MODULE 11: SKINNER

Behaviorism

An approach called ____________ emerged from laboratory studies of animals and humans.

E. L. Thorndike and John Watson,

Two of the early pioneers of behaviorism were

radical behaviorism

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

Edward Thorndike

The first psychologist to systematically study the consequences of behavior

law of effect

Behavior that is followed by a positive outcome or pleasant consequences are more likely to happen again. While the behavior that is followed by negative outcomes these are less likely to be repeated called ___________

stamped in

Responses to stimuli that are followed immediately by a satisfier tend to be ___________

Stamped Out

Responses to stimuli that are followed immediately by an annoyer tend to be ___________

law of effect

Thorndike observed that learning takes place mostly because of the effects that follow a response, and he called this observation the __________

classical conditioning

A kind of learning wherein a person or an animal learns to connect one thing with another

conditioning

is a learning process in which an organism comes to associate two stimuli

unconditioned stimulus

something that naturally causes a reaction

unconditioned response

The natural response necessary when you saw a food or something that you crave for

neutral stimulus

something that doesn't cause any reaction at first

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conditioned stimulus

This is the neutral stimulus after it has been paired with the unconditioned stimulus (ex: bell become meaningful because it was paired with food)

conditioned response

This is the learned response to the conditioned stimulus (ex: salivating at the bell, because the dogs starts salivating sa bell)

operant conditioning

________ is the immediate reinforcement of a response.

shaping

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

operant discrimination

It means you learn where or when to do the behavior and you learned it based on your past experience or being rewarded or punished. The behavior only happens in one setting where it was reinforced

stimulus generalization

A response to a similar environment in the absence of previous reinforcement is called _____________ - This happens when someone or an animal respond to new but similar stimulus even it was never used during training

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reinforcement

This is anything that increases that chance that a behavior will be repeated. ____________ doesn't cause the behavior but it will strengthen the likelihood that it will happen again

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reinforcement

A process in which the frequency or probability of a response is increased by a dependent relationship, or contingency, with a stimulus or circumstance.

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positive reinforcement

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

We are adding something pleasant after a behavior to encourage that behavior

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negative reinforcement

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

You are removing something unpleasant after a behavior to encourage that behavior. Taking away something bad to encourage their good behavior.

punishment

process of decreasing the likelihood of a behavior happening again. Opposite of reinforcement

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positive punishment

presentation of an aversive stimulus.

You are adding something unpleasant after a behavior to reduce that behavior

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negative punishment

removal of a positive stimulus.

Removing something pleasant to make the behavior less likely. Something enjoyable is taken away to discourage your behaviori

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conditioned/secondary reinforcers

those environmental stimuli that are not by nature satisfying but become so because they are associated with such unlearned or primary reinforcers as food, water, sex, or physical comfort (e.g. money, grades, tokens)

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Generalized reinforcer

are stimuli that are associated with more than one primary reinforcer (e.g. attention, approval, affection, submission of others, tokens).

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continuous schedule

the organism is reinforced for every response.

Reinforced every response

intermittent schedule

based either on the behavior of the organism or on elapsed time.

Based on the behavior or the amount of time that passed

fixed-ratio schedule

the organism is reinforced according to the number of responses it makes.

Rewards are given after sets of responses

variable-ratio schedule

- the organism is reinforced after every nth response on the average.

Rewards are random (so you just keep doing or playing like machines)

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fixed-interval schedule

the organism is reinforced for the first response following a designated period of time

Reward is given after a period of time (like salary).

variable-interval schedule

the organism is reinforced after the lapse of random or varied periods of time.

reward is given at random times interval/unpredictable time

Extinction

This happens when a learned behavior fails or stops overtime

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extinction

defined as the tendency of a previously acquired response to become progressively weakened upon nonreinforcement.

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operant extinction

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

natural selection

those behaviors that, throughout history, were beneficial to the species tended to survive, whereas those that were only idiosyncratically reinforcing tended to drop out (e.g. pupillary reflex, rooting reflex).

cultural evolution

those cultural practices that evolved and reinforcing to the group (e.g. toolmaking, verbal behavior)

Individual's History of Reinforcement

Refers to your personal experiences