Operant Conditioning

Question 1

Instrumental/Operant Conditioning

Answer 1

The ability to learn about the relationship between behaviors and consequences

Question 2

Procedures of Operant Conditioning

Answer 2

A phenomenon (change in behavior after learning) is a change in behavior after experiencing the procedure (the actual conditioning/learning)
The procedure of operant conditioning:
1. Environmental Context
2. A behavior in that context
3. An event that follows that behavior (consequence)
Removal or presentation of consequence
Appetitive or aversive events

Question 3

First Instrumental Conditioning Experiments

Answer 3

Thorndike: Cat in a Box, Chicks in a Maze
BF Skinner: Eating Reflex

Question 4

Cat in the Box

Answer 4

“Helping hands of instinct”, credited with the first published experiment on instrumental learning.
He said that the reason that the animal could get out of the box was that they had instinct → natural instinct to explore

Question 5

Chicks in a Maze

Answer 5

The mazes were constructed from bookends
Over repeated trials, the time to escape decreased
The mazes are now used as a memory task

Question 6

BF Skinner: Eating Reflex

Answer 6

Motivation to eat; seize, chew, and swallow
Driven by olfaction, visual and tactical
Strength of the eating reflex
He thought that eating was an innate reflex (not true)
In his view, we are a product of our environment
This sparked the experimental design

Question 7

Shaping by Successive Approximation

Answer 7

This means that we are rewarding behaviors as they get closer and closer to the final/target behavior
We start our broad and then offer rewards for anything
Ex: Kicking a ball in the direction of the goal, then getting rewarded. After that behavior, we then only reward when the ball is kicked into the goal. Then we move on to only rewarding when the ball is kicked into a specific corner

Question 8

Backward Chaining

Answer 8

The last action in the sequence is trained first and each preceding action is added one at a time until the entire chain of actions is performed
Ex: We have the kid learn to kick the ball into the goal. Then they have to back up and learn to kick the ball from the midline. Then they have the backup and kick it from the other goal dribble it to the midline and kick it into the goal

Question 9

Reinforcer

Answer 9

A stimulus/event that has the ability to produce a change in the strength of a reflex or behavior by virtue of its relationship to the CS

Question 10

Reinforcement

Answer 10

An event that increases the rate or probability of occurrence of that behavior when that event is either presented, removed, or canceled following that behavior and the procedure of arranging the temporal relationship between behavior and reinforce

Question 11

Positive Reinforcement

Answer 11

A procedure that increases the probability of behavior by presenting a positive reinforcer
Appetitive events/rewards

Question 12

Negative Reinforcement

Answer 12

A procedure that increases the probability of behavior through removing or canceling a negative reinforcer
Negative reinforcers include the removal or canceling of aversive events

Question 13

Primary Reinforcer

Answer 13

function as reinforcers with little or no experience required
Food, water, sex, pain, social interactions (ex: attention, smiling)

Question 14

Secondary Reinforcer

Answer 14

function as reinforcers as a result of experience, typically the result of pavlovian conditioning
Money: value determined by its “exchange rate” in the future
What does it give you in the future
What can it get you such as $1 gets you a candy bar whereas $20 will give you a mean
Ex: working to be able to sit in specific chairs in the classroom in order to sit next to their friends (relates to social interaction)
The chair itself is not a primary reinforcement so it is a secondary reinforcement

Question 15

Learning is based on…

Answer 15

Gradual increases in strength of something as a result of repeated experiences
Strength is reflected in the rate of occurrence or reduction in error
resistance to extinction
If a behavior that continues to be followed by an otherwise effective positive reinforcement becomes less effective, frequent, or persistent, then it would be inappropriate to describe that reinforcement as originally strengthening that behavior
We should see a gradual increase in learning
Resisting extinction is also an indication of the learning
Ex: kicking the ball into the goal even without anyone around and without praise

Question 16

Do reinforcers strengthen behaviors?

Answer 16

No, it does not reinforce behaviors

Question 17

Elliot (1928) Experiment

Answer 17

Trained two groups of rats, one group was trained to run the maze with sunflower seeds and the other with bran mash (it is tastier than the seeds)
The ones with the bran mash learned faster with fewer errors than the sunflower seeds
They switched the rewards of the groups
The original bran mash group performed worse after the switch
By shifting of the reinforcers, it changes the contingencies of the reward
They spent their time looking for the other rewards

Question 18

Escape Conditioning

Answer 18

Negative reinforcer present and the individual does something to terminate it, getting out of unpleasant situations, lever press to turn off the shock
Ex: your ex goes to the same restaurant you are at. You then find a way to avoid the situation

Question 19

Avoidance Conditioning

Answer 19

aversive events will occur unless the individual does something to cancel it. Learning to avoid the negative reinforce
Learning to avoid it in the first place
Ex: you know that your ex goes to a certain restaurant to avoid them
We learn to avoid primary reinforcers quicker and better than secondary reinforcers

Question 20

Learned Helplessness

Answer 20

learning how to brace for the shock instead of learning how to avoid it

Question 21

Punishment by application (positive punishment)

Answer 21

Positive contingency + negative reinforce (aversive event)
Decrease the likelihood of the the target behavior occurring in the future by delivery of an aversive stimulus

Question 22

Punishment by Removal (omission training)

Answer 22

Negative contingency + positive reinforce
Removal of access to an appetitive stimulus to reduce behavior or being “grounded”