Study Questions 7

Classical Conditioning vs. Operant Conditioning

• Classical Conditioning: Imagine teaching a dog to drool when it hears a bell. You would ring a bell (a neutral sound) right before giving the dog food (something that naturally makes it drool). After doing this many times, the dog learns to connect the bell with food and starts drooling just from hearing the bell. This is learning by association, where a natural reaction gets linked to a new trigger.

• Operant Conditioning: This is about learning from the outcomes of our actions. If you do something and get a reward, you're more likely to do it again. If you do something and get punished, you're less likely to do it again. It's like a child learning to say "please" to get a cookie – they learn by the rewards or punishments they receive for their voluntary actions.

Brief Description of Behaviorism

• Behaviorism: This is a way of studying psychology that focuses only on things we can see and measure, like actions and reactions. Behaviorists don't usually try to understand what's going on inside someone's head (thoughts or feelings). Instead, they believe our environment (everything around us) teaches us how to behave through conditioning.

Behaviorists and Freud's Methodology

• Why they disagreed: Behaviorists didn't like Sigmund Freud's way of studying people because Freud looked at dreams, childhood memories, and personal feelings that are hard to objectively prove or measure. Behaviorists prefered observable and measurable behaviors, which are much more scientific in their view.

Discriminative Stimuli

• What it is: A discriminative stimulus is like a signal that tells you when a certain behavior will lead to a specific outcome. It helps you know when to do something.

• Example: A stop sign is a perfect example. When you see a stop sign (the discriminative stimulus), it tells you that if you press the brakes (your behavior), you'll avoid an accident or a ticket (the desired outcome). If you don't see a stop sign, pressing the brakes randomly isn't usually helpful.

Learning Behavior for Desired Outcomes

• How we learn: We learn desired behaviors by making connections between a stimulus (like a command) and a response (like an action), often because we get either a reward (reinforcement) or a consequence (punishment).

• Shaping Process: Imagine teaching a dog to fetch a specific toy. You don't just wait for it to do it perfectly. First, you might reward the dog for looking at the toy. Then, you only reward it for walking towards the toy. Next, for touching it, then picking it up, and finally, for bringing it back. "Shaping" means rewarding small steps, or "successive approximations," towards the complete desired behavior until the animal (or human) does the full action consistently.

Definition and Examples of Reinforcement

• Reinforcement: This is anything that happens after a behavior that makes that behavior MORE likely to happen again.

  • It can be positive reinforcement (adding something good, like giving a child a sticker for good behavior).

  • It can be negative reinforcement (taking away something bad, like a seatbelt buzzer stopping when you buckle up).

• Examples of Typical Reinforcers: Common things that make behaviors happen more often include delicious food, warm praise, earning money, or getting special privileges.

• How to tell if something is a reinforcer: If a behavior happens more often after a specific consequence, then that consequence is considered a reinforcer. If the child cleans their room more often after getting praise, the praise is a reinforcer.

Definition and Examples of Punishment

• Punishment: This is anything that happens after a behavior that makes that behavior LESS likely to happen again.

  • It can be positive punishment (adding something bad, like getting a parking ticket for parking illegally).

  • It can be negative punishment (taking away something good, like losing your phone privileges for breaking curfew).

• Examples of Punishers: Common things that make behaviors happen less often include being yelled at, getting a fine, or losing favorite toys or privileges.

• How to tell if something is a punisher: If a behavior happens less often after a specific consequence, then that consequence is considered punishing. If a dog stops jumping on people after being sprayed with water, the water spray is a punisher.

Adding or Removing Stimuli to Alter Behavior

• Adding something:

  • If you add something pleasant (like giving a treat), it makes the behavior more likely (positive reinforcement).

  • If you add something unpleasant (like a scolding), it makes the behavior less likely (positive punishment).

• Removing something:

  • If you remove something unpleasant (like taking away a chore), it makes the behavior more likely (negative reinforcement).

