Operant Conditioning

· What is?

· You learn based on the consequence of your behavior

· Example

§ Study hard à Good Grade

§ Next time à Study hard

What kind f consequence?

· E.L. Thorndike

§ Law of effect

· B.F. Skinner

§ How consequences shape our behavior (not on humans)

§ Used Skinner Box (rat pulling lever for food)

· FOUR CONSEQUENCES

§ Positive Negative

§ Reinforcement

§ Punishment

Positive Reinforcement

· Increase behavior when you apply. (Adding something to something +)

· Example

§ Clean up your room à Candy

§ Candy à Increase

§ (rein forcer) cleaning behavior

Negative Reinforcement

· Increase behavior when you remove.

· Example

§ Headache à Take an aspirin à headache is gone

Removal of headache à Increase aspirin taking

§ (rein forcer)

Drinking Alcohol

· Stress à Drinking alcohol à Remove stress

· Removal of stress à increase drinking

· (rein forcer)

Punishment (Positive)

· Reduce behavior when you apply

· Example

§ Picking on your brother à Spanking

§ Spanking à Reduce picking

§ (punisher)

Punishment (Negative)

· Reduce behavior when you remove

· “Omission” procedure (No TV)

· Example

· Picking on your brother à Can’t watch TV

· Removal of TV à Reduce picking

· (punisher)

Primary and Secondary Rein forcers and Punishers

· Primary rein forcers and punishers

§ Biologically very important

§ Examples

· Food, water, warmth pain, sex

· Conditioned rein forcers and punishers

§ You learn the value

§ Example

· Money, grades, approval

Creating a New Behavior

· Use “shaping” procedure

§ Based on “Successive approximation”

§ Breakdown a complex behavior into a series of simpler behaviors

· Gradually progresses toward the final behavior

· E.g. – Teach a dog to fetch a can of pop from refrigerator.

Maintaining Behavior

· Use “schedule of reinforcement”

§ Make the delivery very systematic

· The Basic Schedules

§ Continuous – reinforce every response

§ Partial – reinforce only some

Continuous Reinforcement

· Good for short term but not long term (pop machine and putting money in)

Partial Reinforcement

· Good for long term.

· 4 Variations

§ Fixed ration (FR) – fixed number of responses

§ Variable Ratio (VR) – Varying number of responses

§ Fixed Interval (FI) – Fixed time interval

Learned helplessness

· Happens when punishment is perceived as random.

· A conviction that nothing can help.

· Found by Seligman

· After 24 hours of random shock, a dog no longer was capable of learning how to avoid shock.

Cure

· Force the dog to make a response that will enable it to avoid shock.

· Humans too need to be forced to do something

Other concepts (read in text)

· Stimulus generalization

· Stimulus discrimination

· Spontaneous recovery

Observational learning (Modeling)

· Observe others consequences (drinking poison)

§ “vicarious reinforcement”

§ “vicarious punishment”