PSY 339 | Reinforcement, Schedules, Punishment & Applications

What are the four operant consequences?

Positive reinforcement adds a stimulus and increases behavior. Negative reinforcement removes or prevents a stimulus and increases behavior. Positive punishment adds a stimulus and decreases behavior. Negative punishment removes a stimulus and decreases behavior.

What do positive and negative mean in operant learning?

Positive means a stimulus is added. Negative means a stimulus is removed or prevented. The direction of behavior change tells you whether it is reinforcement or punishment.

How does shaping create a new behavior?

Reinforce successive approximations to the target. As the learner improves, require a closer approximation to earn reinforcement.

What is a task analysis?

Break a complex behavior into its component steps before teaching the chain.

Shaping vs. chaining?

Shaping changes how closely one response matches a target. Chaining links component behaviors into an ordered sequence.

Forward vs. backward chaining?

Forward chaining teaches the first step first and adds later steps. Backward chaining teaches the last step first so the learner can complete the chain and contact the final reinforcer early.

What did Köhler's chimp Sultan do, and how did the lecture explain it?

Sultan stacked crates to reach bananas. The operant account points to his prior experience with component behaviors such as climbing on objects.

What did Harlow's two-box experiment show about insight?

Monkeys got better at using the first trial to select the correct shape on the second trial. Performance improved with experience, consistent with a learned strategy.

How can noncontingent reinforcement produce superstitious behavior?

A reward happens to follow a response, so the response may repeat. In Skinner's example, food arrived on a timer regardless of what the pigeons did.

When can reinforcement increase creativity?

When a novel response earns the reward. Rewarding any drawing, for example, sets up a contingency for drawing rather than originality.

What did the porpoise Malia illustrate?

Reinforcing new actions increased original responding. Karen Pryor found similar results with another porpoise and with pigeons.

What is learned helplessness?

After experiencing uncontrollable aversive events, a learner may fail to try an available escape response later. Seligman's dogs illustrated this in a shuttle box.

What is learned industriousness?

Reinforcing high effort or persistence can increase effort on later tasks. In Eisenberger's study, students trained with higher criteria later showed greater effort on a copying task.

What does a reinforcement schedule specify?

The rule for when a reinforcer is delivered. The rule can affect acquisition, response rate, and response pattern.

Continuous vs. intermittent reinforcement?

Continuous reinforcement (CRF) reinforces every response and helps establish a new behavior. Intermittent reinforcement reinforces some responses according to a rule and usually produces more persistence during extinction.

Fixed vs. variable vs. progressive schedules?

Fixed uses a constant requirement. Variable changes the requirement around an average. Progressive raises the requirement over time, making reinforcement harder to earn.

What is the breaking point on a progressive schedule?

The requirement at which the learner stops responding because earning reinforcement takes too much work or time.

Ratio vs. interval vs. duration vs. time schedules?

Ratio counts responses. Interval reinforces the first response after time passes. Duration requires continuous responding for an amount of time. Time delivers the event regardless of responding.

What is fixed ratio (FR), and what pattern does it produce?

A set response count earns reinforcement. FR 10 rewards every 10th response. Expect a high response rate with a post-reinforcement pause, usually longer at higher ratios.

What is variable ratio (VR), and what pattern does it produce?

A changing response count averages to a set value. Expect fast, steady responding with little or no pause. Slot-machine wins are a common example.

What is fixed interval (FI), and what pattern does it produce?

The first response after a set time earns reinforcement. Expect a scallop: a pause after reinforcement, then more responding as the interval ends.

What is variable interval (VI), and what pattern does it produce?

The first response after a varying amount of time earns reinforcement. Expect steady responding, generally slower than on ratio schedules. Fishing is a lecture example.

What is the post-reinforcement pause?

The time between the end of a reinforcer and the next response. It varies by schedule and by the upcoming work requirement.

What do fixed duration (FD) and variable duration (VD) require?

The behavior must continue for a set time (FD) or for changing lengths of time that average to a value (VD).

A feeder dispenses food every 15 seconds regardless of behavior. What schedule is this?

Fixed time (FT). If the time between deliveries varied around 15 seconds, it would be variable time (VT).

