Chapter 7: Operant Conditioning Flashcards
(50 cards)
1
Q
What is instrumental learning/operant conditioning?
A
The ability to learn about the relationship between behaviors and outcomes
2
Q
What is the difference between Pavlovian and Operant Conditioning?
A
Pavlovian: allows individuals to identify the relationships between and among environmental events and make anticipatory adjustments
Operant: allow individuals to use the outcomes of their behavior to become more efficient in their search for desired objects and for avoiding and escaping from danger in a given situation.
3
Q
List the three things involved in the procedure of operant conditioning.
A
Environmental Context
A behavior in that context
An event (outcome) that follows that behavior
4
Q
Appetitive vs. Adversive
A
Appetitive: things that an individual seeks
Adversive: things that an individual finds unpleasant and seeks to avoid
5
Q
Definition of procedure of operant conditioning
A
Presentation of an outcome when the individual engages in a designatd behavior or behavior patterns in a given situation or context.
6
Q
What is the phenomenon of operant conditioning?
A
The observed change in behavior after an individual experiences the procedure of operant conditioning
When behaviors followed by some appetitive events are more likely to occur again or when behaviors followed by some adversive events are less likely to occur again.
7
Q
Gist of operant conditioning
A
In a certain stimulus situation (S), a behavior (B), is followed by an outcome (O)
8
Q
Edward Thorndike
A
- Credited with first published laboratory experiments on instrumental learning
- Worked with kittens
-
Monitored latency for kittens to escape from problem box to food
- Time to escape from the box decreased with each repeated experience
- represented gradual formation of stimulus response (S-R)
- Time to escape from the box decreased with each repeated experience
9
Q
Law of Effect
A
- Response followed by a pleasant consequence = repeated
- Response followed by unpleasant consequence = decrease in frequency/not repeated
*
10
Q
Discrete Trial Method
A
- Edward Thorndike
- Subject can perform behavior at any certain times
11
Q
B.F. Skinner
A
- Operant conditioning
- Skinner’s Box
-
Cumuative Record
- total number of behaviors that have occured to that point in time plotted against time.
-
Cumulative Recorder
- Each instance of a behavior causes the recording pen to move one step perpendicular to direction of paper
- Shallow slope: individual is responding slowly
- Steep slope: Rapid responding
- Hrorizontal slope: no responding
12
Q
Magazine Training
A
- Procedure for teaching rats to approach the food tray when they hear the food dispenser drop a pellet in the food tray.
- With this Skinner studied the acquisition of lever pressing
13
Q
Extinction
A
-
Skinner’s Experiment
- When the presentation of food ceases, the rate of lever pressing gradually decreases
- Procedure of discontinuing the outcome and the phenomenon that the behavior gradually decreases when the outcome is no longer given
14
Q
Spontaneuous Recovery
A
-
Skinner’s experiment
- an individual rat who had stopped lever pressing at the end of an extended extinction period, would begin to lever press again if reintroduced back into the experimental situation 24hrs later, even if extinction procedure was still in effect
- If original conditioning contigency is reinstated after extinction, behavior rapidly returns.
15
Q
Shaping by successive approximations
A
-
Skinner’s Experiment
- speeding up acquisition of lever pressing with the judiciuos use of food to “shape” behavior by reinforcing closer and closer approximations to the final behavior
- Used to elicit behaviors that are initially unlikely to occur
-
Reward:
- Procedures followed by pleasant outcomes are repeated to the exclusion of other behaviors
- Example: when rats spend more of their time lever pressing and eating, they do less of other things
-
Extinction:
- Opposite effect on behavior
- Discontinuing presentation of food for pressing the lever decreases the occurence of that behavior and increases the occurence of other behaviors
16
Q
Reward and Extinction in Successive Approximations
A
- Rewards/Reinforcers are used to increase approach behaviors to bring animals closer to lever.
- Extinction used to increase other behaviors when close to lever
17
Q
Uses of method of successive approximations
A
- Used to shape the way behaviors are performed
- Gets individuals to do things they might not usually do
- Used in Therapeutic Situations to promote variety of different behaviors
18
Q
Chaining (Forward vs. Backward)
A
- Forward Chaining: task is broken down into a series of steps, and successful completion of each ste is followed by a reinforcer
- Backward Chaining: the last step in the sequence is trained first, and each preceding step is added one at a time until the entire chain of behaviors is performed
19
Q
Procedure of reinforcement
A
Presentation of a certain class of stimulus events in a temporal relation with either a stimulus or a behavior
20
Q
Reinforcing Stimulus
A
A stimulus or stimulus event that has the ability to produce a change in the strength of a reflex or behavior by virtue of its relationship to a CS (Pavlovian) or a behavior (Operant)
21
Q
Reinforcer (Operant Conditioning)
A
An event that increases the rate of probability of occurence of that behavior when that event is either presented, removed, or canceled following that behavior.
22
Q
Reinforcement
A
- Procedure of arranging the temporal relationship between a behavior and a reinforcer
- To reinforce a behavior is to create an arrangement between that behavior an a reinforcer.
23
Q
Two meanings of reinforce
A
- To reinforce a behavior as a procedure is to create an arrangement between tht behavior and a reinforcer.
- To reinforce a behavior as a process is to strengthen that behavior through the procedure of reinforcement
24
Q
Positive Reinforcer and Positive Reinforcement
A
- Positive reinforcer: event that increases the probability of a behavior when the event is presented following that behavior
-
Positive Reinforcement: procedure of presenting a positive reinforcer following a behavior
- aka appetitive event/reward
- things that individuals wil seek out, approach, consume, or do something to obtain
- aka appetitive event/reward
25
Negative Reinforcer and Negative Reinforcement
* **Negative Reinforcer:** An event that increases the probabilty of a behavior when the event is removed or cancelled.
