Operant and classical conditioning Flashcards
What is the psychology of learning?
study of how behavioural principles are responsible for the learning and unlearning of behaviour.
What are the two main types of learning?
- Behaviour changes because of stimulus presentations ( Stimulus and response)
- Behaviour changes because of stimulus-response contingencies = S and R and consequence
What is habituation?
repeated presentation of an unconditioned stimulus leading to a reduction in unconditioned response
What are some studies demonstrating habituation
Snail tapping - will stop to withdraw head into shell
Epstein et al (1992) : after trail two salivation response to taste of lemon or lime juice decreased.
What are the pros and cons of habituation
Pros: we can start to zone out any unimportant sensory input
Cons: may miss important sensory input.
What processes is habituation involved in?
stress (increased tolerance to stressors)
Pain (increased tolerance)
eating (getting use to strong flavours)
drug use (drug tolerance)
fear (desensitisation)
What is classical conditioning?
Pavlov showed how learning can occur : Unconditioned stimulus causes a natural response, this is the unconditioned response, the conditioned stimulus produces a conditioned response which is the same response as the unconditioned response.
What are three key factors in the process of classical conditioning?
Discrimination, contingency awareness, extinction
What is the role of extinction in classical conditioning?
the conditioned response will reduced then cease if the unconditioned and conditioned stimuli are not occasionally presented together. Conditioned stimuli returns to neutral. not permanent. Spontaneous recovery.
what is the role of discrimination in classical conditioning
need to ability to discriminate between conditioned, other or absence of stimuli. E.g. discriminating between bell sound vs other sounds or appearance cs+ (red light for food) vs cs- ( green when no food) - Pavlovian discrimination training.
what is the role of contingent awareness in classical conditioning?
awareness of the pairing between two stimuli, Pps can verbalise the link. When masked (by distractor task), conditioning is not seen. Pairing creates expectancy.
how does classical conditioning relate to fear and anxiety?
a fear to the a previously neutral stimulus can be conditioned resulting in a conditioned response (fear) when paired with a previous fear (unconditioned stimulus).
What is the difference between fear and anxiety?
fear : emotional response to real or perceived imminent threat, adaptive
anxiety : anticipation of future threat, maladaptive.
what is the study that demonstrate how fear can be classically conditioned, and evaluate it.
watson and rayner (1920) : little albert. fear generalisation.
unethical, lacks experimental control, poor population validity.
Beck et al (2009) : douglas merritte, not healthy, neurological issues, claims of normality
Powell et al (2014) : albert barger, long healthy life, consistent with study.
in terms of classical conditioning, why can fear be generalised
Other stimuli that have similar features to the conditioned stimuli can elicit the same conditioned response.
Adaptative for survival
maladaptive if non-threatening stimuli.
What studies demonstrate generalisation of conditioned stimulis?
Dunsmoor et al (2009) : cs+ (ambiguous face) paired with us (electric shock) neutral face not reinforced cs-. Fear to type of expression not the appearance of the face. more predisposed to generalised to things for survival.
Lissek et al (2008) : panic disorder vs control , ring size and startle blink refelx, stronger generalisation in panic patients - 3 rings.
evaluate the theory of how fear and anxiety can be conditioned?
A lot of research evidence
Individual differences : internal evolution of even effects contingency awareness, explains why some develop fears and others do not.
Davey 1995 : enhanced predisposition to associate certain stimuli with trauma
Spontaneous remission : there may be a revaluation of the unconditioned stimulus and fear symptoms may rapidly disappear with no treatment.
Explain how taste aversion can be classically conditioned?
Bad experience with food (e.g. food poisoning) no longer like the food.
Garcia effect: nausea does not come to later, we biologically still make the conditioning for survival purposes.
How can classical conditioning also be applied?
Acquisition of clinical disorders and treatment
substance abuse
consumer activity
studying brain functioning
development and application of therapies.
