Operant and Respondent Conditioning Insights

The Brelands

Students of Skinner, hollywood animal trainers

Misbehavior of Organisms

operant training with food reinforcers , gradual emergence of FAPs

Pigs

trained pig to put coin in bank , good results, then tossing & rooting coin , rooting: dig in ground w/ snout in search of food

Autoshaping Procedure

food delivered non-contingently • pigeons peck keylight

Sign-Tracking

Anytime you have auto shaping associated a US with a stimulus, and it causes to approach the stimulus  

Taste-Aversion Learning

biological preparedness in Pavlovian Conditioning

Garcia and Koelling Experiment

Studied taste aversion with audiovisual cues.

Conditioned Taste Aversion (CTA)

Learned avoidance of specific tastes.

Hearst & Jenkins Long Box Experiment

Pigeons ran to light but missed food, 6 ft chamber (keylight 3 ft from food) & pigeon ran to light, frequently missed food!

Jenkins & Moore Experiment

Compared food and water as reinforcers. US = Water (closed beak) US = Food (open beak & closed eyes)

Williams & Williams

negative response contingency , food not delivered if keypeck occurred

birds would not refrain from pecking , lost 70-95% of reinforcers

Special characteristics

association over long CS-US delays , single trial conditioning , CS-US belongingness

Operant procedure

a method in which behavior is manipulated through reinforcement or punishment to observe changes in frequency or intensity of that behavior.

Pavlovian procedure

a method in which a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a significant stimulus, leading to a conditioned response.