  • If you remove something pleasant (like taking away a favorite toy), it makes the behavior less likely (negative punishment).

Primary vs. Conditioned Reinforcer

• Primary Reinforcer: These are things that are naturally rewarding because they satisfy basic biological needs. You don't have to learn that they are good.

  • Examples: Food (when you're hungry), water (when you're thirsty), warmth (when you're cold).

• Conditioned Reinforcer (Secondary Reinforcer): These are things that we learn to value because they've been linked with primary reinforcers. They don't naturally fulfill a basic need.

  • Examples: Money (because you can buy food, water, shelter with it), praise (because it's often associated with good feelings or rewards), good grades (because they can lead to opportunities).

Operant Conditioning Example: Misbehavior

• Scenario: A parent yells at a child for misbehaving. You might think yelling would stop the misbehavior. However, the child might continue misbehaving if the yelling (even though it's unpleasant) actually gives them attention that they want, or helps them avoid doing something they dislike even more (like doing their homework). So, what looks like punishment on the surface might actually be acting as a reinforcer for the child.

Effectiveness of Behavior Change: Reinforcement vs. Punishment

• Which is better? Generally, using reinforcement (especially positive reinforcement) is more effective than punishment for creating lasting and positive changes in behavior. Positive reinforcement encourages desired behaviors and builds them up, while punishment often only suppresses unwanted behaviors temporarily and can have negative side effects like fear or aggression.

Definitions and Examples of Reinforcement and Punishment Types

• Positive Reinforcement: Adding a pleasant item or event to make a behavior increase.

  • Example: Giving a child a cookie (pleasant stimulus added) for finishing their homework (increases behavior).

• Negative Reinforcement: Removing an unpleasant or aversive item or event to make a behavior increase.

  • Example: Allowing a student to skip their least favorite chore (aversive stimulus removed) because they got good grades (increases good grades behavior).

• Positive Punishment: Adding an unpleasant or aversive item or event to make a behavior decrease.

  • Example: Spanking a child (unpleasant stimulus added) for misbehaving (decreases misbehavior).

• Negative Punishment: Removing a pleasant item or event to make a behavior decrease.

  • Example: Taking away a child's favorite toy (pleasant stimulus removed) because they wouldn't share (decreases not sharing behavior).

Planning Behavioral Change through Reinforcement/Punishment

• How to choose: When trying to change someone's behavior, the method chosen depends on several things: how effective it's likely to be, whether it's ethical, and what the specific behavior is. Strategies that focus on building good behaviors through reinforcement are usually preferred because they lead to more positive and lasting changes.

Reinforcement of every Instance of Behavior

• Does every behavior need a reward? No, not every single time. If you reward a behavior every single time it happens (continuous reinforcement), the person or animal might become too dependent on the reward. If the reward stops, the behavior might quickly disappear. It's often better for behaviors to be reinforced sometimes, but not always, to make them stronger and more consistent even when there isn't a reward every time.

Ratio vs. Interval Schedules of Reinforcement

• Ratio Schedule: This means you get a reward after you've done a certain NUMBER of behaviors.

  • Example: Getting paid $5 for every 10 flyers you hand out. The reward depends on how many times you perform the action.

• Interval Schedule: This means you get a reward after a certain AMOUNT OF TIME has passed, as long as you perform the behavior at least once during that time.

  • Example: Getting paid every Friday, regardless of how many tasks you completed that week (as long as you worked). The reward depends on time.

Fixed vs. Variable Schedules of Reinforcement

• Fixed Schedule: The reward comes after a SET number of responses or a SET amount of time.

  • Example: A factory worker gets paid exactly every two weeks (fixed interval).

  • Example: A candy machine gives out candy after exactly 2 button pushes (fixed ratio).

• Variable Schedule: The reward comes in an UNPREDICTABLE way, either after a varying number of responses or after varying amounts of time. This often leads to very consistent behavior because you never know when the next reward is coming, so you keep trying.

