Part 2: Operant/Instrumental Conditioning

Question 1

Instrumental Behaviour

Answer 1

Behaviour that is repeated because is was previously successful at producing a certain consequence; specific and required (in comparison to operant responses)

Question 2

Goal-Directed Behaviour

Answer 2

Behaviour that elicits a result or consequence (difficult to isolate)

Question 3

Why is goal-directed behaviour difficult to isolate?

Answer 3

Difficult to determine whether action is due to previous learning (dog is barking to scare intruders because it worked in the past) or if the action is due to novel stimuli (the intruder is a new person- emotion evoking)

Question 4

Thorndike’s Puzzle Box

Answer 4

early investigations of S-R responses; hungry cat put into box with food outside within sight; must learn to escape; escaping becomes faster

Question 5

What did Thorndike conclude from his puzzle box experiments?

Answer 5

that if an association (S=being in box, R=escape) occurs and is followed by a satisfying event (food), the association will be stronger (law of effect)

Question 6

Law of Effect

Answer 6

If a response in the presence of stimuli is followed by a satisfying event, the association between stimuli and response will be strengthened (or weakened in the case of annoying event)

Question 7

Discrete-Trial Procedures

Answer 7

(T-Box or straight line); method of instrumental conditioning where participant can only perform instrumental response during specified period of time (when inside the box or when reinforcer is present); measure speed and latency

Question 8

Free-Operant Procedures

Answer 8

(Skinner box); method of instrumental conditioning in which participant is able to continuously perform response without intervention

Question 9

Skinner box

Answer 9

free-operant procedure apparatus; lever press = reinforcement delivery

Question 10

Operant response

Answer 10

a response that is defined by the effect is has on the environment, not the specific action (ex. pressing a lever; does not matter if nose or paw is used)

Question 11

Magazine Training

Answer 11

preliminary stage of instrumental conditioning in which participant learns to associate a stimuli with reinforcer to learn where to retrieve reinforcer (ex. sound of food delivery mechanism and food)

Question 12

Response Shaping

Answer 12

Reinforcing successive approximations of the desired instrumental response; involves both reinforcement of successive approximations and withholding reinforcement for earlier responses/steps

Question 13

Why is shaping different than teaching a new behaviour?

Answer 13

shaping occurs through using existing behaviours in combination to create a unique outcome; synthesis of a new behavioural “unit” from naturally occurring behaviours

Question 14

Positive Reinforcement

Answer 14

instrumental response produces an appetitive stimuli; behaviour increases (ex. giving a child a sticker for good behaviour)

Question 15

Negative Reinforcement

Answer 15

instrumental response eliminates or prevents aversive stimuli; behaviour increases (ex. opening an umbrella to stop the rain)

Question 16

Positive Punishment

Answer 16

instrumental response results in aversive stimuli; behaviour decreases (ex. yelling at an employee for being late to work)

Question 17

Negative Punishment

Answer 17

instrumental response eliminates or prevents appetitive stimuli; behaviour decreases (ex. taking a child’s phone away for failing a test)

Question 18

Stereotypy Behaviour

Answer 18

behaviour becomes too similar across trials if variability of responding is not reinforced

Question 19

Instinctive drift

Answer 19

increased responding depending on activation of a behaviour system; instinct overpowers ability to learn

Question 20

Temporal Response-Reinforcement Relation

Answer 20

time between response and reinforcer

Question 21

Causal/contingent response-reinforcement relation

Answer 21

extent to which response is necessary and sufficient to produce reinforcer

Question 22

Temporal Contiguity

Answer 22

reinforcer is presented directly after response

Question 23

Secondary reinforcer

Answer 23

a CS previously paired with the reinforcer; can be used to provide immediate reinforcement for behaviour when their is a delay (ex. a coach saying “good job” mid game)

Question 24

Marking Procedure

Answer 24

procedure in which instrumental response is directly followed by a distinct event to make response more memorable (can overcome some effects of delayed reinforcement)

Question 25

Superstitious Behaviour (theory)

