Skinner

Operant Conditioning

theory of Burrhus Frederik Skinner

Burrhus Frederik Skinner

• His father was a lawyer who prodded him to be one as well but to no avail

• He initially planned to be a professional writer

leukemia

Skinner died of — at the age of 86

factor analysis

is the analysis of the behavior in the terms of cause and effect relationships, where the cause themselves are controllable

modification of behavior

is achieved by manipulating the environmental variables that bring about behavior

biological variability

Skinner deemphasized the importance of —, but regarded it as more important that mentalism

no real distinction

Skinner made — between drives and emotions

Ivan Pavlov

known for his discovery of Classical Conditioning

conditioned stimulus

the stimulus to which the person learns/ is conditioned to respond

unconditioned stimulus

the stimulus to which the response is expected/natural to respond

unconditioned response

response to the unconditioned stimulus

conditioned response

response to the conditioned stimulus

extinction

the decrease in the responding that occurs when the reinforcement following the response no longer occurs

operant conditioning

a response that operates on the environment and changes it

Edward Lee Thorndike

he formulated the law of effect

Law of Effect

this concept states that responses that produce a satisfying effect become more likely to occur again in the particular situation, and responses that produce an unsatisfying effect become less likely to occur in that situation

shaping

• this is the process that start by reinforcing a behavior that is a first step toward the final behavior and then gradually reinforcing successively closer approximations to the final behavior

• through this process, organisms acquire extremely complicated behaviors

punishment/punishing stimulus

this is usually an aversive stimulus, which when occurring after an operant response, decrease the future likelihood of that response

reinforcement/reward

this is any stimulus, that when occurs after a certain behavior, increases the likelihood of future occurrence of that behavior

negative reinforcement

• this is the removal of an aversive stimulus that is associated with a behavior, and thereby increasing the likelihood of such a behavior

• eg: lifting the suspension of a student, if he promises to behave properly for the remainder of his life

positive reinforcement

• is the act of rewarding a positive behavior in order to encourage it to happen again in the future

• giving a treat to a dog who sits, – by doing the desired behavior of sitting, a positive outcome, such as a treat, is added

negative punishment

• you remove a pleasant stimulus to decrease a behavior.

• For example, when a child misbehaves, a parent can take away a favorite toy.

positive punishment

• is when you add a consequence to unwanted behavior. You do this to make it less appealing.

• An example is adding more chores to the list when your child neglects their responsibilities.

personality

Skinner viewed — as a mere collection of behavior patterns

Skinner Box

• a research equipment that was developed by B.F. Skinner

• it is a chamber that contains a bar or key that an animal can press or manipulate in order to obtain food or water as a type of reinforcement

continuous reinforcement

• this is when a reinforcement is presented on each occasion that the response is elicited

• with this schedule, conditioning is quickest and extinction is quickest

interval reinforcement schedule

in this schedule the reinforcement is contingent on the interval of time

fixed-interval reinforcement schedule

in this schedule the time interval is unchanging

variable-interval reinforcement schedule

this is characterized by random or intermittent time interval in the reinforcement schedule

ratio-reinforcement schedule

for this schedule, reinforcement is determined by the number of response and not by time interval

fixed ratio-reinforcement schedule

the number of responses per reinforcement is unchanging in this schedule

variable ratio-reinforcement schedule

the number of responses per reinforcements is random and varying in this schedule

superstitious behavior

• this is the type of conditioning in which there is no causal relation between the response and the reinforcer

• this accounts for the many superstitions held by human being

• eg: rain-making dance, lucky charms, power of prayer

secondary reinforcer

• stimuli that are linked to are causing the reinforcers and/or punishment

• skinner claims that the maintenance of the conditioning properties of the — depends on its continuous association with the primary reinforcers

money

skinner said that — is the most common secondary reinforcer i today’s world

stimulus generalization

• happens when a previously unassociated or new stimulus that has similar characteristic to the previously associated stimulus elicits a response that is the same as or similar to the previously associated response

• ex: when you learn to fear your math teacher high school, you might also be fearful of your next math teacher in college

stimulus discrimination

• this is the process of differentiating between a conditioned and other stimuli that have not been paired with an unconditioned stimulus

• ex: when you can discriminate between your old math teacher and your new one, thereby

flooding

• is the rapid and sudden exposure of the person to the conditioned stimulus

• skinner said that this is only effective if the unconditioned stimulus does not appear anymore