Operant Conditioning Flashcards
Difference between CC and OC
-CC: stimulus is presented to get a response (reward is given to make the child have good behaviour)
-OC: when there is a response, stimulus is presented to shape response (reward is presented when a child displays good behavior)
Operant Conditioning (shaping behaviour)
-behaviours can be reinforced through rewarding consequences OR the probability of a behaviour to occur can be decreased through ignorance and punishment
-a REINFORCER strengthens the probability of a behaviour to happen again
BF Skinner & shaping
-based on law of effect: rewarded behaviour tends to be repeated
-Shaping: providing a reward each time a behaviour approaches to the target behaviour (guides response closer to goal by rewarding each step)
Skinner rat box experiment
-rats are conditioned to press a bar through shaping
-reward when rat looks at bar, when rat gets closer, when rat touches it… etc
Superstition
- belief that there is a connection between an act and a consequence but there is not. (accidental operant conditioning…it happened many times so now you think there is a connection)
-reward follows an event that had nothing to do with it
Extinction in OC
- responses that are no longer followed by a reward (reinforcers) will eventually die out
Spontaneous recovery in OC
-originally reinforced response could come back after a while (if you put the rat back in the box it will press the bar for a reward)
Generalization in OC
-response generalizes to similar reinforced stimuli (if eating from yellow cup gives reward, a bird will also eat from orange cup) AKA pigeons in skinner box
Discrimination in OC & discriminative stimuli
-distinguishing between similar reinforced stimuli (ex: place food in one yellow cup next to an empty yellow cup: bird will distinguish specific cup to eat from)
-DISCRIMINATIVE STIMULI: stimulus that signals whether or not a behaviour will be rewarded (ex: police- misbehaviour will be punished)
-In the presence of certain people (discr. stimuli) misbehaviour may be rewarded or punished (ex: might behave differently in front of mom vs grandma)
Goal of reinforcement
increasing probability of a response
Types of reinforcement
- Positive: rewards (gifts,money,…)
- Negative: *Not punishment, a good behaviour takes away a negative stimulus (ex: taking advil (response) takes away headache (negative stimulus))- removal of negative stimulus encourages you to to take action again -doing something to make something negative go away(ex: negative reinforcement of car alarm that rings to provoke response of buckling seatbelt)
Types of reinforcers
- primary: unlearned and fulfills basic physiological needs (ex: food and sleep are necessary for survival)- naturally satisfying
- Secondary (conditioned) reinforcers: learned through experience (ex: money, praise, attention)
*tantrums should be ignored otherwise attention will reinforce it
3 factors that influence OC
1) magnitude of reinforcement (pay of 20$ vs 200$ changes work quality)
2) immediacy of reinforcement (must be right after for immediate connection)
3) level of motivation of the learner (needs to have a minimum of motivation)
Biological influences in CC vs OC
-CC: staying away from hamburgers because you got food poisoning
-OC: you can’t teach a rat to wash their face by rewarding them with food because it is unnatural for animals to wash their face
Cognitive influences in CC vs OC
-CC: thoughts, perceptions and expectations can weaken the association between CS and US (ex: trying to get someone to stop consuming alcohol by getting them a pill to make them sick when they do: does not work because the person is aware that they are only sick because of the pill)
-OC: animals may develop an expectation that a response will be reinforced or punished, without actual reinforcement.