Answer 25

behaviour that increases due to accidental pairing of delivery of reinforcer and whatever behaviour that was occurring at the time

Question 26

Terminal versus interim responses (reinterpretation of superstitious behaviour)

Answer 26

Terminal: behaviour increases towards the end of interval between reinforcers (search behaviours)
Interim: behaviour increases around the middle of the interval between reinforcers (post-food focal search)

Question 27

Learned Helplessness Effect

Answer 27

decrease in responding due to inescapable or unavoidable aversive stimuli

Question 28

Learned Helplessness Hypothesis

Answer 28

exposure to inescapable/unavoidable aversive stimuli reduces motivation to respond and disrupts instrumental conditioning (participants learn their response does not change their outcome)

Question 29

Activity-Deficit Hypothesis

Answer 29

unescapable/unpreventable aversive stimuli leads to slower conditioning due to freezing effect

Question 30

Attention-Deficit Hypothesis

Answer 30

inescapable shock limits the attention that can be paid to one’s own behaviour

Question 31

Why is exposure to ESCAPABLE shock not as detrimental for learning?

Answer 31

The cessation of shock becomes a conditioned inhibitor of fear

Question 32

Simple Schedule of reinforcement

Answer 32

a single factor determines when the reinforcer will be presented

Question 33

Ratio Schedule

Answer 33

reinforcement depends only on the number of responses (ex. every 3 lever pushes)

Question 34

Continuous Schedule (Ratio)

Answer 34

reinforcement occurs every time the instrumental response is performed (ex. button press = food)

Question 35

Partial/Intermittent Schedule (ratio)

Answer 35

Responding is only reinforced SOMETIMES

Question 36

Fixed-Ratio Schedule

Answer 36

reinforcement occurs after a set number of responses every time (ex. 10 responses = food)

Question 37

Variable-Ratio Schedule

Answer 37

reinforcement occurs after a varying number of responses between trials

Question 38

Interval Schedules

Answer 38

Based on time passed between response and reinforcer

Question 39

Fixed-Interval Schedule

Answer 39

reinforcement occurs after a set amount of time has passed, every single time

Question 40

Variable-interval schedule

Answer 40

reinforcement occurs after a different amount of time between trials

Question 41

Associative Structure of Instrumental Conditioning (Theory of motivation)

Answer 41

(Thorndike) 3-term contingency (stimulus context, instrumental response, and response outcome) activate S-R association

Question 42

Response-Allocation Approach (theory of motivation)

Answer 42

(Skinner) looks at how instrumental conditioning limits an organism’s free flow of behaviour through limited choices

Question 43

What does failure to pair appropriate stimuli to instrumental response produce?

Answer 43

Abnormality; the instrumental response of undressing is normal in the context of your home, but not in the context of the public

Question 44

Stimulus Discrimination

Answer 44

behaviour is controlled by different aspects of a single stimulus (red colour versus shape)

Question 45

Stimulus generalization

Answer 45

responding to other test stimuli that were not present during training (opposite of discrimination)

Question 46

Stimulus Generalization Gradient

Answer 46

gradient of responding that occurs when stimuli become increasingly different from stimuli in training (gradual increase followed by gradual decrease)

Question 47

Extinction

Answer 47

occurs with repeated omission of the reinforcer

Question 48

Overtraining Extinction effect (paradoxical reward effect)

Answer 48

training that is too extensive is quicker to extinguish due to stronger frustration when extinction occurs

Question 49

Magnitude Reinforcement extinction effect (paradoxical reward effect)

Answer 49

responding declines more rapidly in extinction following reinforcement of large magnitude (more frustration from loss of a large reward than a small one)

Question 50

Partial Reinforcement Extinction Effect (paradoxical reward effect)

Answer 50

partial reinforcement extinguishes slowest because participants are used to the frustration

Question 51

Frustration Theory (for partial reinforcement extinction effect)

Answer 51

Partial reinforcement is slow to extinguish because participants have been conditioned to expect frustration and non reward

Question 52

Sequential Theory

Answer 52

partial reinforcement is slower to extinguish because instrumental conditioning is associated with the memory of non reward