PSYCH 104 Final (Learning: Operant conditioning) Flashcards
Respondent conditioning function and controlling event?
Function: behavior is elicited by a stimulus
Controlling event: stimuli preceding response
Operant conditioning function and controlling event?
Function: behavior is emitted to produce/remove a stimulus
Controlling event: Stimuli following the response
Operant conditioning (Definition)
The study of how consequences effect behavior
Operant conditioning chambers (What are they designed to do?)
- Operant conditioning chambers
○ Designed to exhibit maximum control over all variables
What does a reinforcer result in?
Increased behavior = reinforced
What does a punishment result in?
Decreased behavior = punish
What are the 5 effects of reinforcers?
Effect of reinforcing consequences
- Increase frequency
- Increase duration
- Increase intensity
- Increase in quickness
- Increase in variability
Two ways of reinforcing (What are they?)
Two ways of reinforcing
- Add a stimulus + positive reinforcement
- Remove a stimulus - negative reinforcement
What is important to remember about Rewards?
Reward (does not always =) reinforcer
- (if you give a dog a treat for rolling over that does not mean he will do it again)
Learning (Operant conditioning: reinforcement)
- Reinforcement:
○ The procedure of providing consequences for a behavior that increase or maintain the probability of that behavior occuring in the future
Learning (Operant conditioning: reinforcer)
- Reinforcer:
○ any event or stimulus that follows an operant response and increases or maintains its future
Learning (Operant conditioning: Positive reinforcement)
- Positive reinforcement:
○ Any event or stimulus that, when presented as a consequence of a behavior, increases or maintains the future probability of that behavior
Learning (Operant conditioning: negative reinforcement)
- Negative reinforcement:
○ Any event or stimulus that, when removed as a consequence of a behavior, increases or maintains the future probability of that behavior
Two ways of punishing (What are they?)
Two ways of punishing
- Add a stimulus + positive punishment
- Remove a stimulus - negative punishment
What are punishments defined by?
- Punishment
○ Punishers are defined by their effect on behavior
§ If the behavior doesn’t decrease the behavior its not a punishment
○ Can be highly effective and work over the long term when used properly
○ Drawbacks (this list is not exhaustive):
§ Only decreases behavior (it doesn’t teach new acceptable behaviors)
§ Will usually foster undesirable emotional responses
□ Aggression
□ Fear and anxiety responses
□ Crying
□ Apathy and/or depression
§ Can foster subversive practices to escape punishment
§ Limitation of the punisher
What does punishment have to do in order to be one?
(it has to actually elicit a change in the probability of occurrence to actually be a punishment)
Operant conditioning (Discriminative stimulus)
Discriminative stimulus
- A stimulus or event that sets the occasion for reinforcement
○ Example: signals that a behavior will be reinforced when it occurs
Operant conditioning (Discrimination)
Discrimination:
- The effect of response being more likely to occur in the Prescence of the discriminative stimulus or event than its absense
○ Example: the rat is more likely to press the lever when the light is on than when it is off
§ The light is said to be “controlling” the rats behavior
Three term contingency (What is it?)
- The discriminative stimulus
- The behavior
- The reinforcer
Operant conditioning (Operant/stimulus generalization)
- Operant/stimulus generalization:
○ When an organism responds to values of the discriminative stimulus that are different than the originally trained values
§ Produces a generalization gradient
Operant conditioning (Generalization gradients)
- Generalization gradients: a description about how much control a stimulus has over behavior
○ Discrimination = only one stimulus is likely
○ Generalization = several stimulus may be present
Operant conditioning (operant extinction)
- Operant extinction:
○ The procedure of withholding reinforcers that maintain a behavior
Operant conditioning (Spontaneous recovery)
- Spontaneous recovery:
○ The tendancy for extinguished behavior to occur again in situations similar to those it had been previously reinforced after time has elapsed
○ Repeated sessions of extinction (usually in multiple settings) are required to prevent spontaneous recovery
§ Demonstrates that extinction is not simply “forgetting” what was learnt
Operant conditioning (Excitation bursts)
- Excitation bursts:
○ Short lived rapid burst in responding following the initial exposure to extinction- Extinction also produces
○ Aggression
○ Variability of responding
- Extinction also produces
Operant conditioning (Schedule of reinforcement)
- Schedule of reinforcement:
○ A rule describing the delivery of reinforcement
○ Different schedules produce unique schedule effects
§ Schedule effect: particular pattern and rate of behavior over time
○ Over the long term effects are very predictable
○ Can make behaviors more resistant to extinction
○ Occur in numerous species (humans included)
Scheduled reinforcement (What basically is it?)
(ESSENTIALLY IF YOU REINFORCE SOMEONES ACTIONS EVERY NOW AND THEN EVEN IF IT IS NOT EVERY TIME THEY WILL KEEP DOING IT)
Operant conditioning (Shaping)
- Shaping:
○ Different reinforcement of successive approximations of a target behavior
○ Example: training a rat’s lever press
1. Reinforce approaches to lever
2. Reinforce sniffing the lever
3. Reinforce touching with paw
4. Reinforce a full depression of the lever
What is shaping basically?
(ESSENTIALLY DEVELOPING A BEHAVIOR THROUGH REWARDING FOR DOING THE STEPS THAT BUILD UP TO DESIRED BEHAVIOUR)
Shaping unwitting university students (What was this test?)
- Shaping unwitting university students
○ Used Zener cards
○ Judged them by the loudness of their response to correctness
○ Those who gave a louder response were told their response to the last one is right
○ The opposite was also true with getting people to be quieter
