Learnnig approaches: Behaviourist approach -Operant conditioning (including skinners research)

what is operant conditioning?

A form of learning where behaviour is shaped and maintained by its consequences.

Possible consequences of behaviour include reinforcement (positive / negative) punishment 

What is reinforcement?

A consequence of behaviour that will increase the likelihood of the behaviour being repeated.

What are the two things reinforcement can be?

Positive - addition of a reward/ prize

Negative - removal of something unpleasant 

What is punishment?

will decrease the likelihood of the behaviour being repeated

What did B.R Skinner suggest through his research?

• that learning is an active process whereby humans and animals operate upon their environment (hence ‘operant conditioning’)

What 3 types of operant did Skinner identify?

• Neutral operants : Environmental forces that neither increase nor decrease the repetition of specific behaviour

• Reinforcers

- Environmental forces that increases the repetition of specific behaviour. 

-A positive reinforcer is a behaviour which is repeated to enjoy the pleasant consequences

-A negative reinforcer is a behaviour which is repeated to avoid unpleasant consequences

• Punishers - environment forces that decrease the repetition of specific behaviour

What was skinners research trying to determine?

He set up a series of experiments to determine how animals lean form the consequences of their actions, dependent upon the specific operants he implemented.

describe the process of Skinner’s experiment to demonstrate positive reinforcement

He placed a rate at a time inside the box

Each box contained different stimuli, including a lever that released food (the rat’s reward) and an electroplated flood (the rat’s punishment)]

Positive reinforcement was demonstrated by placing a hungry rat in the box .

• the box contained a lever which the rat (initially) accidentally triggered as it explored the box

• Upon triggering the lever a food pallet was delivered (reward)

• The rats quickly learned (it only took them a few tries) to go straight to the lever.

• The consequences/ reward (food) of pressing the lever saw them repeating the action over and over.

describe the process of Skinner’s experiment to demonstrate negative reinforcement

He placed a rate at a time inside the box

Each box contained different stimuli, including a lever that released food (the rat’s reward) and an electroplated flood (the rat’s punishment)]

• The rat (initially) accidently triggered the lever as it explored the box

• Upon triggering the lever, the electric current was switched off (unpleasant sensations stopped)

• The rat quickly learned to trigger the lever immediately as soon as they were places in the box

• The consequence/ reward of escaping the electric shock saw them repeating the action over and over again

In another variation the rats learned to stop the avoid the electric shock (punishment) by pressing the lever when the light cam eon (avoiding punishment = negative reinforcement)

What are the strengths of skinners research?

- Operant conditioning has good application to the maintenance of phobias

• someone with social phobias uses avoidance to stay away from any events involving people, socialising etc.

• The use of avoidance is an example of negative reinforcement (i.e taking steps to keep away from large gatherings of people).

• The more the avoidance is repeated, the more the phobic person is rewarded with feelings of relief and security.

-Skinner used standardised procedures in controlled conditions, which means that his research has good reliability

• Reliability is a strength of experimental research as it satisfies the criteria for falsifiability, i.e the theory can be tested scientifically 

What are the limitations of skinners research?

-Operant conditioning cannot explain why some people may repeat behaviours which are damaging, detrimental or unpleasant.

• People who self-harm may do so for the specific relief it brings them but such behaviours would not be recognised as positive reinforcers by operant conditioning.

• People who continue to smoke even though they may find the taste and smell of cigarettes unpleasant defy the assumptions of operant conditioning 

-Skinner’s research is overly simplistic (environmental reductionism)

• Humans are much more complex and sophisticated than animals and operate at a higher cognitive level

• People are more able to take control of their behaviour via mechanisms such as self-efficacy then the behaviourists given them credit for.

What is continuous reinforcement?

(every time the behaviour occurs) - This establishes the repones initially fairly quickly

What is partial or variable reinforcement?

(reward not given every time) - this is the most successful in terms of maintaining the response