reinforcement Flashcards

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1
Q

what is a reinforcement?

A

if a behaviour is strengthened by the immediate consequence that reliably follows its occurrence

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2
Q

what does “strengthened mean”

A

more likely to occur again in the future

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3
Q

what does appetitive mean>

A

appealing, things we want that are enjoyable (food)

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4
Q

if a relationship is strengthened, you are..?

A

more likely to engage again in the future

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5
Q

what are the steps in defining reinforcement?

A

occurrence of a behaviour (response) -> immediate consequence -> outcome strengthened the behaviour (more likely to do it again)

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6
Q

the outcome being strenghtened is just making an?

A

educated guess!! probability or likelihood!! we assume they are more likely, but it can not become strengthened

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7
Q

thorndike law of effect is a model of?

A

operant conditioning

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8
Q

what mechanism did thorndike use to measure the law of effect?

A

puzzle box

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9
Q

what is a puzzle box?

A
  • sequence of actions that cats had to perform to get outside of the box
  • cats placed in the box while hungry (internal state / motivation important)
  • to get out of the box, their consequence is food access
  • motivated for the cat to get out of the box (extra reinforcing = strengthened association)
  • cats figured out what actions helped them escape
  • action leads to a satisfying state of affairs, it is more likely to occur again
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10
Q

what is incremental learning?

A
  • latency to escape is increasing incrementally as they learn what actions will and will not get them out
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11
Q

what is an operant/instrumental behaviour/response?

A
  • behaviour that is strengthened through reinforcement
  • you are making a response / doing a behaviour that you must do to get whatever the consequence is
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12
Q

how can we tell if a behaviour is strenghthened?

A

increase in frequency, duration, intensity, and latency/speed

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13
Q

what is operant behaviour?

A

behaviour that is strengthened through reinforcement
acts on environment to produce a consequence

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14
Q

what is a reinforcer?

A

increase behaviour / strengthened / more likely / more steady

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15
Q

what is a punishment?

A

decrease behaviour / weakened / less likely

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16
Q

what is positive reinforcement?

A
  • adding a stimulus to our situation to increase the likelihood of that behaviour occurring again in the future
  • giving them something that is reinforcing
  • strengthening our behaviour
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17
Q

what is negative reinforcement?

A
  • taking something away makes a behaviour more likely to occur in the future
  • taking a painkiller for a headache: consequence = pain goes away to get rid of aversive stimulus, and you now feel better
  • snooze button on alarm, remove unwanted stimulus and head back to sleep, more likely to occur in the future
  • avoidance behaviour because we don’t want to experience aversive stimulus
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18
Q

what is escape behaviour?

A
  • when an operant behaviour increases by removing an ongoing event or stimulus
  • pressing a lever to stop an electric shock
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19
Q

what is a shuttle box in escape behaviour?

A

run to other side of enclosure where it is no longer electrified

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20
Q

what is avoidance behaviour?

A
  • you know aversive stimulus is coming and you can take prevention to avoid that aversive stimulus
  • when operant behaviour increases by presenting the onset of the event or stimulus
  • shuttle box: there is a red light that comes on a few seconds before floor is electrified, so if you run to other side before the light turns off again
21
Q

what is an unconditional (primary) reinforcer?

A

a reinforcer that has acquired its properties as a function of species evolutionary history

(do not teach a dog to salivate to food, it just does )

22
Q

do unconditional (primary) reinforcers have phylogenetic performance? what are some examples?

A

yes! food, sex, water, sleep = naturally reinforcing

23
Q

do primary reinforcers rely on deprivation? how?

A

yes!
- if you have been deprived of something, the stimuli will be very reinforcing
- if you have a surplus of something and are offered more, the stimuli will not be very reinforcing

24
Q

what was liberman’s rational talk discussion?

A
  • reinforcing rational talk, people like to spend time with other people, so you only engage more in rational talk
  • decrease in irrational talk due to the reinforcement of rational talk
25
Q

what is a conditional (secondary) reinforcer?

