Operant Conditioning

Question 1

What is Operant Conditioning based on?

Answer 1

Learning through consequence or reinforcement.

Question 2

What does Reinforcement mean?

Answer 2

When the desired behaviour is rewarded. This makes it more likely to be repeated.

Question 3

What does Positive Reinforcement mean?

Answer 3

Rewards desired behaviour by adding something pleasant, i.e. money.

Question 4

What does Negative Reinforcement mean?

Answer 4

Rewards desired behaviour by removing something unpleasant, i.e. taking away pain or distress.

Question 5

What is Primary Reinforcement?

Answer 5

When the reward is something we want naturally.

Question 6

What is Secondary Reinforcement?

Answer 6

A reward we have learned to value, i.e. value.

Question 7

What does Punishment mean?

Answer 7

When an undesireable behaviour produces unpleasant consequences.

Question 8

What does Positive Punishment mean?

Answer 8

Punishes undesireable behaviour by adding something unpleasant, i.e. a shock.

Question 9

What does Negative Punishment mean?

Answer 9

Punishment by removing something pleasant, i.e. taking away the Xbox.

Question 10

In order for conditioning to be effective, what must it be?

Answer 10

• Contingent
• Contiguent

Question 11

What does Contingent mean?

Answer 11

There’s a clear link between the person’s behaviour and the consequence it produces.

Question 12

What does Contiguent mean?

Answer 12

The consequence follows soon after the behaviour - if there’s a long delay, conditioning is weakened.

Question 13

Punishment doesn’t help achieve the desired behaviour, it…

Answer 13

…just makes the undesired behaviour less likely.

Question 14

What did Skinner carry out his research on?

Answer 14

Animals, famously rats.

Question 15

What was “Skinner’s Box”?

Answer 15

A box that contained a lever, light and food dispenser.

Question 16

How was “Skinner’s Box” used to condition the rats?

Answer 16

If the rat pressed the lever, the light came on and a food pellet rolled down the chute. At first the rat did it by accident, but repeated the behaviour after recieving the food (reward) - positive conditioning.

Question 17

How was Skinner’s study Contingent and Contiguent?

Answer 17

Contingent = the light came on alerting the rat to what it had done.

​Contiguent = food dispensed immediately.

Question 18

What did Skinner do in his variation study to understand negative reinforcement?

Answer 18

Electrified the floor and made the lever turn off the current for 30 seconds - the rat learns to remove something painul by pressing the lever.

Question 19

What did Skinner find in his variation study?

Answer 19

Rats learned to press the lever, but not as quickly as the rats that were positively reinforced.

Question 20

What is a Continuous schedule?

Answer 20

Given behaviour produces reinforcement/punishment every time it occurs. Reinforcement/punishment is predictable.

Question 21

What are Fixed Ratio schedules?

Answer 21

When a given behaviour produces reinforcement (or punishment) only after a certain number of responses have been performed. Reinforcement/punishment is predictable.

Question 22

What are the features of Fixed Ratio?

Answer 22

• Reward turns up every time the desired behaviour is carried out, so often.
• If you don’t do behav, you get nothing. If you work fast, you get a lot.
• Learning is fast and extinction is moderate.

Question 23

What are Variable Ratio schedules?

Answer 23

When a given behaviour produces reinforcement/punishment only after a certain number of responses have been performed. Reinforcement/punishment is unpredictable.

Question 24

Whare are the features of Variable Ratio?

Answer 24

• Reward is dispensed randomly, after a changing number of behaviours, i.e. feeding the rat after one lever-press, then 5, then 3.
• Learning is fast and extinction is slow.

Question 25

What are Fixed Interval schedules?

Answer 25

A given behaviour produces reinforcement/punishment only after a certain amount of time has passed. Reinforcement/punishment is predictable.

Question 26

What are the features of Fixed Interval?

Answer 26

• Reward turns up at regular time.
• Desireable behav increases in run-up to reward.
• Learning is medium and extinction is medium.

Question 27

What are Variable Interval schedules?

Answer 27

A given behaviour produces reinforcement/punishment only after a certain amount of time has passed. Reinforcement/punishment is unpredictable.

Question 28

What are the features of Variable Interval?

Answer 28

• Reward turns but not sure when.
• Desireable behav increases more slowly but stays at steady rate.
• Learning is fast but extinction is slow.

Question 29

What is Shaping?

Answer 29

Involves changing the reinforcement to produce very precise behaviour.

Question 30

How does Shaping work?

Answer 30

1. You reward any behaviour in the general direction you want.
2. Later, you reward behaviours that are similar to the specific behaviour you have in mind.
3. Eventually, you only reward the specific behaviour you are looking for.

Question 31

How can operant conditioning explain Phobias?

Answer 31

If the feared thing is removed when you scream and cry, then fearful behaviour is negatively reinforced (removes something unpleasant).

If other people show concern, share their own fears or pay attention, then fear is positively reinforced too (adds something pleasant).

Question 32

How does shaping appear in Systematic Desensitisation?

Answer 32

If someone has a fear of spiders, you might reward them at first for looking at pictures of spiders, then at a spider in the same room but far away, and eventually holding one.

Question 33

How do Token Economy Programmes use operant conditioning?

Answer 33

Involve rewarding/punishing people by awarding or deducting tokens. Tokens are a secondary reinforcer but can be handed in for a positive reinforcer, i.e. gifts.

Question 34

What is needed for TEP to be effective?

Answer 34

• Well-known list of what behaviours are rewarded and how many tokens they’re worth.
• Well-known exchange rate of what can be bought with tokens.
• Staff need to be trained to award the tokens consistently and fairly.

Question 35

What evidence is there for Operant conditioning?

Answer 35

Skinner (1948):

• Skinner’s box provides evidence for operant conditioning, especially with the rats in his box.
  
  • Rats would accidently flick a lever at first which would dispense food (positive reinforcement).
  • Variation used electric floor, rat would flick lever to stop electric floor for 30 seconds (negative reinforcement).
    
    • Provides good evidence for operant conditioning.

However…

• Skinner used animals, i.e. rats and pigeons, so evidence may make the theory less applicable to humans due to physiological and psychological differences between rats and humans.
  
  • Makes theory less applicable to humans.

Question 36

What are the applications of operant conditioning?

Answer 36

Token economies can be used with addicts or mental health patients, so long as the patient agrees to the TEP and has a say in what tokens are acquired for and what they can be spent on.

• Mestel & Concar (1994) reported a successful programme to reward cocaine addicts who stayed ‘clean’ with vouchers for local shops.

Question 37

What are the objections of operant conditioning?

Answer 37

Theory focuses entirely on nurture side of the nature/nurture debate. It’s possible that some people are born with biological predispositions towards behaviour, rather than learning them through conditioning. This may explain why people turn to crime or develop musical talent without being reinforced.

Also ignores cognitions (thought-processes), e.g. personality, willpower and motivation.