  • Example: A slot machine pays out unpredictably (variable ratio) – you never know how many times you have to pull the lever before winning, so you keep pulling.

  • Example: Waiting for a text message (variable interval) – you don't know exactly when it will arrive, so you keep checking your phone.

Unique Examples of Reinforcement Schedules

• Fixed Interval: A student who knows there's a quiz every Friday (predictable time) will likely study more intensely on Thursday evening.

• Fixed Ratio: A company gives an employee a bonus after they close every 10 sales (predictable number of actions). This encourages them to close sales quickly.

• Variable Interval: A fishing enthusiast doesn't know when a fish will bite (unpredictable time), so they keep their line in the water and check it regularly, hoping for a catch.

• Variable Ratio: A professional poker player wins occasionally at an unpredictable frequency (unpredictable number of hands). This keeps them playing through many losing hands.

Tolman's Maze Experiment

• What he found: Edward Tolman did an experiment where rats explored a maze. Some rats got cheese at the end, and some didn't. He found that even the rats who didn't get a reward were still learning the layout of the maze in their heads. Later, when he added cheese for them, they quickly showed they knew the maze very well. This suggested they had created a "cognitive map" (a mental picture of the maze) even without a direct reward.

• Big idea: This experiment showed that learning can happen even when there's no obvious reward. It also suggested that what we learn isn't just about simple connections, but sometimes involves understanding and mapping out our environment in our minds.

Garcia’s Conditioned Taste Aversion and Limitations of Conditioning Theories

• What Garcia showed: John Garcia's studies showed that animals are especially good at learning certain kinds of associations very quickly. For example, if a rat eats something and then gets sick much later, it will likely avoid that food in the future. This is called "conditioned taste aversion." This challenges the idea of classical conditioning, which suggested that any neutral stimulus could be paired with any unconditioned stimulus equally well. Garcia showed that some connections (like taste and sickness) are learned much more easily because they're biologically prepared.

• Examples from Breland and Breland: Marian and Keller Breland, who trained animals for commercials, found that sometimes animals would revert to their natural, instinctual behaviors, even when those behaviors prevented them from getting a reward. For example, a pig trained to put a coin in a bank would start rooting (a natural pig behavior) with the coin instead of dropping it in. This showed that not all behaviors can be easily conditioned, and sometimes biology overrides simple reinforcement rules.

Observational Learning

• What it is: This is simply learning by watching and imitating what others do. We don't have to experience the rewards or punishments ourselves; we learn by seeing what happens to others.

• Bandura’s Bobo Doll Experiment: A famous experiment where children watched adults playing aggressively (hitting, kicking) with a large inflatable doll called a Bobo doll. When those children were later left alone with the doll, they often copied the aggressive behaviors they had observed, even without being told to be aggressive or being rewarded for it.

Observational Learning vs. Reinforcement Learning

• How they're different: In reinforcement learning (operant conditioning), you have to do a behavior and get a direct reward or punishment. In observational learning, you can learn a new behavior just by watching someone else. You don't need to be directly rewarded or punished yourself.

• Learning without direct experience: This means we can pick up many skills and social behaviors, like how to greet someone, how to use a tool, or even aggressive behaviors, by simply watching others without having to try it ourselves first or be directly rewarded for it.

Behaviors Learned Through Observational Learning

• What kinds of behaviors? We can learn a wide range of things this way, including complex social rules (like manners or how to behave in certain situations), emotional responses (like fear or empathy towards something if we see someone else react that way), and specific physical skills (like how to tie a shoe or ride a bike).

Species Demonstrating Observational Learning

• Not just humans! Many different animal species also learn by watching others. For instance, primates (like monkeys and chimpanzees) are known to imitate behaviors they see in their group members, and certain birds have been observed learning complex foraging techniques by watching other birds.