Lecture 8 - Operant Conditioning.pdf
Transcript
Operant Conditioning CHRISTOPHER GADE, PHD In our previous class, we covered: The goals and philosophical Operant stance of psychologists that call themselves behaviorist Conditioning The concept of clas...
Operant Conditioning CHRISTOPHER GADE, PHD In our previous class, we covered: The goals and philosophical Operant stance of psychologists that call themselves behaviorist Conditioning The concept of classical and conditioning and the Applications researchers that used it to better understand this type of learning Other Learning Research… Research of Edward Thorndike (1874- 1949) Work with cats in his “puzzle boxes” Connectionism and laws of behavior Law of recency - the most recent response is likely to reoccur Restaurant choice example Law of availability – certain behaviors are easier to evoke than others Law of effect - Behaviors producing favorable consequences become more likely; ones that produce unfavorable consequences become less likely Research of BF Skinner (1904-1990) Where Worked with his pigeons and rats in “operant chambers” This Attempted to expand on Thorndike’s original theories of learning Proposed that much learning is due to rewards and punishments Led Us Called this stimulus response relationship “operant conditioning” The Basics of Operant Conditioning Operant conditioning – the process of learning to associate a behavior with a consequence A-B-C’s of learning – Antecedents - Behaviors - Consequences Reinforcement: any outcome/response that increases the future probability of the most recent behavior Punishment: any outcome/response that decreases the frequency of the preceding behavior Positive reinforcement: an introduction of a pleasurable stimulus after a behavior, which will increase the likelihood of the future occurrence of the behavior (money for HW). Negative reinforcement: a removal of (or the avoidance of) an aversive stimulus after a There’s behavior, which will increase the likelihood of the future occurrence of the behavior More…Positive (medicine to remove pain). and Negative Positive punishment: an introduction of an aversive stimulus after a behavior, which will Nature of decrease the likelihood of the future Stimuli occurrence of the behavior (the shock from a bark collar). Negative punishment: a removal of (or a threatening to remove) a pleasurable stimulus after a behavior, which will decrease the likelihood of the future occurrence of a behavior (a swear jar). What type of conditioning is this? Here? Other Operant Conditioning Terms Extinction – a return of a behavior to baseline when conditioning stops Response Generalization – increasing or decreasing similar responses due to punishment or reinforcement Response Discrimination – only increasing or decreasing the specific response that was reinforced or punished Terms that Expand OC Shaping – rewarding successive approximations of a behavior that’s being reinforces Primary reinforcers – a reinforcer that automatically increases the likelihood of a response Food or warmth Secondary reinforcers – a reinforcer that has been learned through classical conditioning to increase the likelihood of a response A clicker for dogs Continuous reinforcement: reinforcement for A BIG Topic: every response Reinforcement Schedules Partial/intermittent reinforcement: occasional reinforcement for a response Fixed ratio: Reward for a behavior after “X” responses. Causes faster responders to get more rewards. Produces high rates of responding, but quick extinction when the reinforcement is removed. Variable ratio: Reward for a behavior after a variable and unpredictable numbers of responses. Gambling is a great example of this reward system. It is very hard to extinguish after the connection is made. Fixed interval: Reward for a behavior after “X” amount of time has passed. The responses are rather sparse in down time, but get more vigorous right before time X. Variable interval: Reward for a behavior after a variable and unpredictable amount of time. This causes slow, steady responding. Other Related Discoveries All things being equal, most people learn fastest with immediate reinforcement or immediate punishment In research, punishment has been found to be less effective than reinforcement, except when temporarily suppressing undesirable behavior Frustration versus exploration theories Vicarious conditioning can also be effective Animal research on vicarious learning Institutional instruction applications Have a good day!
