schedules of reinforcement Flashcards
What kind of learning can occur that does not involve new behaviour?
- change in the rate of behaviour
- change in the pattern of performance
What causes changes in rate and pattern of performance?
Changes in reinforcement contingencies
What is a schedule of reinforcement?
The rule describing the delivery of reinforcement
What are schedule effects?
The pattern and rate of performance produced by a particular schedule of reinforcement
Are there other schedules other than reinforcement?
Yes, schedules of punishment
What are the main simple schedules?
- continuous reinforcement 1:1
- intermittent reinforcement x:1
What is intermittent reinforcement?
When reinforcement occurs on some occasions and not others- most common schedule in the natural environment
Are there other schedules other than reinforcement?
Yes, schedules of punishment
What are the main simple schedules?
- continuous reinforcement 1:1
- intermittent reinforcement x:1
What is intermittent reinforcement?
When reinforcement occurs on some occasions and not others- most common schedule in the natural environment
What are the 4 primary types of intermittent schedule?
- fixed ratio (every x #)
- variable ratio (every average #)
- fixed interval (every x amount of time) scallop
- variable interval (every average amount of time)
What are post-reinforcement pauses?
Pauses that occur immediately after reinforcement, before the animal resumes the behaviour
What are other simple schedules?
- Fixed duration (continual performance)
- variable duration
- differential reinforcement of low rate (DRL) reinforcement only no behaviour after time
- differential reinforcement of high rate (DRH)
reinforcement only after minimum number of performances in given period - fixed time (non-contingent)
- variable time (non-contingent)
What is the run rate?
The rate at which the organism performs once it has resumed work after reinforcement
What is stretching the ratio?
Thinning the schedule, shaping process that uses successive approximations of the desired behaviour are reinforced by increasing the ratio over time
What schedule can cause superstitious behaviour?
VT
What problematic event can occur from stretching the ratio?
Ratio strain, when stretching is done too rapidly making the tendency to perform break down
What is the opposite of continuous reinforcement?
Extinction
What is the partial reinforcement effect? (PRE)
The tendency for behaviour that has been maintained on an intermittent schedule to be more resistant to extinction than behaviour that has been on continuous reinforcement
- the thinner the reinforcement schedule, the greater the number of acts during extinction
What are the hypotheses that explain the PRE?
- discrimination hypothesis
- frustration hypothesis
- sequential hypothesis
- response unit
What are the hypotheses that explain the PRE?
- discrimination hypothesis
- frustration hypothesis
Explain the frustration hypothesis.
Nonreinforcement causes frustration so anything that reduces frustration is reinforcing. During extinction, frustration is reduced by not responding. In intermittent schedules, the animal continues to perform during frustration which is reinforced, and performing while frustrated becomes a S+. During extinction, the animal feels frustrated but because frustration is a discriminative stimulus it becomes self-reinforcing
What is the sequential hypothesis?
The PRE is due to differences in the sequence of cues during training, nonreinforced behaviour then becomes an S+ for the behaviour
Which hypotheses involve discrimination learning?
- frustration and sequential
What hypothesis deems partial reinforcement effect an illusion?
Response unit hypothesis
What are the different complex schedules?
- multiple schedule (schedule change has stimulus)
- mixed schedule (schedule change no stimulus)
- chain schedule (stimulus) reinforcement last
- tandem schedule (no stimulus)
- cooperative schedules
- concurrent schedules (choice)
What predicts how an animal will behave in a concurrent schedule?
Matching law
What does matching law say?
That given two behaviours on their own schedules, the relative frequency of each behaviour is equal to the frequency of reinforcement available
Is matching law robust?
Matching law holds for a wide variety of species, behaviours, reinforcers and schedules
What is important to reinforcing gambling?
Near misses
Why are schedules important research?
Explain rules for describing the way the environment affects behaviour, simplify problems, good way of testing effects of variables on behaviour
What is considered to be the sleeping giant of behavioural research?
Reinforcement schedules
