8. Operant Conditioning

Question 1

What is operant conditioning?

Answer 1

• learning of action-outcome associations
• actions: pressing a lever, opening a door etc
• operant behaviour: under stimulus control, so that the action can be a response to a certain stimulus/situation
• the outcome can be reinforcement or a punishment

Question 2

What is the Thorndike law of effect?

Answer 2

• responses that create a pleasant outcome in a particular situation are more likely to occur again in a similar situation
• responses that produce an unpleasant outcome are less likely to occur in a similar situation

Question 3

What is the Skinner box?

Answer 3

• allows for a variety of operant conditioning paradigms
• lights, speakers etc = stimulus
• lever for responses
• food dispenser = appetitive stimuli/reward
• used with rodents

Question 4

What is a reinforcer?

Answer 4

• an event that increases the likelihood of the action e.g reward

Question 5

What is a punisher?

Answer 5

• an event that decreases the likelihood of the action

Question 6

What do the terms ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ mean?

Answer 6

• positive = something added
• negative = something removed
• e.g presentation of food following a lever press would be positive reinforcement

Question 7

Is a reinforcer or punishment better?

Why?

Answer 7

• reinforcement is more beneficial: more likely to result in long-term changes in behaviour as creates a positive relationship with the person providing reinforcement
• punishment is less beneficial: leads to temporary changes in behaviour, based on coercion

Question 8

What are partial reinforcement schedules?

Answer 8

• responses are sometime reinforced and sometimes not
• leads to slower initial learning, but greater resistance to extinction
• extinction is slower

Question 9

What are the types of partial reinforcement schedules?

Answer 9

1. variable ratio: behaviour is reinforced after an average, but unpredictable number of responses
2. fixed ratio: behaviour is reinforced after a specific number of responses
3. fixed interval: behaviour is reinforced for the first response after a specific amount of time has passed
4. variable interval: behaviour is reinforced for the first response after an average, but unpredictable, amount of time has passed

Question 10

What is shaping?

What situations is it used in?

Answer 10

• process of guiding behaviour to the desired outcome through the use of intermediate stages
• toilet training
• verbal responses
• academic skills

Question 11

What is a secondary reinforcer?

Answer 11

• previously neutral stimuli which becomes a reinforcer after being paired with a primary reinforcer

Question 12

What effect does reward magnitude have on learning? (Rose et al)

Answer 12

• big reward leads to faster learning across sessions
• small rewards = slower learning
• by 10th session both end up at approximately the same level of learning