Unit 5 Textbook

Instrumental Conditioning in Behavioral Psychology

• Three types of operant conditioning: positive punishment, negative reinforcement, and omission training
• Attention can serve as a reinforcer for behavior, leading to either an increase or decrease in responses
• Differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) involves periodically delivering a positive reinforcer only if the targeted response is not exhibited
• Fundamental elements of instrumental conditioning include the instrumental response, the outcome of the response, and the relation or contingency between the response and outcome
• Reinforcement increases the likelihood of a response being repeated and can lead to either behavioral variability or stereotyped behavior
• Belongingness in instrumental conditioning indicates that there must be a natural linkage between a reinforcer and an animal for it to be effective
• Behavior systems theory suggests that instrumental conditioning works best if compatible with an animal's feeding system
• The quantity and quality of the reinforcer influence its effectiveness, with shifts in reinforcer quality or quantity leading to behavioral contrast effects
• The relationship between the response and reinforcer involves temporal relation, temporal contiguity, and causal relation
• Immediate reinforcement is the most effective, with delayed reinforcement requiring mechanisms such as secondary or conditioned reinforcers
• The response-reinforcer contingency emphasizes the importance of both temporal contiguity and contingency in producing reinforcement
• Skinner's superstition experiment highlights the distinction between temporal contiguity and contingency in operant conditioning, with accidental or adventitious reinforcement leading to superstitious behavior

Reinterpretation of the Superstition Experiment: Terminal and Interim Responses

• Terminal responses are more likely at the end of fixed intervals when the reinforcer is presented, while interim responses have the highest probability of occurring in the middle of the interval between presentations when the reinforcer is unlikely to occur.
• Food delivery only reinforced terminal responses, and no accidental reinforcement effects were found, with not much difference between interim and terminal responses.
• Terminal responses reflect anticipation of food, while interim responses represent other sources of motivation when food presentation is unlikely.
• Strong contingency means the response controls the reinforcer, while exposure to uncontrollable shock disrupts subsequent learning, leading to a learned helplessness effect.
• The triadic design consists of two phases: exposure phase and conditioning phase, with animals showing sensitivity to the contingency of shock escapability.
• The Learned Helplessness Hypothesis posits that animals expect they will not be in control in the future, preventing them from learning new responses.
• The Activity Deficit Hypothesis and Attention Deficit Hypothesis are alternatives to the Helplessness Hypothesis, proposing learning deficits due to freezing and reduced attention following inescapable shock.
• Animals find it easier to learn a response if they can escape fear, as instrumental response results in termination of aversive stimulus and internal sensory feedback cues.
• Contingency ensures the reinforcer is delivered only after the specified occurrence, while contiguity ensures that other activities do not intrude between the specified response and the reinforcer.
• Exposure to uncontrollable stimulation induces behavioral effects undermining the subject's ability to cope, while controllable stimulation may help them cope with uncontrollable later, affecting PTSD and depression.
• Motivation in instrumental conditioning is analyzed from Thorndike’s and Pavlovian conditioning perspectives, focusing on response-allocation and functional perspectives.
• Instrumental learning involves stimulus context (S), instrumental response (R), and response outcome/reinforcer (O), with the strengthening of the S-R association following the law of effect.