Week 8 Lecture Notes Flashcards
What is a disadvantage of Classical Conditioning?
- It only explains reflexive behaviour
- Reflexive behaviour is just a small portion of behaviour
Skinner’s Operant Conditioning
- Organisms learn to “operate” in their environments
- This learning extends on reflexive response to environment
- The consequence of a behaviour on the future occurrence of that behaviour
Operant Conditioning equals . . .
Operant Conditioning = consequences
History of Operant Conditioning
- Law of Effect - Thorndike (1898)
- The Skinner Box – Skinner (1930
Thorndike’s Law of Effect
- Instrumental Conditioning
- Behaviour that is followed by ‘satisfaction’ is strengthened
- Behaviour that is unsatisfied is weakened
Reinforcement (Skinner)
• A consequence that results in an increase in the frequency of a behaviour
Punishment (Skinner)
• A consequence that results in a decrease in the frequency of a behaviour
Operant Conditioning – Acquisition
• The formation of a new response or tendency
Operant Conditioning – Shaping
• Reinforcing closer and closer approximations of desired results
Operant Conditioning – Extinction
• Gradual weakening of a behavioural response when then reinforcement is no longer available
Resistance to Extinction
- When the response continues after reinforcement stops
- Important if we want behaviour to continue long term
- Behaviour may be extinguished in one context but reoccur in other settings
Renewal Effect
- Response can recover if placed in original context
- Can sometimes occurs in a new or original context
- Different contexts used for acquisition and extinction of behaviour
Discriminative Stimuli
Cues influence operant behaviour by indicating probable consequences of a response
eg: rat only presses button when light is on
Generalisation
- Reacting to other stimuli
- eg: a cat who responds to the can opener sound may respond to other kitchen appliance
Positive Reinforcement
- A consequence that occurs after a behaviour
- Increases the probability tha the behaviour will re-occur
Negative Reinforcement
- A consequence that is removed after a behaviour increases the probability the the behaviour will re-occur
Punishment
• a decrease in the frequency of a behaviour caused by a consequence
Positive Punishment
- a consequence that when presented after a behaviour decreases the probability that the behaviour will re-occur
- speeding – get fined – less likely to speed in the future
Negative punishment
A consequence that when removed after a behaviour decreases the probability that the behaviour will re-occur
Learning is affected by
- The nature of the what we experience
- Our expectations
- The meaning we attach to events
Learned helplessness
- People and animals learn they have some control over their environment
- Occurs when people realise behaviours do not influence consequences
- Give up any effort to control their environment
The difference between Punishment and Reinforcement
- Punishment decreases or suppresses a behaviour.
- Reinforcement increases or strengthens a behaviour
Example of a Positive Reinforcer
Behaviour - Child brushes teeth before bed
Consequence - Parent praises child
Effect - Likelihood of tooth brushing increases
Example of a Negative Reinforcer
Behaviour - Take an Aspirin for a headache
Consequence - Head ache disappears
Effect - You are more likely to take Aspirin in the future to treat a headache
Example of Positive Punishment
Behaviour - You bite into a hot red chilli
Consequence - Your mouth burns
Effect - You avoid eating hot chilli in the future
Example of Negative Punishment
Behaviour - Child hits another child in the playground
Consequence - Child is removed from play and placed in Time Out
Effect - Child will try not to hit children to avoid Time out
To increase a behaviour with Positive Reinforcement we would
Add something good to increase behaviour. eg: If you eat all your dinner you can have ice cream
To increase a behaviour with Positive Punishment we would
Add something negative to decrease behaviour eg: If you misbehave I will give you a spank
To decrease a behaviour with Negative Reinforcement we would
Remove something bad to increase behaviour.
eg: Offer a discount and remove some of the cost in order to increase sales
To decrease a behaviour with Negative Punishment we would
Remove something Good to decrease behaviour
eg: You are caught speeding excessively in your car. You have your licence cancelled.
When does Learned Helplessness occur?
When people give up efforts to control environment, realising behaviours do not influence consequences
Drawbacks of Punishment
- Does not erase an undesirable habit
- Can produce unwanted side effects
- May generate aggression in punished children
- Indicates wrong behaviour, not expected behaviour
Punishment can be ineffective unless . . .
- Given immediately after undesirable behaviour
- Given each time the behaviour occurs
- Not too Severe (conditioned emotional response)
- It is non violent
Continuous Schedule
A consequence that occurs each time a behaviour occurs
Conditioned Emotional response
Can be referred as learned emotional reaction or response to certain conditioned stimulus
Continuous Reinforcement
- The behaviour is reinforced each time it occurs
- Best used at the beginning stage of learning to create a strong association between behaviour and response
Partial Reinforcement Schedule
- The response is reinforced part of the time.
