research on pigeons 🐦 & 🐀
What specialised apparatus did Skinner use?
“The Skinner box”
What is the Skinner box?
Skinner box- cage with loud speakers, lights, lever, door & floor which could be electrified⚡️
Outline Skinner’s method
1 hungry 🐀 placed in skinner box & allowed to freely run round
🐀 rewarded food pellet when lever hit (dropped into skinner box … positive reinforcement)
🐀 soon learns that pressing lever-> reward (food pellet)
🐀 also learns that by pressing lever it avoids something unpleasant (stops electric⚡️shock conducted via floor … negative reinforcement)
How did Skinner investigate extinction & spontaneous recovery?
Extinction- 🐀 presses lever BUT no longer receives reward (food pellet) … 🐀 soon learns that pressing lever-> ✖️ rewards … 🐀 stops pressing lever
Spontaneous recovery- following extinction (see ⬆️)- if 🐀 presses lever & does suddenly receive food pellet then 🐀 quickly learns that pressing lever-> food pellet
What are schedules of reinforcement?
Schedules of reinforcement- different methods of reinforcement that might occur
What are the 3 schedules of reinforcement?
1) Continuous reinforcement- every time 🐀 presses lever- always receives food pellet
2) Fixed Interval- rat presses lever & only receives food pellet during fixed time e.g. every 30 seconds
3) Fixed ratio- 🐀 must press lever for fixed no. of times & then receives food pellet
What are the evaluation points of operant conditioning?
👎- ethical issues- 🐀 & pigeons 🐦 placed in Skinner box under stressful conditions- could have had ➖ effect upon psychological & physical health of the animals- shouldn’t be done to humans … Q whether should’ve been done to animals
ALSO- difficulty generalising results gained from animals to humans- animals different to humans & … results Skinner gained might not be applicable to humans
👍- research support for operant conditioning in real world- token economy used in institutions e.g. prisons & hospitals 🏥- acts as 🏃♂ modification- rewards appropriate 🏃♂ with tokens- exchanged for privileges- Paul & Lentz used token economy to treat patients with schizophrenia- found that their 🏃♂ became ⬆️ appropriate
👎- ignores biological approach- biological approach argues that 🏃♂ heavily influenced by genes, hormones etc … other approaches in psychology must also be considered when examining influence upon 🏃♂ as operant conditioning/learning ✖️ explain all 🏃♂ e.g. anger 😡
👍- Skinner relied on experimental method- used ⬆️ controlled conditions to discover relationship between variables to establish cause & effect relationship e.g. pressing lever causes the 🐀 to learn food will arrive (reward)
