Operant Conditioning Flashcards
Operant conditioning is to do with the fact that you have ________.
control/choice
Name the famous puzzle box in operant conditioning.
Thorndike’s puzzle box
Describe what happened in Thorndike’s puzzle box.
- Hungry cat in box
- Food outside box
- Lever in box can open door
- By chance it stepped on lever
What happened to the cat over time in Thorndike’s puzzle box?
It got quicker at stepping on the lever over time.
The cat in the puzzle box seemed to be ______ something.
learning
In operant conditioning, learning is _____. There is no ____ ______.
gradual. sudden insight.
The cat learnt by ____ and ____. This _____ responses that didn’t work (give it food).
trial and error, eliminated
What is instrumental learning?
The organism behaves in a certain way for a certain outcome.
In a given situation, a response followed by a satisfying consequence will be _______ likely to occur. A response followed by an annoying consequence will become ____ likely to occur. What is this known as?
more, less
The law of effect
Summarise the law of effect.
Response with good consequence= more likely to occur
Response with bad consequence= less likely to occur
Behaviour is ______ and ______ by its ______.
shaped, maintained, consequences
Operant conditioning is based on the study of the effects that patterns of ______ and ______ have on behaviour.
rewards and costs
Operant conditioning is based on what type of response?
Emitted responses
What does an emitted response mean?
That you can chose your response
What type of response is classical conditioning based on?
Elicited responses
What is an elicited response?
A response that is natural to the body, can’t help it, almost instinctive.
What was B.F ‘Fred’ Skinner (1904-1990) involved in?
Radical behaviour, and he coined the term- Operant Conditioning
Name- A class of behaviours on which a reinforce is made contingent.
Operant
Behaviour operates upon the ____ to produce a _____ in the environment.
environment, change
What will a consequence of a behaviour effect?
The subsequent frequency of that behaviour.
______ always INCREASE (strengthen) response rates.
Reinforcers
Reinforcement can be ______ or ______.
positive, negative
Give an example of positive reinforcement.
Something is given to you eg. chocolate
Give an example of negative reinforcement.
Something annoying is taken away from you eg. removal of annoying noise
Punishments always ______ response _____.
Decrease/ weaken response rates
Give an example of positive punishment.
You are GIVEN and electric shock.
Give an example of negative punishment.
Sweets are TAKEN away from you.
Negative reinforcement/punishment means something is __________.
taken away from you
Positive reinforcement/punishment means that something is _________.
given to you
What can Operant Conditioning be shortened to?
OC
How many parts are there to Operant Conditioning?
3
Name the 3 parts to OC.
Antecedent
Behaviours
Consequences
ABC!
What is the Antecedent Stage?
The stimulus that exists before the relevant behaviour. eg. lights on then switched off
Describe the Behaviour Stage.
The animal emits a behaviour- they have a choice. eg. quiet or keep talking
Describe consequence stage.
Some effect that the environment then has upon the animal based upon its earlier behaviour. eg. praised or told off.
What stimulus acts as a signal, in the presence of which responses are emitted or suppressed?
A discriminative stimulus
What is a discriminative stimulus similar to?
It is similar to the pavlovian condition stimulus.
Why is the discriminative stimulus similar to the Pavlovian condition stimulus?
because it acts as a Predictor of environmental contingencies.
However what differentiates the discriminative stimulus from the Pavlovian Condition stimulus?
The discriminative stimulus does not elicit a response.
The discriminative stimulus acts as a ______ that a particular behaviour will be associated with particular ________.
signal, consequences
Give an example of operant conditioning and explain why.
Training a dog to sit and using rewards
however dog doesn’t sit down at every opportunity- this doesn’t produce a reward
Saying sit= discriminative stimulus
Name the 2 types of stimuli or reinforcement.
Primary and secondary
A stimulus that is automatically valued by the organism as they satisfy a biological need, is known as ______.
a primary stimuli
Give an example of Primary stimulus/reinforcement
Food!
A Secondary stimulus/reinforcement acquires ______ properties through their association with _____ ______.
reinforcing
primary reinforcers
Name an example of secondary reinforcement.
praise
what is secondary reinforcement a good example of?
how behaviour is often a mix of classical and operant conditioning.
What is operant extinction?
The weakening and eventual disappearance of a behaviour that is no longer reinforced.
Resistance to extinction can vary greatly depending on how the response was _____ acquired and level of ___/_____.
initially, reward, punishment
In operant conditioning what consequence is best to achieve an effect?
Immediate Consequence
A ____ consequence still works but not so _____.
delayed, strongly
A complex or unlikely behaviour can be established by ____ ______ (moving forward) to the desired response pattern, in a ___ by ___ idea. This is known as _____.
Shaping
Define Chaining.
Conditioning several behaviours to happen in succession and be dependent on a prior response.
A response will occur with other antecedents that are similar to the one that was initially present during learning. Name this.
Operant Generalisation
What is Operant Discrimination?
A response will be given to the learned antecedents but not one which is markedly different.
What does Generalisation or Discrimination enable researchers to ascertain?
Whether animals can tell the difference between 2 types of stimulus eg. colours, faces, sizes etc.
Reinforcers occur at different _____ in real life and this determines the ____ of reinforcement.
frequencies, strength
What is continuous reinforcement?
Every response of the desired nature is reinforced.
when only some of the desired responses are reinforced this is known as ______ _______.
Partial reinforcement
There are __ different types of Partial Reinforcement.
4
Name the 4 different types of partial reinforcement.
- Fixed Interval
- Variable Interval
- Fixed Ratio
- Variable Ratio
What type of partial reinforcement gives the poorest response?
Fixed Interval
Describe fixed interval partial reinforcement.
The reinforcement occurs after fixed number of responses/time interval and a certain amount of time elapses before next reinforcement.
When interval time is varied/changed so that the reinforcement is more random, giving a slightly better response, this is known as _____ ______.
Variable Interval
Fixed Ratio is when a certain ____ of responses are reinforced after a _____ number of responses/time interval.
percentage, fixed
eg. fixed percent’s :)
____ ratio is the best type of partial reinforcement to get the best response.
Variable
Define Variable Ratio.
Reinforcement occurs after a random % of responses are reinforced.
Although Continuous Reinforcement is the best ____ for ______. What does it produce?
schedule, learning
It produces the quickest extinction
What is the best way for fast learning and resistance to extinction?
To start with continuous reinforcement and when the behaviour is well established, to switch to a variable schedule that gradually becomes less frequent.
describe Avoidance Conditioning.
Some antecedent predicts the onset of an unpleasant stimulus allowing the animal to avoid it via an appropriate behavioural response.
Why is it difficult to extinguish avoidance conditioning?
As the animal will have to be exposed to the antecedent which it will probably be unwilling to do.
Escape conditioning is when ________.
An animal learns a response that gets them away from an unpleasant stimulus. EG. RUN
