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Learning > Unit 4: Operant Conditioning > Flashcards

Unit 4: Operant Conditioning Flashcards

1
Q

What’s the difference between instrumental and classical conditioning?

A

classical: presence or absence of stimulus causes response
operant: behaviour causes presence or absence of stimulus (consequence)

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2
Q

Who did the study of instrumental conditioning start with and what was he interested in?

A

Edward Thorndike
interested in animal intelligence

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3
Q

How were Thorndike’s experiments generally structured?

A

hungry animals placed in puzzle boxes
food outside of boxes but in view
-> animals had to learn how to escape the box to obtain food

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4
Q

How did the animal’s behaviours change in the puzzle box?

A

initially unable to escape
slow to make right response
continued to practice until latencies become shorter

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5
Q

How did the animals learn how to sole the puzzle box?

A

trial and error to discover behaviour required to escape
successful behaviours retained
useless behaviours eliminated

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6
Q

How did Thorndike label the animals ability to learn how to escape a puzzle box?

A

animal intelligence

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7
Q

Why is animal intelligence not an accurate term?

A

many behaviours seem unintelligent
initial presence of various responses typical for confined animal, with some leading to a desirable result
consequences reinforce the action
->cat doesnt understand how levers work, but presses it because it thinks it will be rewarded for it

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8
Q

Law of Effect

A

If R in presence of S is followed by positive event -> becomes strengthened
If it isn’t followed by a positive event -> S-R association becomes weakened

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9
Q

What do we measure in discrete-trial procedures?

A

rat runs down a maze to get reward
measures response latency (time it takes for the rat to leave the start of the box) and running speed (how fast it reaches the end)

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10
Q

What’s a T maze trial?

A

type of discrete-trial procedure
allows us to measure percentage of correct choices

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11
Q

What are trials?

A

specific periods of time during which the animal can show instrumental responses
set by the experimenter

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12
Q

Why didn’t Skinner use discrete-trial procedures?

A

behaviour is continuous (one leads to the next)
-> trials more natural if animals aren’t removed
behaviour can be broken down into measurable units: operants

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13
Q

What is magazine training?

A

US paired with CS via classical conditioning
sound elicits sign-tracking response

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14
Q

How does response shaping work? (example: rat in Skinner box)

A

after magazine training, rat can learn operant response
1. food given if rat goes on hind legs anywhere in chamber
2. food given if rat leans over lever
3. food given if rat goes up on hind legs and presses lever
=> sequence called shaping/ reinforcement of successive approximations

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15
Q

What are operant responses in free-operant procedures measured as?

A

rates

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16
Q

Response rate

A

frequency of instrumental behaviours occurring
high: high probability of behaviour occurring
low: low probability of behaviour occurring

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17
Q

How can we differentiate outcomes?

A

appetitive vs aversive
positive vs negative

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18
Q

Which components do all instrumental conditioning procedures involve?

A

instrumental response
outcome (reinforcement, punishment)
stimulus
association between response and outcome

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19
Q

positive reinforcement

A

behaviour produces (adds) appetitive outcome

20
Q

negative reinforcement

A

behaviour produces absence of aversive stimulus

21
Q

positive punishment

A

behaviour produces aversive outcome

22
Q

negative punishment

A

behaviour produces absence of aversive outcome

23
Q

Can a behaviour always be reinforced?

A

no, only if behaviour is naturally linked to reinforcement
e.g. cant reinforce yawning in cats with opening box, because yawning isn’t naturally linked with release from confinement

24
Q

What does the presence of a stimulus activate?

A

behaviour system related to that stimulus
e.g. hunger (S) causes hamsters to start digging and scrabbling (behavioural system linked to hunger), while stopping self-care behaviour (behaviour doesn’t address hunger)

25
Q

What does instrumental conditioning depend on with regards to the reinforcement?

A

quality and quantity of reinforcement
nature of reinforcement
previous reinforcements for same instrumental behaviour

26
Q

Behavioural contrast effect

A

big reward perceived as especially good after small reward and vice versa

27
Q

Which types of relationships between response and reinforcement are there?

A

temporal relationship: contiguity
causal relationship: contingency

28
Q

Are temporal and causal factors dependent on each other?

A

no

29
Q

What can we say about temporal relations?

A

immediate reinforcement is preferable to delayed reinforcement

30
Q

Credit assignment

A

if too much time passes, we won’t be able to link specific behaviours to the reinforcement

31
Q

What’s more important to create associations, contingency or contiguity?

A

contiguity

32
Q

The fact that a behaviour occurred just before the reinforcement was more important than whether it caused the reinforcement. What is this kind of reinforcement called?

A

adventitious/ accidental reinforcement

33
Q

learned helplessness

A

when experiencing a tense state repeatedly
-> feeling of being incapable to change the situation

34
Q

Why does the reinforcer not occur after every response in instrumental conditioning procedures?

A

reflects nature of real world

35
Q

What’s a schedule of reinforcement?

A

rule that determines how and when a reinforcer follows a response

36
Q

Ratio schedules

A

reinforcer occurs after X amount of responses

37
Q

continuous reinforcement schedules

A

reinforcement delivered after every response
commonly used in dru g abuse treatments

38
Q

Is continuous reinforcement common in real life?

A

no

39
Q

Token economies

A

reward system where tokens can be exchanged for bigger rewards
used to reduce disruptive behaviours

40
Q

Partial/ Intermittent reinforcement

A

reinforcement only occurs sometimes

41
Q

fixed-ratio schedules

A

number of reinforcers received per number of responses is fixed

42
Q

Are continuous reinforcement schedules a type of fixed-ratio reinforcements?

A

yes

43
Q

How strong is the rate of responding generated by continuous reinforcement?

A

steady and moderate

44
Q

What is steady responding PRECEDED by?

A

a brief pause

45
Q

How do we see rates of responding?

A

in cumulative records

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