operant conditioning

Question 1

operant conditioning

Answer 1

Proposed by Skinner and states that behaviour is learnt through punishment and reinforcement.

Question 2

reinforcement

Answer 2

Positive reinforcement - increases the likelihood that a behaviour will be repeated. It uses consequences that are pleasant when they happen, for example using rewards - training your dog with treats.
Negative reinforcement - increases the likelihood of a behaviour being repeated. It uses consequences that are pleasant when they stop, for example if a child touches a hot radiator they hurt their hand. When they remove their hand the pain stops.
Punishment - decreases the likelihood of a behaviour being repeated. It uses consequences that are unpleasant when they happen, for example a teenager that comes home late could be punished by being grounded.

Question 3

Skinner box

Answer 3

Skinner designed an experiment to demonstrate the principles of operant conditioning. A rat or pigeon was placed in a “Skinner box”.
There was a rat in a box and they pressed a lever and food arrived.
Everytime the rat activated the lever within the box, it was rewarded with food. (positive reinforcement)
From then on, the animal would continue to perform the behaviour.
In Skinner’s box, the floor was also electrified which caused the rat to desperately move around until it finally knocked a lever by accident which immediately seized the flow of electric current. (negative reinforcement)
After a few times, the rat had learnt to go directly to the lever in order to prevent itself from the discomfort.

Question 4

reinforcement schedule

Answer 4

Extending his work, Skinner varied the reinforcement schedule. If a food reinforcer is not dispensed for every lever press, but to a predetermined schedule, then different response patterns will emerge.
Skinner experimented by using different ratio schedules, e.g. food would be dispensed every 5th lever press. He discovered that unpredictable reinforcement was more successful for conditioning behaviour than continuous reinforcement.
This is because it produces a steady rate of behaviour
This behaviour is highly resistant to stopping because they want the food
They will repeat the behaviour until they get the food.

Question 5

evaluation - ethical issues

Answer 5

Physical harm to animals. Also use of animals means results cannot be generalised.

Question 6

evaluation - lab experiment

Answer 6

Reliable, controlled, can establish cause and effect.
Low ecological validity therefore results cannot be generalised.

Question 7

real life application

Answer 7

Zone boards and star charts at school positively reinforce children.