Principles of Operant Conditioning Flashcards
In operant conditioning studies, a favored experimental tool is…
-skinner box
In operant conditioning, extinction takes place when…
-the reinforcer that maintained the response is witheld or no longer available
In operant conditioning, stimulus generalization is…
-when responses may generalize to stimuli that were not present during the original learning situation, but resemble original stimuli in some way
In operant conditioning, stimulus discrimination is…
-a response occuring in the presence of one stimulus but not in the presence of another
Sometimes an organism learns to respond to a stimulus only when a ____________ is present.
-discriminative stimulus
Define: discriminative stimulus
-a stimulus that signals when a response is likely to be followed by a certain type of consequence
(signals whether a response will pay off)
Define: continuous reinforcement
-a reinforcement schedule in which a particular response is always reinforced
Define: intermittent reinforcement
-a reinforcement schedule in which a particular response is sometimes but not always reinforced
If you want a response to persist after it is learned, you should reinforce it __________.
-intermittently
If you want to get rid of a response, you should not…..
-reinforce it intermittently
If you choose to ignore a response, you must be……..
-consistent in witholding reinforcement (your attention)
An operant conditioning procedure in which successive approximations of a desired response are reinforced is called…
-shaping
In shaping, responses you reinforce on the way to the final one are called…
-successive approximations
Principles of operant conditioning are limited by…
- genetic dispositions
- physical characteristics
Operant conditions work best when…
-they capitalize on inborn tendencies
