3.8 Operant Conditioning

The Law of Effect means that people and animals tend to:

Repeat actions that lead to good outcomes and avoid actions that lead to bad outcomes

If a behavior is rewarded, it is more likely to:

Happen again

If a behavior leads to something unpleasant, it is less likely to be:

Repeated

The _____ of consequences matters

Timing

In terms of timing of consequences, ______ feedback is most effective

Immediate

In operant conditioning, the strength of an association depends on:

Consistency and timing

A student studies with music and gets a good grade (satisfying), making them likely to study with music again; conversely, another student tries it and gets a bad grade (unsatisfying), making them less likely to repeat it, instead opting for better notes.

Which concept is demonstrated above?

Law of Effect / Operant Conditioning

In operant conditioning, positive means:

Adding something

In operant conditioning, negative means:

Taking something away

In operant conditioning, reinforcement means ______ behavior

Encouraging

In operant conditioning, punishment means ______ behavior

Discouraging

A student gets candy for answering a question correctly, making them more likely to participate again

Which concept is demonstrated above?

Positive reinforcement

A driver wears a seatbelt to stop the annoying beeping sound, making them more likely to buckle up in the future.

Which concept is demonstrated above?

Negative reinforcement

A child is given extra chores for talking back, making them less likely to do it again.

Which concept is demonstrated above?

Positive punishment

A teenager loses their phone for missing curfew, making them more likely to come home on time next time.

Which concept is demonstrated above?

Negative punishment

Effectiveness of a consequence in operant conditioning depends on:

When it’s delivered, how consistently it’s applied, how much the individual cares about the reinforcer/punisher

Shaping is a way to teach behavior by:

Reinforcing small steps toward final goal

Shaping does not involve:

Waiting for full behavior to happen all at once

Shaping is useful for learning ______ behaviors that don’t:

Complex or unnatural; happen automatically

Shaping is used in:

Animal training, teaching children new skills, therapy

Shaping involves developing habits:

Step by step

When teaching a dog to roll over, you give it a treat for lying down, then for turning its head, then for rolling halfway, and finally for rolling over

Which concept is demonstrated above?

Shaping

When shaping behavior, the behavior must be something that the person or animal can:

Physically do

You cannot shape a behavior that is:

Impossible

Instinctive drift happens when an animal:

Goes back to natural behaviors

Instinctive drift happens when an animal goes back to natural behaviors, even after:

Being trained

A raccoon trained to put a coin in a piggy bank might start rubbing the coin instead-because that's what raccoons naturally do with food.

Which concept is demonstrated above?

Instinctive drift

Superstitious behavior happens when someone:

Mistakenly connects an action with an outcome

Superstitious behavior happens when someone mistakenly connects an action with an outcome, even though they:

Are not actually related

Superstitious behavior happens because of:

Accidental reinforcement

Accidental reinforcement is when a reward happens:

Randomly after a behavior

Accidental reinforcement causes the person or animal to believe that:

The behavior caused by random reward

A baseball player once hit a home run while wearing a pair of blue socks, so he thinks that wearing that particular pair of socks results in the outcome of hitting a home run, even though these two are not actually related and it all happened randomly due to chance or luck

Which concept is demonstrated above?

Accidental reinforcement + Superstitious behavior

Learnt helplessness happens when someone experiences ______ outcomes that they:

Repeated negative outcomes; can’t control

When someone repeatedly experiences uncontrollable negative outcomes, they will stop trying to:

Improve their situation

When someone repeatedly experiences uncontrollable negative outcomes, they will stop trying to improve their situation, even when later on they:

Have the power to change things

A student repeatedly fails math tests despite studying, so they stop trying altogether, believing that nothing they do will help. Even when they get a great tutor, they might still believe they will fail and not put in effort.

Which concept is demonstrated above?