A

otherwise neutral stimuli or events that have become reinforced
(money is a general secondary reinforcer: if you hand a child a 100 dollar bill, they don’t really know what to do with it, but once they see they can buy toys and candy with it, it is a reinforcer)

26
Q

what is the difference between a primary and secondary reinforcer

A

primary: you do not need to learn the behaviour
secondary: you do need to learn the behaviour

27
Q

what are variables affecting reinforcement?

A
  • immediacy
  • specific reinforcer used
  • task characteristics
  • contingency
  • contiguity
28
Q

how does immediacy affect reinforcement?

A

stimulus is far more effective as a reinforcer if it is delivered immediately after the behaviour occurs

29
Q

how does the specific reinforcer affect reinforcement?

A
  • what is reinforcing for one individual may not be reinforcing for another individual
30
Q

how do task characteristics affect reinforcement?

A
  • specific actions you must undertake and how that relates to what you get as a reinforcer
  • a pecking behaviour to get food is natural for pigeons, but not for a hawk
  • biological preparedness: pecking for food in a specifies that pecks for food, it is going to be a lot easier to reinforce because they already know how to peck
31
Q

how does contingency affect reinforcement?

A
  • stimulus more effective as a reinforcer when it is contigent on the behaviour
  • if pecking gets you food, it is going to be more reinforcing if the ONLY way to get food is pecking
32
Q

does contingency occur on its own?

A

no! only co-occur

33
Q

how does contiguity affect reinforcement?

A
  • closeness or nearness of events
  • hyperbolic decay: things become less and less reinforcing if we have to wait for something
34
Q

is reinforcement a theory?

A
  • no!
  • description of what is happening
35
Q

how is reinforcement a functional description?

A

this is what is occurring

36
Q

is reinforcement circular?

A

no!

37
Q

what are the two types of motivating operations?

A

establishing operation and abolishing operations

38
Q

what are establishing operations?

A
  • there are certain things that can make something more or less reinforcing
  • will make a stimulus more effective as a reinforcer at a specific time
  • deprive organism of food, then will make food more reinforcing due to hunger
39
Q

what are abolishing operations?

A
  • stimulus that makes a reinforcer less effective at a particular time
  • fed them before the experiment, and then
40
Q

what is reinforcer magnitude?

A
  • more intense stimuli makes a behaviour more reinforcing
  • 1 pellet vs 10 pellets? 10 better
  • eventually will level off at a certain point depending on the reinforcer (rat does not want 200 pieces of kibble)
  • not going to be as effective if we use continuously
  • more magnitude is better up to a certain point
41
Q

what are repeating continginces?

A

should i watch youtube or study

42
Q

what is the premack principle?

A
  • can look at relative amount of engagement in certain kinds of behaviour
  • particlar types of behaviour and likelihood of engaging in the behaviour when left to your own devices
  • may have high and low probability behaviours
  • high: do a lot
  • low: infrequent
43
Q

how does the premack principle work in practice?

A

our low probability event allowing us to engage in our high probability behaviour, it reinforces our low probability behaviour

high probability behaviour reinforces low probability:
- kid prefers pinball to eating candy
- eat candy first before pinball
- will eat candy more to play pinball

44
Q

what are the problems of the premack principle?

A
  • doesn’t account for conditional reinforcement effects (actions you have to do to receive an outcome might not work for everyone)
  • can shift from high to low probability if you shift low probability event occurring (deprivation)
45
Q

how can premack principle be applied to clinical patients?

A

find out what behaviour is reinforcing for each individual
- sitting still in individual with schizophrenia
- stereotyped behaviour in children with autism

46
Q

what is the schedule of reinforcement?

A

a rule describing the delivery of reinforcement (certain time before you get food, do a certain number of behaviours to get food)
- different schedules produce unique schedule effects (consistent)

47
Q

what is a cumulative record?

A

cumulative number of responses

operant actions: what patterns get reinforced, delivered automatically, recorded data for us automatical

slope: rate of responding, how many responses were made per unit time

48
Q

what is a continuous reifnrocement chedul

A