History and Basics of Operant Conditioning

Flashcards covering the history and basics of operant conditioning, reinforcement, and punishment.

Edward Thorndike

American psychologist in the early 1900s who used experimental lab methods to study problem-solving behavior in animals and formulated the Law of Effect.

Law of Effect

Behavior resulting in pleasant consequences is likely to be repeated in the same situation.

Puzzle-box

Experimental apparatus used by Thorndike to study problem-solving behavior in animals.

Classical Conditioning

Focuses on reflex or involuntary behaviors controlled by stimuli that precede the response.

Operant Conditioning

Focuses on voluntary or non-reflex behaviors where an organism operates on its environment.

Three-Term Contingency

Discriminative stimulus, operant response, and reinforcing stimulus (reinforcement or punishment).

Discriminative Stimulus

Cue or signal that a reward or punisher will follow a behavior.

Operant Response

Behavior that operates on the environment, leading to reinforcement or punishment.

Reinforcers or Punishers

Consequences of behavior that affect the frequency of that behavior.

Positive Reinforcement

Adding something pleasant.

Positive Punishment

Adding something unpleasant.

Negative Punishment

Removing something pleasant.

Negative Reinforcement

Removing something unpleasant.

Reinforcement

Increases the tendency to make a response.

Punishment

Decreases the tendency to make a response.

Drawbacks of Punishment

Suppresses the unwanted behavior but does not strengthen the desirable behavior and can have side effects.

Behaviorism

Term coined by John Watson, focusing on observable stimuli and responses to make psychology a hard science.

Objectives of Behaviorism

Predict a response from a stimulus or specify a stimulus given the response; predict and control behavior.

Black Box Approach

Stimulus-response model that disregards internal processes and assumes behavioral processes are the same across all species.

B.F. Skinner

Published 'The Behavior of Organisms' in 1938, detailing controlled experiments on rats and operant conditioning.

Baby Box or Air Crib

Controversial temperature-controlled environment designed by Skinner for his daughter's safety and well-being.

Relevance of Operant Conditioning

Applies to everyday human behavior but is based on research with animals (rats and pigeons) in simple experimental situations.

Skinner Box

Also known as an operant chamber, used to study operant conditioning in animals.

Cumulative Recorder

Collecting data on bar-presses.

Successive Approximations

Shaping bar pressing by reinforcing behaviors that get closer to the desired behavior.

Continuous Reinforcement Schedule

Every bar-press results in a food pellet.

Fixed-Ratio 10 Schedule

Rat receives a reward for every 10th bar-press.