Learnt helplessness

Superstitious behavior comes from ______, while learnt helplessness comes from believing that there is ______

False beliefs in control; no control at all

Superstitions make people ______, while learnt helplessness makes them ______

Repeat unnecessary actions; stop trying completely

Superstitious behavior is when ______ things happen by ______, while learnt helplessness develops when _______ things happen with ______

Good; chance; bad; no escape

Reinforcement schedules determine ______ a behavior is reinforced

When and how often

Reinforcement schedules impact how ______ learning happens

Quickly

Reinforcement schedules impact how ______ behavior lasts

Long

Continuous reinforcement provides a reward ______ a behavior occurs

Every time

______ is the fastest way to teach a new behavior

Continuous reinforcement

Continuous reinforcement is the fastest way to teach a new behavior because the learner:

Quickly associates the action with the reward

Continuous reinforcement works well for:

Initial learning

The downside of continuous reinforcement is that if reinforcement stops, the behavior:

Disappears quickly

Behavior disappearing when reinforcement stops is called:

Extinction

With partial reinforcement, rewards are given:

Only sometimes

Partial reinforcement makes behavior more ______ to extinction

Resistant

A dog gets a treat every time it sits on command

Which concept is demonstrated above?

Continuous reinforcement

Types of partial reinforcement:

Fixed or variable interval or ratio

Interval-based schedules reinforce based on:

Time

For fixed-interval schedule, reward comes after:

A set period of time

For fixed-interval schedule, reward comes after a set period of time, regardless of:

How often behavior occurs

A worker gets paid every two weeks

Which concept is demonstrated above?

Fixed-interval schedule

For fixed-interval schedule, behavior ______ as reward time approaches

Increases

For fixed-interval schedule, behavior ______ right after the reward time

Slows down

For variable-interval schedule, reward comes after ______ time intervals

Unpredictable

A man checks for a text message from his girlfriend. There is no set time that she will send him a text, so he keeps checking throughout the day

Which concept is demonstrated above?

Variable-interval schedule

Variable-interval schedules produce ______ behavior

Steady and consistent

Variable-interval schedules produce steady and consistent behavior since the reinforcement is:

Unpredictable

Ratio-based schedules involve reinforcement based on:

Responses

For fixed-ratio schedules, a reward is given after a:

Set number of responses

A coffee shop gives a free drink after every 10 purchases

Which concept is demonstrated above?

Fixed-ratio schedule

Fixed-ratio schedule creates a _______ response rate

High

Fixed-ratio schedule creates behavior that ______ briefly after the reward

Pauses

For variable-ratio schedule, the number of responses needed for reinforcement:

Changes randomly

Slot machines in casinos reward players after an unpredictable number of spins

Which concept is demonstrated above?

Variable-ratio schedule

______ schedule is the most resistant to extinction

Variable-ratio

Variable-ratio schedule is the most resistant to extinction because the person:

Keeps responding

Variable-ratio schedule is the most resistant to extinction because the person keeps responding in the hope that:

The next attempt will be rewarded

______ reinforcement is best for learning new behaviors quickly

Continuous

______ reinforcement is better for maintaining behavior over time

Partial

______ schedules create the most persistent behaviors

Variable

Operant conditioning is a learning process in which behavior is modified by:

Consequences

Primary reinforcer is a reinforcer that satisfies a ______ need

Basic biological

When trying to teach a dog a trick, you give him food to eat whenever he does it well to reinforce the behavior. You give it food, instead of a sticker or money, because dogs are naturally and predisposed to be attracted to food

Which concept is demonstrated above?

Primary reinforcer

Reinforcement discrimination is the ability to distinguish between stimuli that are ______ and those that are ______

Followed by reinforcement; not

Reinforcement discrimination leads to:

Differential responding

A dog only sits for a treat when you say "sit," not "sit down"

Which concept is demonstrated above?

Reinforcement discrimination

Reinforcement generalization is the tendency to respond to:

Respond to stimuli similar to those associated with reinforcement in the same way as the original stimulus

A child saying "please" at home and then also at school, restaurants, or friends' houses because they learned it's good from their parents rewarded a cookie for them when they say “please” at home

Which concept is demonstrated above?

Reinforcement generalization

A secondary reinforcer is a reinforcer that has acquired value through:

Association with a primary reinforcer

We delight at being rewarded with money, because even though tt can't satisfy hunger directly, we've learned it buys food, shelter, and other needs

Which concept is demonstrated above?

Secondary reinforcer