Operant conditioning Flashcards
What is the participant like in operant conditioning
Voluntary (conscious)
Requires the learner to be active (involved)
What are the three phases of operant conditioning
Antecedent(discriminative stimulus)-the events before the behaviour that leads to it
Behaviour- the action or response
Consequence- reinforcement or punishment
Types of consequences in operant conditioning and examples
Reinforcement-strengthen likelihood of behaviour repeating
- positive-application of a reward (eg. Lolly, food, money for good behaviour
- negative- removing something unpleasant(eg chores for good behaviour)
Punishment-weakens likelihood of behaviour repeating
- positive- applying something unpleasant(eg. Smack or push-ups)
- negative-removing something desired(taking away a toy, Mobile phone, job)
What is response cost
Negative punishment
Taking away something that is desired
What were the three phases in skinners experiment
Antecedent- hunger + new environment
Behaviour- pressing the bar
Consequence- positive reinforcement (food)
What makes a consequence effective
Oder of presentation-must follow the behaviour
Timing- immediately after the behaviour
-if it is not shown straight away won’t be associated with response
Appropriateness- reinforcement such as reward must be valued
-the punishment must be ‘fair’ and not too serve
Stimulus discrimination in operant conditioning and example
Occurs when an organism is reinforced for the behaviour in response to the correct stimulus without responding to similar stimuli
Achieved by reinforcing response to one stimulus but not other responses
Eg good behaviour for mum but not dad
Stimulus generalisation in operant conditioning and example
Occurs when a correct response is made to a similar stimulus to the one that was conditioned (reinforced)
The more similar to the stimulus that resulted in reinforced behaviour the more likely generalisation occurs
Eg. Getting praised for doing homework in one subject therefore does the same amount in another in hope of same consequence
What is acquisition in operant conditioning
The establishment of the response through consequence
Extinction in operant conditioning and example
The gradual decrease in the strength or rate of a learnt response due to consistent non reinforcement of response. When behaviour is lost extinction has occurred
Eg doing homework but continually getting bad results therefore leads to not doing homework
Spontaneous recovery in operant conditioning and example
Can occur after extinction or rest period of behaviour and involved the organism once again showing original behaviour in the absence of any reinforcement
Eg not doing homework then doing it the next day but a less amount
Comparison between classical conditioning and operant conditioning
Photo Role of learner Nature of response Timing of stimulus and response Useful words Extinction
Define operant conditioning
A form of learning where the likelihood of a particular response occurring is determined by the consequence.
A response that has desirable consequences will be repeated and a response that has undesired consequences will not be repeated.
What happened in skinners experiment
A hungry rat placed in a Skinner box. One leaver pressed the rat received food (positive reinforcement) increasing the chance of the rat pressing this again. the other leaver the rat received an electric shock(positive punishment) decreasing the chance of the rat pressing this leaver agin
Independent variable
A variable that is manipulated in some way to cause a change in what is being measured
