reinforcement Flashcards
what is a reinforcement?
if a behaviour is strengthened by the immediate consequence that reliably follows its occurrence
what does “strengthened mean”
more likely to occur again in the future
what does appetitive mean>
appealing, things we want that are enjoyable (food)
if a relationship is strengthened, you are..?
more likely to engage again in the future
what are the steps in defining reinforcement?
occurrence of a behaviour (response) -> immediate consequence -> outcome strengthened the behaviour (more likely to do it again)
the outcome being strenghtened is just making an?
educated guess!! probability or likelihood!! we assume they are more likely, but it can not become strengthened
thorndike law of effect is a model of?
operant conditioning
what mechanism did thorndike use to measure the law of effect?
puzzle box
what is a puzzle box?
- 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
what is incremental learning?
- latency to escape is increasing incrementally as they learn what actions will and will not get them out
what is an operant/instrumental behaviour/response?
- behaviour that is strengthened through reinforcement
- you are making a response / doing a behaviour that you must do to get whatever the consequence is
how can we tell if a behaviour is strenghthened?
increase in frequency, duration, intensity, and latency/speed
what is operant behaviour?
behaviour that is strengthened through reinforcement
acts on environment to produce a consequence
what is a reinforcer?
increase behaviour / strengthened / more likely / more steady
what is a punishment?
decrease behaviour / weakened / less likely
what is positive reinforcement?
- 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
what is negative reinforcement?
- 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
what is escape behaviour?
- when an operant behaviour increases by removing an ongoing event or stimulus
- pressing a lever to stop an electric shock
what is a shuttle box in escape behaviour?
run to other side of enclosure where it is no longer electrified
what is avoidance behaviour?
- 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
what is an unconditional (primary) reinforcer?
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 )
do unconditional (primary) reinforcers have phylogenetic performance? what are some examples?
yes! food, sex, water, sleep = naturally reinforcing
do primary reinforcers rely on deprivation? how?
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
what was liberman’s rational talk discussion?
- 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
what is a conditional (secondary) reinforcer?
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)
what is the difference between a primary and secondary reinforcer
primary: you do not need to learn the behaviour
secondary: you do need to learn the behaviour
what are variables affecting reinforcement?
- immediacy
- specific reinforcer used
- task characteristics
- contingency
- contiguity
how does immediacy affect reinforcement?
stimulus is far more effective as a reinforcer if it is delivered immediately after the behaviour occurs
how does the specific reinforcer affect reinforcement?
- what is reinforcing for one individual may not be reinforcing for another individual
how do task characteristics affect reinforcement?
- 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
how does contingency affect reinforcement?
- 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
does contingency occur on its own?
no! only co-occur
how does contiguity affect reinforcement?
- closeness or nearness of events
- hyperbolic decay: things become less and less reinforcing if we have to wait for something
is reinforcement a theory?
- no!
- description of what is happening
how is reinforcement a functional description?
this is what is occurring
is reinforcement circular?
no!
what are the two types of motivating operations?
establishing operation and abolishing operations
what are establishing operations?
- 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
what are abolishing operations?
- stimulus that makes a reinforcer less effective at a particular time
- fed them before the experiment, and then
what is reinforcer magnitude?
- 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
what are repeating continginces?
should i watch youtube or study
what is the premack principle?
- 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
how does the premack principle work in practice?
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
what are the problems of the premack principle?
- 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)
how can premack principle be applied to clinical patients?
find out what behaviour is reinforcing for each individual
- sitting still in individual with schizophrenia
- stereotyped behaviour in children with autism
what is the schedule of reinforcement?
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)
what is a cumulative record?
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
what is a continuous reifnrocement chedul