You get a free drink for every tenth purchase. What schedule is this?

FR 10. Each reward requires exactly ten purchase responses.

You can claim a reward with your first click after 5 minutes. What schedule is this?

FI 5 minutes. Five minutes makes the reward available and the first click afterward earns it.

What is operant extinction?

Stop delivering the reinforcer that previously followed the target behavior. Responding generally decreases over time.

Extinction burst vs. spontaneous recovery vs. resurgence?

Burst: target responding briefly increases when extinction starts. Spontaneous recovery: the extinguished response briefly returns after a break. Resurgence: a different, previously reinforced response returns.

What else may happen during extinction?

More variable behavior and emotional responses such as frustration or aggression.

Multiple vs. mixed schedules?

Both alternate two or more simple schedules. Each component has its own discriminative stimulus in a multiple schedule. A mixed schedule leaves components unsignaled.

Chain vs. tandem schedules?

Both require completing a series of schedules before the final reinforcer. A chain signals each component. A tandem leaves the transitions unsignaled.

What is a concurrent schedule?

Two or more schedules are active at the same time, and the learner can choose how to distribute responding among them.

What does the matching law predict?

The relative rate of responding for an option roughly matches the relative rate of reinforcement it provides. If it delivers 75% of the obtained reinforcers, expect about 75% of responses there under ideal matching.

What is the partial reinforcement effect (PRE)?

A response previously reinforced intermittently tends to persist longer during extinction than one previously reinforced continuously.

Discrimination hypothesis of the PRE?

The switch from intermittent reinforcement to extinction is harder to detect because some responses already went unrewarded during training.

Frustration hypothesis of the PRE?

The learner experiences frustration after unrewarded responses and learns to keep responding despite it. That persistence carries into extinction.

Sequential hypothesis of the PRE?

The memory of prior unrewarded responses becomes a cue to keep responding because reinforcement sometimes followed those sequences in training.

Response-unit hypothesis of the PRE?

Count a full set of responses required for a reinforcer as one unit. In FR 4, a unit is four responses. The apparent persistence advantage can shrink or disappear when compared in units.

What three criteria define punishment?

A consequence follows a specific behavior, the behavior decreases, and the consequence causes that decrease.

What's the difference between punishment contingency and contiguity?

Contingency is how reliably the consequence depends on the behavior. Contiguity is how soon it follows the behavior.

How do intensity and starting level affect punishment in the lecture?

Stronger punishers generally suppress more in the studies. Starting weak and increasing gradually can lead to tolerance, so responding can persist.

Why can a punished behavior persist?

It may still earn a strong reinforcer. Offering another way to get that reinforcer can reduce the target behavior. Strong motivation for the reinforcer can also make suppression harder.

What problems can punishment produce?

Escape and avoidance, lying or cheating, aggression, broader behavior suppression, imitation of punishment, and potential abuse.

What is response prevention?

Change the environment so the target behavior cannot occur or cannot access its usual payoff. In extinction, the target response can still occur but its previous reinforcer is withheld.

What do DRA, DRI, and DRL stand for?

DRA reinforces a specified alternative behavior. DRI reinforces a physically incompatible behavior. DRL reinforces a lower rate of the target behavior.

A student gets praise for raising their hand instead of calling out. What procedure is illustrated?

DRA. Raising a hand is the specified alternative. The student can still raise their hand and call out at the same time.

A child earns praise for holding a ball with both hands to reduce nail biting. What procedure is illustrated?

DRI. Holding the ball with both hands is incompatible with biting their nails at the same time.

A student earns a reward if they ask for help no more than twice per activity. What procedure is illustrated?

DRL. Asking for help is still allowed and earns reinforcement at a low rate.

Whining stops earning cookies vs. whining costs a toy the child already has. What is each?

Withholding the usual cookies is extinction. Taking away the toy contingent on whining is negative punishment if whining decreases.

How is an aversive event different from a positive punisher?

An aversive event is unpleasant. It functions as a positive punisher if presenting it contingent on a response causes that response to decrease.

Escape vs. avoidance?

