SKINNER - BEHAVIORAL ANALYSIS

#fyp

radical behaviorism

doctrine that avoids all hypothetical constructs, such as ego, traits, drives, needs, hunger, and so forth

determinist

As a _______ , Skinner rejected the notion of volition or free will. Human behavior does not stem from an act of the will, but like any observable phenomenon, it is lawfully determined and can be studied scientifically.

environmentalist

As an ___________, Skinner held that psychology must not explain behavior on the basis of the physiological or constitutional components of the organism but rather on the basis of environmental stimuli

history

The _______ of the individual, rather than anatomy, provides the most useful data for predicting and controlling behavior

Edward L. Thorndike

the first psychologist to systematically study the consequences of behavior (initially worked with animals then with humans)

law of effect

learning takes place mostly because of the effects that follow a response

(Thorndike)

satisfier

The first part of the law of effect which states that the responses to stimuli that were followed by a ______ tend to be “stamped in”

annoyer

The second part of the law of effect which states that the responses to stimuli that were followed by a ______ tend to be “stamped out”

rewards (satisfiers); punishments (annoyers)

Thorndike later amended the law of effect, whereas _________ strengthen the connection between a stimulus and a response, _________ do not usually weaken this connection.

John B. Watson

argued that the goal of psychology is the prediction and control of behavior and that goal could best be reached by limiting psychology to an objective study of habits formed through stimulus-response connections

classical; respondent

With _______ classical conditioning (which Skinner called ______ conditioning), a response is drawn out of the organism by a specific, identifiable stimulus.

Operant; Skinnerian

With _______ (also called ______ conditioning), a behavior is made more likely to recur when it is immediately reinforced.

classical; operant

One distinction between the two kinds of conditioning is that, in ______ conditioning, behavior is elicited from the organism, whereas in ______ conditioning, behavior is emitted

Elicited; Emitted

______ - response drawn from organism

______ - response that simply appears

classical conditioning

a neutral (conditioned) stimulus is paired with—that is, immediately precedes—an unconditioned stimulus a number of times until it is capable of bringing about a previously unconditioned response, now called the conditioned response

Operant Conditioning

The organism first does something and then is reinforced by the environment. Reinforcement, in turn, increases the probability that the same behavior will occur again

Shaping

procedure in which the experimenter or the environment first rewards gross approximations of the behavior, then closer approximations, and finally the desired behavior itself

antecedent (A), the behavior (B), and the consequence (C)

Three conditions present in all instances of operant conditioning

antecedent

the environment or setting in which the behavior takes place

operant discrimination

A behavioral pattern where a response occurs in the presence of a specific stimulus due to a history of reinforcement for responding to that stimulus, but not in the presence of other stimuli where reinforcement was withheld. It results from differential reinforcement history, not cognitive ability

Stimulus Generalization

The tendency to emit a response in the presence of a new stimulus that shares elements with a previously reinforced stimulus, even without direct reinforcement for the new stimulus. Behavior generalizes based on physical similarity, not cognitive transfer.

Positive Reinforcement

Any stimulus that, when added to a situation, increases the probability that a given behavior will occur

Negative Reinforcement

The removal of an aversive stimulus from a situation also increases the probability that the preceding behavior will occur

punishment

presentation of an aversive stimulus, such as an electric shock, or the removal of a positive one, such as disconnecting an adolescent’s telephone

Positive Punishment

punishment that requires the presentation of an aversive stimulus

Negative Punishment

punishment that involves the removal of a positive reinforcer

Primary Reinforcers

Reinforcers that are unlearned such as food, water, sex, or physical comfort

conditioned reinforcers

environmental stimuli that are not by nature satisfying but become so because they are associated with such unlearned or primary reinforcers

generalized reinforcer

reinforcers associated with more than one primary reinforcer

Continuous Reinforcement

Reinforcement follows every occurrence of the target behavior

Continuous Reinforcement

Reinforcement that rapidly establishes new behaviors but leads to quick extinction if reinforcement stops

Intermittent Reinforcement

Reinforcement occurs only some of the time, subdivided into four categories

Fixed-Ratio Schedule

Reinforcement after every nth number of responses

Variable-Ratio Schedule

Reinforcement after an unpredictable number of responses

Variable-Ratio Schedule

Reinforcement extremely resistant to extinction

Fixed-Interval Schedule

Reinforcement for the first response after a nth amount of time

Variable-Interval Schedule

Reinforcement for the first response after varying time intervals

Extinction

tendency of a previously acquired response to become progressively weakened upon nonreinforcement

Operant extinction

when an experimenter systematically withholds reinforcement of a previously learned response until the probability of that response diminishes to zero