Motivation

Question 1

How can low levels and high levels of motivation be problematic?

Answer 1

Too little = hard to get anything done
Too much = hard to get anything else done

Question 2

How does operant conditioning involve learning two different associations?

Answer 2

1. A cue in the environment triggers an action
2. An action triggers an outcome

Question 3

How can we change an individual’s motivation for behavior?

Answer 3

by changing the frequency or reliability of the outcome
or establishing a really strong habit

Question 4

What is a positive reinforcer

Answer 4

Increase the associated action
Add something (reward)

Question 5

What is a positive punisher

Answer 5

Decrease the associated action
Adding something (punishment)

Question 6

What is a Negative reinforcer

Answer 6

Increase the associated action
Remove something (take away punishment)

Question 7

What is a negative punisher

Answer 7

Decrease the associated action
Negative punisher (take away reward)

Question 8

Why does punishment not work

Answer 8

Punishers don’t increase good behaviors, they just reduce unwanted ones (not a permanent solution)

Question 9

What is a habit?

Answer 9

Doing an action on cue
not deliberate

Question 10

When are habits revealed

Answer 10

when the outcome doesn’t match what we expected from our action because the situation has changed

Question 11

How are habits useful

Answer 11

free up our cognition for other problems

Question 12

What are effective cues?

Answer 12

Cues that don’t contradict the desired action and outcome
Cues that are specific to the situation

Question 13

What is a post reinforcement pause?

Answer 13

The pause in outcome is a post reinforcement pause
Common when we hit a milestone
variable/random schedules you don’t know what to expect, there is high levels of responding

Question 14

What is a fixed interval

Answer 14

An amount of time needs to be passed before reinforcement
Number of times or amount of time that passes is set

Question 15

What is a Fixed ratio

Answer 15

Behavior needs to occur a number of times before reinforcement
Number of times or amount of time that passes is set

Question 16

What is a variable interval

Answer 16

An amount of time needs to be passed before reinforcement
Number of times or amount of time that passes is random

Question 17

What is a variable ratio

Answer 17

Behavior needs to occur a number of times before reinforcement
Number of times or amount of time that passes is random

Question 18

How is dopamine a learning signal, but not a pleasure signal?

Answer 18

The first few times a cue or an action predicts an outcome, dopamine neurons fire to the reward
But once learning has happened, dopamine neurons now fire to the predictive cue, not the pleasurable reward