- Learned Behaviours are acquired more slowly
- This reinforcement is more resistant to extinction
Schedule of Reinforcement - Fixed Ratio
Completion of CONSTANT number of responses
Schedule of Reinforcement - Variable Ratio
Completion of a CHANGING number of responses
Schedule of Reinforcement - Fixed Interval
Reinforces the first response after a CONSTANT amount of time
Schedule of Reinforcement - Variable Interval
Reinforces the first response after a CHANGING amount of time
Fixed Ratio
- Lower resistance to extinction
- rapid responding
- short pause after reinforcement reinforcement follows after a consistent series of events
- eg: coffee card, buy 10 and get 10th coffee free.
Variable Ratio
- Higher resistance to extinction
- constant rate without pauses
- high, steady rate without pauses
- reinforcement following a varying series of non reinforced events
- Higher ratios generate higher response rates eg: Poker machines.
Fixed Interval
- Lower resistance to extinction
- long pause after reinforcement yeilds “Scalloping effect”
- Reinforcement following a fixed interval time eg: fortnightly pay, weekly exams
- increasing rate of response close to reinforcement.
Variable Interval
- Higher resistance to extinction
- Stable uniform response
- low, steady rate without pauses
- reinforcement following a varying interval of time eg: fishing, consistent effort, moderate rate of response
Partial reinforcement effect
- Partial reinforcement makes behaviours resistant to extinction
- superstitious behaviour
- gambling
Choose reinforcement schedule based on:
- Time behaviour needs to last
- Time available for training
Behaviour Modification
Changing behaviour through a systematic program and effort
Token Economy
Motivates socially desirable behaviour by reinforcing it with tokens that can be traded for desired items or privileges eg: GBOOSH dollars
The Behaviourist Perspective
- Founded by Watson & Thorndike
- Purely objective experiental branch of natural science
- goal is the prediction and control of behaviour
- no dividing line between humans and animals
In behaviourism there is no acknowledgment of Cognition
- Behaviour is overt
- Behaviour is Observable
- Behaviour is measurable
ABC of Behaviour
A - Antecedent
B - Behaviour
C - Consequence
ABC of Behaviour
A - Antecedent B - Behaviour C - Consequence
Skinner’s Radical Behaviourism
- Personality is learned through conditioning
- Personality is a collection of response tendencies tied to various stimulus situations
- Environmental consequences determine people’s responses
- Reinforcement, punishment, extinction
- Response tendencies are always being strengthened or weakened by new experiences
Evaluate Radical Behaviourism
- criticised as too mechanical and too deterministic
- Limited view of personality, motivation and emotional influences
- Role of the unconscious, biology, cognition and free will needs to be considered
Tolman’s Experiment
Cognitive Processes in Conditioning.
Tolman: Put 3 groups of rats in a maze
- A: Reinforced every day
- B: Never reinforced
- C: Reinforced only after day 11
We form cognitive maps of our environments
Albert Bandura
- Exploration of the “blaxk box”
- Learning = changes in beliefs and expectations based on observations
- Classical and Operant Conditioning are ways to develop expectancies
- observation is another way of developing expectancies
Observational Learning occurs when:
- A person’s responding is influenced by observing others
- These others are called models
- learning by immitation
Bandura’s Four processes to determine if observational learning will occur
- Attention*
- Retention*
- Reproduction*.
- Reinforcement (motivation)*
Bandura’s Process 1 - Attention
The observer must attend to the model.
Bandura’s Process 2 Retention
The observer must store information about the model’s behaviour in memory.
Bandura’s Process 3 Reproduction
The observer must be physically and cognitively capable of performing the behaviour to learn it.
Bandura’s Process 4 Reinforcement (motivation)
The observer must be motivated to practice and perform the behaviour on his own.
What makes observational learning social/cognitive learning theory?
- It no longer conforms to strict behaviourism
- implies some form appraisal or cognitive tasks
Bandura’s Bobo Doll Experiment (1961)
• Children watch video of young woman who was playing
roughly (or not) with the Bobo Doll
• Children in one three consequence groups
1. Adult praised (positive r/f)
2. Adult punished (time out)
3. No consequence
• Children then in playroom with doll sockeroo
Observational Learning equal
Observational Learning = Learning via modeling
