Reinforcement Flashcards
-reinforcement is
the process in which behavior is strengthened by immediate consequences that reliably follows its occurrence
- Operant Learning
- Operant-
a class of behavior that operates on the environment to produce a common environmental consequence
-Learning
change in behavior due to experience
-Operant Learning
a change in class of behavior as a function of the consequences that followed it
-Learning = Conditioning
Effect of Consequences
- Increase behavior = reinforce
- decrease behavior = punish
Effect of Reinforcing Consequences
- Increase frequency
- increase duration
- increase intensity
- Increase in quickness (decrease in latency)
- Increase in variability
- You get an increase of whatever reinforcer is contingent on
Two Ways of Reinforcing
- Add a stimulus – behavior increase - positive reinforcement (positive reinforcer)
- remove a stimulus – behavior decrease – negative reinforcement (aversive stimulus)
Rewards vs Reinforcers
Rewards vs Reinforcers
-reward does not equal reinforcer
Notes about Reinforcement
- reinforcement is not a theory
- reinforcement is a functional description
- reinforcement is NOT circular
- Incorrect Usage: “the consequence (e.g. food) increases the probability of the response (e.g. lever pressing) because it was reinforcing
- CORRECT USAGE: “the consequence (food) functioned as a reinforcer for the response (lever pressing
- The explanatory power or reinforcement comes from discovering:
- the stimuli that will function as a reinforcer
- the conditions that allow a stimulus to have a reinforcing function
- Increase the probability of is often shortened to strengthened
-escape behavior
the occurrence of the behavior results in the termination of an aversive stimulus that was already present when the behavior occurred. That is, the person escapes from the aversive stimulus by engaging in a particular behavior.
-avoidance behavior
the occurrence of the behavior presents an aversive stimulus from occurring. That is, the person avoids the aversive stimulus by engaging in a particular behavior, and the behavior is strengthened
-contingency
when the response produces the consequence, and the consequence does not occur unless the response occurs first, so a contingency between them exists
-establishing motivation
makes a reinforcer more potent (it establishes the effectiveness of a reinforcer)
-abolishing reinforcer
makes a reinforcer less potent (it abolishes or decreases the effectiveness of a reinforcer)
abolishing operation
-when the event decreases the aversiveness of a stimulus, escape form or removal may become less reinforcing
Two types of Reinforcers
Unconditional (primary) reinforcer:
- a reinforcer that acquired its properties as a function of species evolutionary history:
- Stimuli and events that have phylogenetic importance
- food, sex, water, social interaction, specific types of sensory stimulation, escape from harmful stimuli
- Usually depends on some amount of deprivation
- Often species specific
-Liberman, et al. 1973:
- differentially reinforced an incompatible set of behavior
- “rational talk” and “irrational talk” are incompatible behaviors
- reinforced “rational talk”
- did not reinforce (extinguished) “irrational talk”
Conditional Reinforcer (secondary)
- otherwise, neutral stimuli or events that have acquired the ability to reinforce due to a contingent relationship with other, typically unconditional, reinforcers
- the group that experiences the contingent pairing, it can function as a conditional reinforce (rat experiment)
Conditional Reinforcement Experiment
- Pigeons choose between two keys
- Key A – provided food 20% of the time
- provided CR
- Key B – provided food 50% of the time
- Did not provide CR
- Pigeons strongly preferred Key A even though it provided less food