How can classical conditioning be applied to addiction/ substance misuse.
classical less strongly implicated then operant
cues : relapse of addiction.
what is evaluative conditioning
forming or change of an attitude due to the pairing of neutral stimulus with a positive or negative stimulus.
what study demonstrate evaluative conditioning
Staats and Staats, 1958: exp 1 dutch and Swedish, exp 2, tom and bill, names paired 18 times with either postive or negative words (us), names with positive words viewed more positively.
How does systematic desensitisation help with phobias
relaxation techniques gradually paired with stressor. start of slowly exposing the stressor.
How does flooding help with phobias
exposing individual to maximum- intensity, relaxation techniques to calm down, neutralising the fight or flight response.
Why has there been a decline in use of systematic desensitisation and flooding?
bandura 1971 - modelling is another example of exposure therapy.
Marks (1975) common factor to all these therapies is exposure. rise of CBT.
How is Virtual reality exposure therapy used for treating phobias?
useful for uncontrollable or difficult to access or inaccessible.
Evaluate exposure therapy for treating phobias
A lot of evidence.
flooding can be distressing and difficult to administer
systematic desensitisation less distressing. VRT offers modern alternative.
how is aversion therapy use to treat addiction
break a negative habit, paired with something aversive e.g. nausea medication, used unethically in mid 20th century to cure homosexuality,
what is the evaluation of aversion therapy?
unethical use in the past
work well for certain addictions where behaviours have become very risky.
what are the three term contingency for how environment affects behaviour
antecedent - behaviour - consequence
what is behaviour?
what people do and say, measured objectively,
what is a consequence
stimulus that follows behaviour, affects the probability that behaviour will occur again. reinforcement or punishment
Explain the role of reinforcer on behaviour
increases chances of behaviour happening again
positive - something added as
negative- something removed
positive reinforcement
addition of a stimulus
directly after behaviour
results in an increase in probability of behaviour happening again
what is the role of motivation in reinforcement
An motivator establishes operations, it provides a motive for the antecedent to occur in the first place and therefore the behaviour.
How is superstitious behaviour reinforced
when reinforcement ‘ accidentally’ follow a behaviour that did not produce the reinforcement. Skinner (1948) : reinforcement at regular intervals with no reference to the birds behaviour.
negative reinforcement
removal, termination, reduction or postponement of a stimulus, resulting in an increase of that behaviour happening again.
what two types of responding negative reinforcement are there?
escape contingency : response terminates stimuli
response prevents or postpones stimuli
positive vs negative reinforcement
+ produces a stimulus that was absent prior to behaviour
- terminates a stimulus that was present prior to behaviour
what factors affect reinforcement
time : stimulus needs to be delivered immediately after behaviour
contingent : reinforcement needs to follow behaviour we want to increase. should not be general.
as with contingency awareness for classical conditioning, we need to be aware of reinforcing for it to occur, what is the experiment?
Bradshaw and Reed (2012) : 6 experiments, performance on schedules of reinforcement, (positively reinforced) significantly related to awareness of performance which produced reinforcement.
what are the guidelines for applying reinforcement
positive : learner needs to know about programme, describe desired behaviour, use lots of praise a physical contact. Slowly go from tangible reinforcers to natural.
Evaluate good things about positive and negative reinforcement
- evidence for reinforcers on behaviour (skinner)
- ethical compared to punishment
- helps develop good practices
-specific about response that are being conditioned - effective in long term, intrinsic motivation occurs
evaluate bad things about positive and negative reinforcement
- have to be immediate and consistent
- could reinforce non-target behaviour
can be used unethically - can be lengthy to implement
- not useful to prevent harmful behaviours
when does extinction occur?
reinforcer no longer occurs. or for classical CS consistently shown without paired US
What are some studies that demonstrates extinction in terms of reinforcement?
