Operant Conditioning Flashcards
Define positive reinforcement
Occurs when something pleasant is given in response of a desired behaviour
Define negative reinforcement
Occurs when something unpleasant is taken away in response of a desired behaviour
Define positive punishment
Occurs when something unpleasant is given in response to an undesired behaviour
Define negative punishment
Occurs when something pleasant is taken away in response to an undesired behaviour
Define primary reinforcement
Satisfies a basic need such as hunger, thirst etc
Define secondary reinforcement
Doesn’t satisfy a basic need but allows us to get an object that will
eg money, loyalty cards
Define continuous reinforcement
When a desired behaviour is reinforced every time it is displayed
Define fixed ratio reinforcement
When reinforcement takes place after a certain number of times the desired behaviour is displayed
eg paid for every 100 items a person makes in a factory, immediately after they have a break and then work hard on the next 100
Define variable ratio reinforcement
When reinforcement takes place after an unpredictable average number of times the desired behaviour is displayed
eg gamblers receive pay outs after variable numbers of attempts, it’s persistent even without guarantee
Define partial reinforcement
When reinforcements are offered for some instances of the desired behaviour being displayed
Define fixed interval reinforcement
When reinforcement takes place after a set amount of time if the desired behaviour has been displayed in that period of time
eg kid receives pocket money each Saturday if they’ve tidied their room during the week
Define variable interval reinforcement
When reinforcement takes place after an unpredictable, average amount of time for desired behaviour
Give 2 strengths of operant conditioning
Vaughan et al - found calves could learn to associate a stall with urinating, through the use of rewards
Weiss and Wilson - gave 4 tortoises food as reward and the tortoises learned to approach the red plastic ball on a stick
Videan et al - used positive reinforcement to train chimpanzees to present parts of their body for anaesthetic injections causing the animal less stress compared to those that had to be restrained
Give 2 weaknesses of operant conditioning
Most of the studies use animals, reducing generalisability
Breland and Breland - gave pigs a reward for putting a wooden token into a piggy bank. The pigs did not do this but would drop it in imitation of their natural rooting behaviour. Concluded that OC only works if it’s reinforcing behaviour similar to natural behaviour