Escape ends an aversive event that is already happening. Avoidance prevents or delays the event. Both can be maintained by negative reinforcement.

Running inside once it starts raining vs. running inside when dark clouds gather?

Running inside once rain starts is escape. Going in before the rain starts is avoidance.

What are the two processes in the two-process theory of avoidance?

Pavlovian conditioning makes a warning cue elicit fear. Operant conditioning strengthens the avoidance response when it reduces fear.

Why can avoidance keep a phobia going?

Early avoidance limits exposure to the feared cue without the feared outcome. The learner gets fewer opportunities for fear to extinguish.

What did the Stampfl procedure demonstrate?

After one aversive experience, rats ran early to stop an apparatus that moved them toward the feared area. The avoidance persisted for many trials.

What is the one-process theory of avoidance?

The avoidance response is reinforced by reducing exposure to the aversive event. The account does not require conditioned fear reduction.

One-process vs. two-process theory of punishment?

One-process says the consequence directly weakens the response. Two-process adds conditioned fear or anxiety and attributes suppression to avoiding that state.

Intrinsic vs. extrinsic punishment?

Intrinsic punishment comes from the activity itself, such as nausea from smoking. Extrinsic punishment comes from an added consequence, such as someone criticizing the smoking.

Primary, secondary, and generalized conditioned punishers?

A primary punisher functions without prior learning. A secondary punisher gains its effect through association. A generalized conditioned punisher has been associated with many punishers.

What does the marshmallow test illustrate?

Delay of gratification: giving up an immediate smaller reward for a delayed larger one. The lecture discusses self-control as a skill that can be taught.

How did Skinner's teaching machine use reinforcement?

Students got short lessons and answered questions. A correct answer earned the opportunity to move to the next item. Headsprout similarly builds frequent success into reading instruction.

How can operant learning be used in animal training and CBT?

Zoo trainers can reinforce voluntary cooperation with veterinary care. A CBT example is reinforcing small social steps and gradually building toward bigger ones.

What is applied behavior analysis (ABA)?

The empirical application of learning principles to improve socially significant behavior. It can increase skills or decrease problem behavior.

What are the seven dimensions of ABA?

Applied, behavioral, analytic, technological, effective, conceptually systematic, and general (generality).

What do applied, behavioral, and analytic mean in ABA?

Applied targets socially meaningful behavior. Behavioral makes the target observable and measurable. Analytic uses data to demonstrate the relationship between intervention and behavior.

What do technological, effective, conceptually systematic, and general mean in ABA?

Technological means procedures are replicable. Effective means change has practical value. Conceptually systematic means grounded in behavioral principles. General means change lasts or carries to other settings or people.

What are the ABCs of behavior analysis?

Antecedent comes before the response, behavior is the observable action, and consequence follows it. Example: friend walks by, you smile, friend smiles back.

What are the four functions of behavior in ABA?

Attention, tangible access, escape or avoidance, and sensory stimulation (automatic reinforcement).

A child throws papers and the teacher yells. What could maintain the behavior?

Attention, if the teacher's reaction makes future paper throwing more likely. The function depends on its effect on behavior.

A child throws papers and is excused from group work. What function might this serve?

Escape, if ending group work increases paper throwing when group work is assigned.

How do you distinguish tangible access and sensory stimulation?

Tangible access gets an item or activity, like asking for a snack. Sensory stimulation comes from the response itself, like humming because you enjoy the sound.

What are the steps of a functional behavior assessment (FBA)?

Define the behavior, plan data collection, collect and analyze data, propose and test a function hypothesis, implement an intervention, and monitor or adjust it.

What did the lecture's FBA example suggest about M's nonparticipation?

It might help her avoid speaking. Check whether verbal tasks reliably precede withdrawal and whether withdrawal reliably removes the demand.

What is organizational behavior management (OBM)?

Using ABA principles in the workplace to improve outcomes such as performance, engagement, or workplace dynamics.

What are loss aversion, framing, and defaults in behavioral economics?

Loss aversion: equal losses often weigh more than gains. Framing: presenting an option as a gain or loss can change choices. A default is the preselected option, such as automatic enrollment with the ability to opt out.