CH: INSTRUMENTAL CONDITIONING: FOUNDATIONS

Operant conditioning (instrumental) 

• Learning that is controlled by the consequences of the organisms behaviour 

• Antecedent → behaviour → consequences

• Stimulus     → response  → outcome 

E. L. Thorndike

• Puzzle box procedure

  • Hungry cat placed in box

  • Food visible to cat

  • Measure how long it takes for the cat to escape the box in successive trials 

• If behaviour results in a good outcome → consequence strengthens behavior 

  • In this case, box acts as a stimulus 

  • Cats had gradual learning and eventually escaped

Thorndike law of effect

• “If a response, in the presence of a stimulus, is followed by a satisfying state of affairs, the bond between stimulus and response will be strengthened.” 

  • Satisfaction = stamping in 

  • Discomfort = stamping out

Discrete trial procedure

• Instrumental response produced once per trial 

• Each training ends with removal of the animal from the apparatus 

  • Tl;dr: one trial only, once trial ends you need to reset

• Rat mazes:

  • Runway maze

  • T maze

Runway maze

• Looking at latency, running speed

T maze

• Looking at latency, running speed, AND if they make the correct choices 

Free-operant procedure (operant box) 

• Animals remain in apparatus and can make any responses

• No intervention by experimenter

  • Developed by B. F Skinner

• This way we can look at different behaviours in one trial 

• Output shown through cumulative record

Cumulative record

• Constant paper output → pen jump with each response 

• Time on X axis

• Number of responses on Y axis

Magazine training

• Involves classical conditioning

• Pairing of sound of magazine + food

• CR = approach to food hopper

• Have animals learn that sound of magazine = food

Shape training

• How you establish the operant response 

• Ex. reinforcements of successive smaller steps to learn the overall goal  behaviour

Practical use of shaping 

• Shape train to perform specific behaviours 

• Ex. vet care for captive animals, animal training for entertainment purposes

Operant conditioning in nature: cowbird wing stroke

• Previously found that males housed with females changed their songs to be similar to what females prefer (how?)

• Some songs from males received wing stroke response from female → tells male that they want to mate

Operant conditioning in nature: Effect of wing stroke song on female behaviour

• Played back songs that elicited a wing stroke AND ones that did not receive wing stroke back to females

• Wing stroke songs were ranked higher by females 

• More likely to engage in the songs that reinforce mating 

Appetitive stimulus:

• Pleasant or satisfying stimulus

• Ex. food, social interaction

Aversive stimulus:

• Unpleasant or annoying stimulus

• Ex. shock, darkness, depending on the species

Instrumental responses can:

• Result in a stimulus being present

• Turn off an ongoing stimulus (when completing an operant response)

  • Ex. headache as aversive stimulus  → operant response being taking a painkiller 

Instrument conditioning lingo/table

• Increase or decrease in behaviour?

  • Increase: reinforcement

  • Decrease: punishment

• Adding something or removing something?

  • Adding: positive

  • Removing: negative 

Reinforcement

procedure of providing consequences for a behavior that increase/maintain behaviour long-term

Reinforcer

event/stimulus that follows an operant response and increases/maintains behaviour probability

Positive reinforcement

adding something that increases/maintain behaviour

• Fun activity for completing work

Negative reinforcement

removing something that increases/maintain behaviour

• Taking away chores 

Positive punishment

adding something that decrease behaviour 

• Ex. yelling as punishment

Negative punishment

removing something that decrease behaviour 

• Ex. time out for kids

Escape behaviour

when operant behaviour increases by removing an ongoing stimulus/event

• Ex. pressing lever to stop an electric shock

Avoidance behaviour

when operant behaviour increases by presenting the onset of the event/stimulus

• Ex. pressing lever to prevent electric shock 

Negative punishment (omission training) 

• Removing something appetitive to decrease response rate

  • Tl;dr: taking away something pleasant to decrease behaviour

Omission training

• Not exactly is equivalent to negative punishment

• Because:

  • Appetitive stimulus is dangled above subject

  • Depending on the actions of the subject, they may or may not get the appetitive stimulus