* **Negative Reinforcement:** procedure of removing or canceling a negative reinforcer following a behavior.
* aka aversive events
* thing that individuals will do something to get away from
26
Resistance to extinction
* **How long it takes an individual to cease performing that action when the outcome no longer occurs**
* The **stronger** the behavior, the longer an individual will persis tin performing a behavior even when the outcome no longer exists
27
Two premises of learning
* Learning involves the gradual increase in the strength of something as a result of some repeated experience
* Strength is reflected in how fast the individual completes the task, how many errors the individual makes on each trial, how much behavior occus per unit time, and ow long the behavior persists when it is no longer followed by the reward or positive reinforcer
28
True/False
If a behavior that continues to be followed by an otherwise effective positive reinforcer nevertheless becomes less efficient, frequent, or persistent, then it would be inappropriate to describe that reinforcer as originally strengthenin that behavior.
**True**
29
Effectiveness of a Reinforcer
* **Reinforcers are dynamic**
* **Effectiveness of a given reinforcer on behavior is not absolute, rather it depends on what else the individual has experienced**
30
Primary reinforcers
**Events that function as reinforcers with little or no experience required.**
Ex: food, water, sex,
31
Establishing Operations
Alter how effectively something functions as a reinforcer by producing a change in an individual's internal or external environment
Example:
Heat is a (+) reinforcer in a cold environment
Cool air is a (+) reinforcer in a hot environment
REinforcing value of heat and cold depends on external environment. Changes in these conditions are the establishing operations.
32
Positive Reinforcer (Premack)
* Premack suggested that all reinforcement involves the opportunity to do something
* Experiment with rats
* Baseline: frequency of behavior
* Water deplete : run faster for water
* drinking water reinforced running
* Water replete: lick to run
* running reinforced drinking
33
Premack Results
* Results demonstrated:
* The importance of establishing operations for determining the reinforcing value of an event
* That the opportunity to engage in an activity can serve as a reinforcer
* Reinforcement may be conceptualized as access to high-probability actvities
* The ability of something to function as a reinforcer is relative to wha else is available
34
Conditioned Reinforcers
* Events that are conditioned reinforcers predict the occurence of primary reinforcers
* Events that derive their ability to function as reinforcers as a result of experince, specifically as a result of Pavlovian conditioning procedure
* AKA **Secondary reinforcers**
* **Can help bridge the time interval between the occurence of a behavior and obtaining a primary reinforcer.**
* **B(behavior) ►S → O (primary reinforcer)**
35
Strength of Conditioned Reinforcer
* **Depends on:**
* number of times stimulus is paired with a primary reinforcer
* size and quality of primary reinforcer
* delay between conditioned reinforcer and primary reinforcer
36
Behavior-outcome contingency
The rule that specifies the relationship between a behavior and the occurence or noncurrence of an outcome
37
Positive Behavior-Outcome Contigency
* The outcome is more likely to occur following the behavior than if the behavior did not occur
* **Pr(O | B) \> Pr(O | no B)**
* The probability that the outcome will occur given the occurence of a behavior is greater than the probability that the outcome will occur given the absence of that behavior.
* **Positive contingency with positive reinforcer:** reward training/positive reinforcement
* **Positive contigency with negative reinforcer:** punishment
38
Negative Behavior-Outcome Contingency
* The outcome is more likely to occur in the absence of the behavior than in its presence
* **Pr (O | B) \< Pr (O | no B)**
* Probalility that the outcome will occur given the occurence of a behavior is less than the probability that the outcome will occur given the absence of that behavior.
* **Negative contingency with a negative reinforcer:** negative reinforcement
* escape conditioning
* avoidance conditioning
* **Negative contingency with a positive reinforcer:**
* ommission training
* differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO)
* punishment by removal
39
Escape conditioning
The presence of a negative reinforcer eliminates a behavior
40
Avoidance conditioning
Occurs if behavior postpones or cancels a negative reinforcer that might ordinarily occur if there is no behavior
* **Signaled Avoidance:** impending aversive event is signaled and the target behavior cancels the nexr occurence of that event.
* **Unsignaled Avoidance:** impending aversive event is not signaled, and the target behavior cancels the next occurence of that event
41
Ommission training
Occurence of behavior leads to the ommission of the positive reinforcer that would otherwise occur
42
Differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO)
Positive reinforcer is more likely to follow any other behavior than the targeted one
43
Punishment by removal
Behavior results in the loss of a positive reinforcer
44
Learned helplessness
Prior experience with a zero contingency involving aversive events retards the subsequent acquisition of successful avoidance behavior
45
Punishment by Application
Positive contingency between a behavior and a negative reinforcer
46
Behavior Modification, Contingency Management, Applied Behavior Analysis
* Systematic applications of operant procedures as therapeutic interventions
* **Goal:**
* **To get an individual to do some behavior deemed desirable in a given situation**
* **To get an individual to do less of something** deemed undesirable in a given situation
47
Operant
A behavior that occurs **"spontaneously in the absence of any stimulation with which it may be specified correlated"**
48
Respondent
A response that is made to specific stimulation, where the correlation between response and stimulus is a reflex in the traditional sense
49
Role of Stimulus in Pavlovian and Operant Conditioning
* **CS** in Pavlovian evokes **CR**
* In operant conditioning, **stimulus acts as an ocassion setter**
* **Stimulus** in operant conditioning can also **serve** as a **Pavlovian CS** for conditioned emotional states**.**
50
Discriminative Stimulus
* Events that **signal a behavior-outcome relationship**
* **Occasion setters**
* inform individuals as to what behaviors lead to outcomes
