chapter 4 pt 1

Operant Conditioning and Reinforcement

Operant Conditioning: A major method to change behavior based on ontogeny (individual life experience) and phylogeny (species history).
This approach is based on the premise that behaviors can be modified by their consequences.

Understanding the fundamentals of operant behavior and the four basic contingencies of reinforcement.
Reviewing seminal experiments in operant conditioning to identify reinforcing stimuli.
Learning the Principle of Premack.

Operant conditioning is described as the regulation of behavior by its consequences.
Reinforcers: Factors that increase or maintain the response rate that leads to them.
Punishers: Factors that decrease the response rate that leads to them.

Operant behavior is lawful and can be analyzed regarding its environmental relationships.
Operants: These are responses influenced by the changes they cause in the environment.
- The term operates comes from the verb "to operate" and indicates behavior that acts on the environment to yield consequences.
Consequences: These are environmental changes resulting from operant behaviors.

Topography: Refers to the physical form or characteristics of a response.
Function: Refers to the specific environmental changes generated by the operant response.
Operant Class: This encompasses all the topographies that lead to a shared environmental consequence.
- Example: The operant class for “turning on a light” includes various methods like flipping a switch, lighting a candle, or turning on a smartphone.

Discriminative stimulus (SD): An event that comes before an operant and indicates the availability of certain consequences.
Discriminative stimuli control behavior due to their association with subsequent consequences following a response.
Distinction between operant and respondent behaviors:
- Operant Behavior: Emitted and controlled by the consequences that result from it.
- Respondent Behavior: Elicited by preceding stimuli, with the responses being controlled by those stimuli rather than by consequences.

SD: Stimuli that signal available reinforcers leading to increased rates of response.
S∆ (S-delta): Stimuli that indicate the absence of reinforcement, leading to decreased rates of response.
- Example: A green traffic light serves as an SD for pressing the accelerator; a red traffic light serves as an S∆ for pushing the brake.

Both SD and S∆ are characterized by the control they exert over behavior, not by physical characteristics; virtually any stimulus can serve in either capacity depending upon an organism's learning history.

A contingency of reinforcement describes the relationship among the following elements:
- SD (Sets the occasion)
- R (Operant Class)
- Sr+ (Reinforcement)

Scenario:
- Discriminative Stimulus: Telephone rings
- Response: Answering the phone
- Outcome: Engaging in conversations with others.

Type	Effect on Behavior	Stimulus	Following Behavior
Positive Reinforcement	Increase	On/Presented	1
Positive Punishment	Decrease	On/Presented	2
Negative Reinforcement	Increase	Off/Removed	3
Negative Punishment	Decrease	Off/Removed	4

Any stimulus/event whose presentation results in an increase or maintenance of the response rate.
Example:
- Scenario:
  - SD: Green light → R: Press lever → Sr+: Receive food pellet.
- Reinforcers include food, candy, praise, money, stickers.
- Note: Reinforcers are defined more by their effect on behavior than by physical characteristics.

Any stimulus/event whose removal increases or maintains the rate of a response.
Example:
- Scenario:
  - SD: Alarm → R: Press snooze → Sr-: Alarm shuts off.
- It often involves removing aversive stimuli like alarms or demands.

Any stimulus/event whose presentation decreases the rate of a response.
Example:
- Scenario:
  - SD: Red light → R: Press lever → Sp+: Shock.
- It involves presenting an aversive stimulus; it’s emphasized that punishment must work to decrease a behavior.

Any stimulus/event whose removal decreases the response rate.
Example:
- Scenario:
  - SD: Green light → R: Press lever → Sp-: Food dish removed.
- Timeouts typically reduce target behavior by moving a child away from reinforcing environments.

A stimulus/event is only recognized as a reinforcer if its presentation or removal effectively increases or maintains the response rate it produced.
Determining if something is a reinforcer requires evaluating the effects of the stimulus/event.

One method for determining reinforcers involves Premack's principle, which posits that a behavior with a higher frequency can act as reinforcement for a behavior with a lower frequency.
It emphasizes the relationship between two behaviors instead of just a behavior and a stimulus.
Traditional View:
- SD: Green light → R: Press lever → SR+: Receive food pellet.
Premack View:
- SD: Green light → R: Press lever → SR: Eat food.

Reinforcers are determined in a free operant environment by measuring behavior and establishing a hierarchy from most to least frequent responses.

Scenario: Homework (low-frequency) vs. Watching TV (high-frequency).
- Parents enforce a rule that the child can watch TV only after completing homework correctly.

Which of the following is not one of the four basic contingencies?
- (a) positive reinforcement
- (b) positive extinction
- (c) negative punishment
- (d) negative reinforcement
The Premack principle states that a higher-frequency behavior will:
- (a) function as reinforcement for a lower-frequency behavior
- (b) function as punishment for a high-frequency behavior
- (c) function as intermittent reinforcement for a low-frequency behavior
- (d) none of the above