Week 7 Concepts Learning Objectives

positive reinforcers

increase or maintain the rate of the response that produces them

negative reinforcers

decrease the rate of the response that produces

natural reinforcement

the behavior produces the stimulus. Stimulus is directly related to the behavior

Arbitrary reinforcement

the behavior would not typically produce the stimulus in a natural context. Stimulus unrelated to the behavior

Premack principle

states that a higher-frequency behavior will function as reinforcement for a lower-frequency behavior. Allows the opportunity to engage

Explain why contingency in the Premack Principle would work

Works because a high-frequency behavior would reinforce low-frequency as engaging in a low-frequency behavior allows access to engage in a high-frequency behavior

Response hierarchy

refers to the order or likelihood of the response forms in the class based on response properties (effort) or probability of reinforcement in a given situation.

What did researchers do to reinforce neurons firing?

Reinforcement at the neuron level—calcium bursts or firings are reinforced by dopamine binding to specific receptors through injection

How did they rule out the alternative explanation that increased activity was just due to adding the drug?

only the neurons receiving the drug contingent upon firing showed a sustained increase in the targeted burst pattern. The noncontingent delivery failed to condition the burst pattern, and the increased activity was driven by operant reinforcement

Identify and define what Skinner believed to be the basic datum (or measure) for operant analysis

Skinner and modern behavior analysts argue that the rate of response is a better measure of behavior for operant analysis. an operant that occurs at a high rate in one situation has a high probability of being emitted in a similar situation in the future. 

operant rate

the number of operant responses that occur in some defined unit of time. an operant that occurs at a high rate in one situation has a high probability of being emitted in a similar situation in the future. 

What physiological changes does food deprivation produce in animals and how does this increase the effectiveness of food as reinforcement?

food deprivation activates hormones related to energy homeostasis and research shows that variation in these hormones increase (or decrease) food-reinforced behavior. Deprivation acts as an EO that temporarily elevates the value of food as a reward

Probability of response

the rate of the response is an indicator of its probability of occurring again in the future. A behavior that occurs at a high rate has a high probability of recurring while a low-rate response has a low probability of recurrence.

Free-operant method

an experimental procedure where the organism is allowed to freely emit the operant response over an extended period

Deprivation operation

procedure for restricting access to a reinforcing event that increases the likelihood that the event will function as reinforcement

Operant class

all the behavioral topographies that produce reinforcement

Shaping

the method of successive approximation to establish the response. Involving reinforcing closer and closer approximation final performance

Explain how shaping takes advantage of response variability in an animal’s existing repertoire to produce new forms of behavior

An animal never performs a behavior the same way twice. In any given situation, its current skillset (repertoire) has a natural range of minor variations. It is contingently reinforced by a reinforcer towards terminal performance and original versions of behavior begin to fade away through extinction.

Describe how the “song” of developing songbirds is shaped during the “sensorimotor learning” phase

Immature birdsong is shaped toward the adult song by hearing how closely vocal responses correspond with those of adult birds. Using self-produced feedback, song is fine-tuned with small variations from first to the next

Describe a model experiment in operant conditioning

Pigeon key pecking experiment where a pigeon is placed in an operant chamber. They are reinforced when they peck the key for food. Operant level of pecking is measured by recording pecks before peck-food contingency is established. Shaping and extinction are utilized

Explain what the cumulative record shown below tells us about the rate of a rat’s lever pressing over a 60-s period

The first increase indicates the start of fast responding lever pressing. Once reinforcement occurs, there is a downward tic mark to the graph. Following the tic mark, there is a time of no responding, indicated by the plateaus.

extinction

the process of withholding reinforcement that maintains the rate of response. Extinction is a contingency of reinforcement

Describe the four behavioral effects that typically occur during extinction

-              Extinction burst

-              Increased operant variability

-              Increased force of responding

-              Emotional responses

Extinction burst

sudden increase in frequency before decreasing before frequencies

Increased operant variability

operant behavior becomes variable as extinction precedes. behavioral variation increases the chances that the organisms will reinstate reinforcement or contact other sources of reinforcement. Has phylogenetic features

Increased force of responding

Reinforcement can be made contingent on the force or magnitude of response, resulting in response differentiation. Force or magnitude is a property or dimension of behavior

Resistance to extinction

the persistence of the rate of response after several sessions of extinction. When an operant is reinforced many times, resistance increases

What is the partial reinforcement effect (PRE)?

Operant responses are more resistance to extinction on partial or intermittent than CRF schedules. Reinforcement after an unpredictable number of responses will generate more responses during extinction than CRF

Provide two possible explanations for the PRE

PRE is the result of reinforcement and discrimination

Reinforcement explanation for PRE

the higher the rate of reinforcement for an operant, the greater the resistance to change. behavior maintained by a CRF schedule is more resistant to change than behavior controlled by an intermittent schedule of reinforcement

Discrimination explanation for PRE

discrimination between reinforcement and extinction is more rapid on CRF than on intermittent reinforcement and extinction

Resurgence

when one operant behavior is extinguished, other behaviors that were previously reinforced are emitted again. engaging in a previous behavior to gain access to reinforcement, used to work. Phylogenetic origin

Spontaneous recovery

the sudden increase of a conditioned response or behavior after a period passing since extinction without additional reinforcement

Reinstatement

following extinction, the recovery of behavior when the reinforcing stimulus is presented alone. Same context, free access to reinforcer

Renewal

involves recovery of responding when the organism is removed from the extinction context. Context dependent (change)

What does the post-extinction effect of renewal suggest about the high rate of relapse after treatment in a residential drug treatment program?

Reinforcement as it is used for behaviors close to final performance and extinction for behaviors that are no longer reinforced

How are discriminative extinction and forgetting different

During extinction, the opportunity to emit the operant remains available. Forgetting occurs after the mere passage of time and there is no apparent opportunity to emit the behavior.

Intrinsic motivation

the inner drive to do an activity for its own sake, simply because you enjoy it rather than for a reward

Under what conditions did Cameron and colleagues (2001) find that rewards negatively impact intrinsic motivation?

found that tangible rewards loosely tied to performance produce a slight decrease in intrinsic motivation. Negative effects were isolated to tasks that held high initial intrinsic interest for the participants rather than dull or low-interest tasks.