Chapter 8: Operant Conditioning

Question 1

Functions of Reinforcers

Answer 1

• Provide a reason for doing something
  
  • sources of incentive motivation
• Source of feedback for selecting the behavior that will achieve the goal

Question 2

Elements of operant conditioning

Answer 2

• context and events in that context that inform individuals that this is a place where certain behaviors lead to certain outcomes
• required behaviors
• outcomes of those behaviors

Question 3

Motivation

Answer 3

• Psychological process we invoke to explain both the activation and goal-orientedness of some behaviors
• Intervening variable
• Are inferred, not observed
• Impetus to perform behaviors directed toward some desired goal.
• Aroused by:
  
  • changes in internal conditions
  • external stimulation
  • combination of both
• Two types:
  
  • drives
  • incentive motivation

Question 4

Drive

Answer 4

• Inferred psychological process that arises from some internal need or bodily state
• Intervening variable invoked to provide a link between the conditions (independent variable) that produce the internal state and the resulting activated behaviors (dependent variable)

Question 5

Incentive Motivation

Answer 5

• Incentive Value: another term for attractiveness
• Incentives: the things that an individual works to obtain
  
  • Positive reinforcers
• Incentive Motivation: Inferred psychological process that is aroused by the reinforcer/signal for the reinforcer.
  
  • Independent variable: presentation of something of hedonic value or a signal for that something
  • Dependent variable: accompanying change in behavior involving that hedonic event

Question 6

True/False

Operant conditioning is not goal-directed and influenced by the incentive value of the goal

Answer 6

False

Operant conditioning IS goal-directed and influenced by the incentive value of the goal

Question 7

Incentive Contrast

Answer 7

• Overshooting
• Effect depends on the individual experiencing a change in the incentive value of the outcome
• increase in the incentive value of outcome = more vigorous behavior than would be produced by same outcome in absence of shift
• decrease in incentive value = less vigorous behavior than would be produced by that same outcome in absence of shift

Question 8

Behavior contrast

Answer 8

• Occurs when individual is working for two different outcomes and one of the outcomes is changed
• Result is that as behavior that produces the changed income increases/decreases (depending on the change in outcome).
  
  • behavior that produces the unchanged outcome goes in the opposite direction.
• Shift in the amount of frequency of an outcome for one behavior influences the performance of both that behavior and the performance of other behaviors for which the outcome was not shifted

Question 9

Requirements for Operant Conditioning

Answer 9

• Classify situation in terms of its motivational significance
• Engage in a variety of behavior based on classification
• Determine based on feedback whether their behavior improved or worsened their situation

Question 10

Hill Climbing

Answer 10

• Process individuals use to adjust their behavior based on successive comparisons of their situations
  
  • Adjustment is based on whether the behavior improves or worsens situations
• Adaptive mechanism
  
  • kineses

Question 11

Kineses

Answer 11

• Movements guided by feedback from successive comparison’s of one’s position based on purely local clues

Question 12

Notterman, Vogel and Annau, amd Antonitis Conclusion

Answer 12

• When any one of a number of variants of a given behavior leads to thte same outcome, with repeated experience, individuals will settle on a limited number of these variants = decrease in variability in behavior
• If chosen variants no longer successful in producing the outcome, behavior will become more variable.

Question 13

Differential reinforcement

Answer 13

• Behaviors that satisfy certain criteria are reinforced and all other behaviors are not
• Can be used to mold behavioral topographiesso that the individual performs the target behavior in a very circumscribed manner

Question 14

Differentiation

Answer 14

When differential reinforcement is successful in modifying specified aspects of behavior

Question 15

Topography of a behavior

Answer 15

• Refers to how the individual performs that behavior
• Herrick (1964)

Question 16

Differentiation of Interresponse Times

Answer 16

• Interresponse Times: times between successive behaviors
  
  • differential reinforcement can be used to increase or decrease interresponse times

Question 17

DIfferentiation reinforcement of low rates (DRL) schedules

Answer 17

• IRT > t
  
  • the individual must perform a behavior, wait at least some specified amount of time (t), and then perform the behavior again in order to receive the outcome
• Outcome only occurs if indivudual waits the specified time (t) before performing the behavior a second time
• Longer the rewuired pause (t), the lower the overall rate of occurence of the behavior that follows the pause and produces the outcome
• Anything an individual does to occupy its time during the waiting period increases the chances of obtaining the outcome when the required time has elapsed

Question 18

Collateral behaviors

Answer 18

Not required for the occurence of an outcome

Question 19

Differential reinforcement of high rates (DRH) schedule

Answer 19

• IRT < t
  
  • outcome occurs when the individual performs the target behaviors in rapid succession with less than the speciied time between them
• “Beat the clock”
  
  • Individual must perform two or more behaviors within a certain time limit to obtain the consequence
  • generates high rates of behavior

Question 20

Identifying operant in operant conditioning

Answer 20

• Respondents: behaviors elicited by stimuli
  
  • CRs and URs in Pavlovian conditioning
  • not influenced by consequences
• Operants: behaviors not elicited by a prior stimulus and are influenced by consequences
• Discriminative Stimulus: stimulus that signals a behavior-outcome relationship
• Basic unit of behavior (operant) is whaterver aspect of behavior produces the outcome
• Operant behaviors are identified by function not topography
• All behaviors that produce the same outcome in a particular situtation are classified as instances of the same operant
  *

Question 21

Types of Key Pecking

Answer 21

• Pavlovian conditioning of Key Pecking
• Schedule-Induced Key Pecking: behaviors that emerge when significant events are presented periodically
• Operant conditioning of Key Pecking