Williams (1959) : duration of crying out babies measured in two extinction sessions
Lovaas and simmons (1969) : head hitting decreased from 2500 hits per hour to zero within 10 sessions.
Hasazi and Hasazi (1972) : effect of teacher attention on digit reversal.
what are the side effects of extinction?
extinction burst : behaviour may increase in frequency, duration or intensity
novel behaviour may occur
emotional responses or aggressive behaviour may occur
evaluate extinction for real life conditioning
- more ethical alternative to punishment
- take a while
- behaviour could come back more entrench if there is not full commitment
- can be difficult if reinforcement is not specified
In operant conditioning terms what is meant by punishment
process of reducing behaviour by adding or removing a consequence
whats an unconditioned punisher
stimulus whose presentation functions as punishment without having been paired with any other punishers. Pain, odours, taste
Provide some research support demonstrating positive punishment
Sajwaj et al (1974) : decreased life threatening rumination in 6 month old infant with contingent delivery of a small amount of lemon juice into child’s mouth.
list some positive punishment procedures
contingent exercise
Overcorrection:
resituational,positive practice
explain how contingent exercise is a form of positive punishment
required to perform a effortful response that is not related to the problem behaviour
Luce et al (1980) : decreased aggressive behaviour by requiring the child, contingent on hitting someone to stand up and sit down ten times
explain how overcorrection is used as a form of positive punishment
client is required to engage in effortful behaviour directly related to the problem.
resistutional: client must correct the environmental effects of the problem
positive practice: client ha to engage in correct form of relevant behaviour.
how does response cost work in regards to negative punishment
removal of a specified amount of reinforcer contingent on the occurrence of a problem behaviour, results in a decreased future probability. number of stickers, money given, time listening to music.
what factors influence the power of a stimulus to function as a punisher
contingency, immediacy and magnitude
what are the risks associated with punishment
emotional reactions
escape and avoidance
negative reinforcement of the punishers behaviour
negative modelling
fails to teach an appropriate replacement behaviour
what are the pros of using punishment
works fast and effectively
can prevent harmful behaviours
can sometimes be the most ethical option
what are the cons of using punishment
more potential for unethical use
shouldn’t be used as an easy option
doesn’t indicate which behaviours are desirable
risk of punisher accierdtally reinforcing own behaviour in an unethical way
what types of intermittent reinforcement schedules are there
ratio schedules: reinforcement is delivered based on number of responses emitted
interval schedules: reinforcement is delivered based on the first response emitted after a specified period of time.
both can subdivided into fixed or variable.
`what is fixed schedules in regards to reinforcement
fixed interval : response ratio on time requirement remains constant.
fixed ratio : response ratio after specified number of responses
what is variable schedules in regards to reinforcement
Variable ratio: the reinforcer is delivered after an average number of responses
Variable interval: the reinforcer is delivered for the first response after an average period of time
Typical responses for fixed ratio reinforcement
first response is completed with little pause, post reinforcement pause follows.
Pickens and Thompsons , 1968
cocaine reinforcement in rats, press lever for cocaine, response varied directly as function of size of fixed ratio,
typical response for variable ratio reinforcement
ratio requirements are completed with very high rate of response and little hesitation, rate of response depends on size of ratio requirment
provide some real life research demonstrating Variable ratio reinforcement
VR vs continuous scale in mountain beaver trappers.
Paid an extra 1 dollar per beaver trapped or 4 dollar per 4 beavers, in continuous group it increased by 50% but for VR4 group increased by 108%
typical response for fixed interval reinforcement
typically produces a post reinforcement pause, gradually accelerating rate of response at the end of the interval is called FI scallop.
typical response for variable interval reinforcement
steady response rate, few if any post reinforcement pause, constant and stable.
what research demonstrates variable interval reinforcement
- presses on one buttons reinforced with VI30
- presses on another concurrent button never reinforced
- superstitious responding often maintained on second button due to proximity of responding on that button with reinforcement delivered after press on first button
