Operant Reinforcement Flashcards
Describe Thorndike’s puzzle box apparatus and his use of it to study the behaviour of cats (and other animals).
He would place a hungry cat in the box and put food in plain view but out of reach, making the cat have to open the box door with a fire loop or stepping on a treadle. At first the cat would try a number of ineffective acts, such as trying to claw its way out. Eventually the cat would do the desired task and be let out. With each trial, the cat made fewer ineffective actions until it would immediately do the desired task.
Why did Thorndike study animal behaviour?
Thorndike studied animal behaviour as a way if measuring animal intelligence.
Define Thorndike’s law of effect.
The strength (frequency, durability, etc.) of a behaviour depends on the consequences the behaviour has had in the past; behaviour is a function of its consequence.
What did Thorndike speculate about reinforcement’s neural affect? What is this view called?
- He speculated that reinforcement strengthened bonds/connections between neurons
- this was called connectionism.
How does reinforcement of a response give that response momentum, according to Nevin?
Behaviour that has been reinforced many times is more likely to persist when “obstructed” in some way, such as when one confronts a series of failures.
In what way did Thorndike’s work depart from previous conceptions of the learning process?
Hwas the first person to show that behaviour is systematically strengthened or weakened by its consequences.
How did Page and Neuringer show that randomness is a reinforceable property of behaviour?
Randomness was reinforced by the researchers by only providing reinforcement for pigeon’s key pecks that were unique from the past 50. Eventually all sequences became nearly truly random.
Describe the essential components of a Skinner box.
It was designed so that a food magazine would automatically drop a few pellets of food into a tray. After a rat became accustomed to the noise of the food magazine and readily ate from the tray, he installed a level so that food would fall when the rat pressed the lever. The rat’s use of the lever, thus, increased dramatically.
What is operant conditioning?
- Procedures whereby behaviour is strengthened or weakened by its consequences.
- Behaviour can be said to operate on the environment.
How does operant conditioning differ from Pavlovian conditioning?
It is not stimulus-response learning, the principal behaviour involved is not reflexive and is often complex. The organism instead acts on the environment and changes it, and, thus, changes the strength of the behaviour
What other names refers to operant conditioning?
instrumental/operant learning
Define reinforcement.
Procedure of providing consequences for a behaviour that increase/maintain the strength of that behaviour
Name the three essential features of reinforcement.
1) the behaviour must have a consequence
2) the behaviour must increase in strength
3) the increase in strength must be the result of the consequence.
What is the contingency square?
The contingency square is a model showing positive/negative reinforcement and positive/negative punishment relate to the addition/removal of stimuli and how they impact the strength of behaviours.
What are the two basic types of reinforcement?
1) positive - behaviour is followed by the appearance of, or increase in the intensity of, a stimulus (called a positive reinforcer) to strengthen the behaviour that precedes it
2) negative - behaviour is strengthened by the following of the removal of, or decrease in the intensity of a stimulus (called negative reinforcer) that the individual would ordinarily avoid
What is escape training?
when what reinforces the behaviour in negative reinforcement is escaping an aversive stimulus
What is the difference between escape and avoidance?
- In escape, an organism’s response terminates an aversive stimulus.
- In avoidance, the response prevents or postpones a consequence.
- E.g., putting on a pair of sunglasses (a response) terminates the glare of the sun (an aversive stimulus) that you (the organism) are experiencing (escape); or putting on the sunglasses does not terminate the glaring sun consequence, but it does prevent it from occurring (avoidance).
Define discrete-trial procedure (Thorndike)
The trial ends when the participant exhibits a given behaviour.
Define free operant procedure (Skinner)
The behaviour may be repeated any number of times.
Explain why scientists often simplify problems to study them.
By simplifying a problem, the researcher can manipulate variables and reliably determine their effects - to identify functional relationships between independent and dependent variables. This enables the prediction and control of the phenomenon future experiments, and lead to hypotheses of how real-world problems may be solved. However, doing such simplification may seem unnatural and superficial. Researchers would still need to conduct field experiments on the subject to corroborate the findings that were observed in isolation (i.e., establish external validity).
Compare and contrast operant and Pavlovian conditioning.
- The most important difference is that Pavlovian conditioning occurs when one stimulus (US) is contingent on another stimulus (CS), whereas in operant conditioning, a stimulus (reinforcer or punisher) is contingent on a behaviour.
- Pavlovian conditioning typically involves reflexive behaviours whereas operant conditioning usually involves voluntary behaviour
Can operant and Pavlovian conditioning co-occur?
Yes, such as what happened with Little Albert, because the loud noise followed the action of him reaching for the rat. This co-occurrence can make the distinction between types of conditioning arbitrary. It is likely that when one type of learning occurs, so does the other.
Describe the parallel Skinner drew between natural selection and reinforcement.
He said that reinforcement acts as natural selection for the evolution of one’s individual behaviours, in that reinforced behaviours persist or “survive” and the others are lost or “die.”
