Operant Conditioning Flashcards
What is avoidance behaviour?
Behaviour that occurs before the aversive stimulus is presented and therefore prevents its delivery.
What are contrived reinforcers?
Reinforces that have been deliberately arranged to modify a behaviour, which are not typical consequence of the behaviour in that setting.
Give another name for contrived reinforcers.
Artificial reinforcers.
What is a discriminative stimulus?
A stimulus in the presence of which responses are reinforced and in the absence of which they are not reinforced; a stimulus that signals the availability of reinforcement.
What is a discriminative stimulus for extinction?
A stimulus that signals the absence of reinforcement.
What is a discriminative stimulus for punishment?
A stimulus that signals that a response will be punished.
Define escape behaviour.
A behaviour that results in the termination of an aversive stimulus.
Define extrinsic reinforcement.
The reinforcement provided by a consequence that is external to the behaviour (an extrinsic reinforcer).
What is a generalised (or generalised secondary) reinforcer?
A type of secondary reinforcer that has been associated with several other reinforcers.
What is intrinsic reinforcement?
Reinforcement provided by the mere act of performing the behaviour, or where the performance of the behaviour is inherently reinforcing.
Explain the law of effect.
As stated by Thorndike, the proposition that behaviours that lead to a satisfying state of affairs are strengthened, while behaviours that lead to an unsatisfying or annoying state are weakened.
What are natural reinforcers?
Reinforcers that are a typical consequence of the behaviour in the setting.
What is negative punishment?
The removal of a rewarding stimulus after a response, leading to a decrease in the strength of that response.
What is negative reinforcement?
The removal of an aversive stimulus following a response, leading to an increase in the strength of that response.
What is operant behaviour?
A class of emitted responses that result in certain consequences, which affect the future probability of the strength of those responses.
What is positive punishment?
The presentation of an aversive stimulus following a response.
What is positive reinforcement?
Presentation of a rewarding stimulus following a response.
What is a primary reinforcer?
An event that is innately reinforcing.
Give another name for a primary reinforcer.
Unconditioned reinforcer.
What is a punisher?
An event that follows a behaviour and decreases he future probability of that behaviour.
What is a reinforcer?
An event that follows a behaviour and increases the future probability of that behaviour.
Give another name for a secondary reinforcer.
Conditioned reinforcer.
What is a secondary reinforcer?
An event that is reinforcing because it has been associated with some other reinforcer.
Define shaping.
The gradual creation of new operant behaviour through reinforcement of successive approximations to that behaviour.
What is the three-term contingency?
The relationship between a discriminative stimulus, an operant behaviour, and a reinforcer or punisher.
Why is operant conditioning sometimes called instrumental conditioning?
The response is instrumental in producing the consequence.
Who first used operant conditioning?
Thorndike.
Thorndike believed that the intellectual ability of animals could be assessed only through:
Systematic investigation.
Who is the most prominent psychologist associated with operant conditioning?
Skinner.
What device did Skinner invent?
The operant conditioning chamber.
What is Skinner’s procedure known as?
The free operant procedure.
Why is Skinner’s procedure called the free operant procedure?
The rat freely responds with a particular behaviour for food, and it can do so at any rate.
What behaviours did Skinner call “operant behaviours”?
Voluntary behaviours that are controlled by their consequences.
What did Skinner disagree with Thorndike about?
Thorndike’s mentalistic description of consequences as either satisfying or annoying.
What does Skinner’s principle of operant condition resemble?
Darwin’s natural selection.
The operant conditioning process can be conceptualised as involving three components:
A response that produces a consequence, the consequence that serves to either decrease or increase the probability of the response, and a discriminative stimulus that precedes the response and signals that a certain consequence is now available.
Classically conditioned behaviours are elicited by ___, operant behaviours are emitted by the ___.
Stimuli, organism.
Operant behaviour is usually defined as a:
Class of responses.
The terms reinforcement and punishment refer to what?
The process or procedure by which a consequence changes behaviour.
What are reinforcers and punishers defined entirely by?
Their effect on behaviour.
The terms reinforcer and punisher refer to what?
The actual consequences of the behaviour.
Explain extinction operantly.
The weakening of a behaviour through the withdrawal of reinforcement for that behaviour.
When does a contingency of reinforcement exist?
If a response is followed by a reinforcer.
When does a contingency of punishment exist?
If a response is followed by a punisher.
Give another name for contingencies.
Response-consequence relationships.
Negative reinforcement involves two types of behaviour:
Escape and avoidance.
The more ___ the reinforcer, the stronger its effect on behaviour.
Immediate.
