Operant/instrumental Flashcards
what is instrumental conditioning
associating an action/response with a biologically significant stimulus/event
describe thorndikes famous procedure
discrete trial
cat in puzzle box - food out of reach
come to solutions to reach food progressively faster
describe skinners famous procedure
free operant behaviour
rat in skinner box - food presentation conditioned on lever press and progressively increase lever pressing behaviour
what is a discriminative stimulus
predicts when a response will be rienforced
learn to exhibit the behavior in the presence of the discriminative stimulus
what is different about the responses in operant conditioning compared to classical
in operant, the responses are not necessarily innate/biological
ie lever pressing, key pecking etc
describe sara shettleworth 70s
certain responses operantly conditioned better to certain stimulus
hamsters conditioned to associated feeding with scrabbling but not with face washing or scratching
describe thorndikes law of effect
behaviours with positive consequences are repeated
behaviours with negative consequences are not repeated
pos rienforcement - repeat
pos punishment - avoid/escape
neg rienforcement - repeat
neg punishment - decrease
define reinforcement
leads to a change in the strength of a behaviour due to its consequence
describe catonia 1998 guidelines for op conditioning
the behaviour must have a consequence and therefore must increase in strength. this increase in strength must be due primarily to its consequence
define pos rienforcement
get something good so repeat
ie rat get food for pressing lever
define neg rienforcement
take away bad so repeat
ie pressing lever remove electric shock
defne pos punishment
get given bad so do not repeat
ie pressing lever cause shock
define neg punishment
remove something good so do not repeat
ie press lever removes food
what types of rienforcers are there
natural
contrived
primary
secondary
define a natural rienforcer
behaviour leads to a natural consequence ie eating choc = happier
define contrived rienforcer
behaviour leads to an arranged consequence to modify its frequency ie exchange of goods
define primary rienforcers
naturally rienforcing
ie food, water, sex
small impact on human learning
quickly become satiation making ineffective
define secondary rienforcers
dependent on association with primary
ie money buy food
more effective as doesnt lead to satiation
define higher/second order conditoning
stimulus and consequence learnt for the basis of learning with another stimulus
ie secondary rienforcers learned through association with primary
describe yde 1976 and higher order conditioning
group 1 learnt that tone = food
group 2 do not learn association as tone and food random
BOTH - lever press = tone
group 1 - increase in lever press to play tone to present food
group 2 - did not learn lever press = tone
as probability of rienforcer response becomes
define contiguity
relationship between cs and us
occurance of stimulus leading to response
ie if delayed, then other factors intervene, attention lost and not conditioned
define blocking
dont learn new stimulus signalling an unconditioned stimulus - new stimulus is presented simultaneously with a stimulus that is already effective as a signal
cs =cr
cs+ns = cr
ns = no response
stimulus is already effective in predicting response
give and example of blocking
conditioning a tone with a shock
cs (tone) + ns (light) + us (shock) = ur (fear)
ns (light) + cs (tone) = ur (fear)
ns (light) = no response
but ns (tone) + ns (light) + us (shock) = ur (fear) - both ns are novel so both learnt to produce fear for consequence of shock
describe extinction
strength of response diminishes over time as learn that stimulus no longer leads to a response
shows that associations are felxible
important to adapt to change
describe motivation as impact on learning
associations can be strengthened if motivated to get the response ie hungry so want food
what other factors are also influential on learning
genes
cognition
arousal
Describe shaping
Successively reinforce behaviours leading up to the target behaviour
-process you go through to perform the behaviour
