Untitled Flashcards Set

Operant Conditioning

• Learning process where behavior is modified by its consequences.

  • Consequences being Reinforcement and Punishment
    

Reinforcement

• Any consequence that strengthens or increases the likelihood of a behavior occurring again.

Punishment

• Any consequence that decreases the likelihood of of that behavior occurring again.

Skinner made it a point to show that reinforcing the behavior you want will always be more successful than punishing bad behavior.

• It generally takes more time and effort to to purposefully reinforce a behavior, but that is how good leaders lead well.

• Key Steps

  • Shaping and Chaining

  • Reinforcement/Punishment

  • Schedules of Reinforcement

Law of Effect

• Principle that behaviors followed by positive consequences are more likely to be repeated, and behaviors followed by negative consequences are less likely to be repeated.

  • If you are happy with an outcome, you are more likely to repeat the behavior.
    
    

Primary Reinforcer

• A stimulus that naturally satisfies a basic biological need.

  • Food, water, sleep.

  • These things are inherently rewarding due to its ability to meet a survival need.

    • You do not need to be taught that these are rewarding.

Secondary Reinforcer

• A stimulus that gains its reinforcing power by being associated with a primary reinforcer.

  • Becomes rewarding only after being paired with a primary reinforcer.

  • Giving a dog a treat(primary) and saying “good dog”(secondary).

    • The verbal affirmation is paired with a primary reinforcer.

  • Money is a secondary reinforcer, as it can be used to purchase primary reinforcers.

A reinforcement will ALWAYS strengthen a behavior.

Positive Reinforcement

• Strengthens a behavior by ADDING something pleasant.

Negative Reinforcement

• Strengthens a behavior by REMOVING something unpleasant.

Punishments will ALWAYS weaken a behavior.

Positive Punishments

• Something unpleasant is ADDED to stop a behavior.

Negative Punishment

• Something pleasant is REMOVED to stop a behavior.

When does reinforcement occur? How often should behavior be reinforced or punished?

• The importance of schedules of reinforcement change the effectiveness of the reinforcement.

Continuous Reinforcement

• Schedule where a reward is given every single time a desired behavior is exhibited.

  • Used to quickly teach new behavior

Partial Reinforcement

• Schedule where a reward is given occasionally, not every single time.

  • Ratios or Intervals

Ratio Schedules

• Schedules based on how many responses have occurred.

Fixed Ratio (FR)

• Reward is given after a set number of times an action is performed.

  • The Pigeon receives a reward every 15 times they press the lever.

    • Other examples of this are sales commissions, video game rewards, etc.

  • High, steady rates of behavior change.

  • Pigeon moves faster the closer it gets to the number it needs for the reward.

Variable Ratio (VR)

• Reward is given after a random number of times after a behavior is performed.

  • The Pigeon receives a reward after pressing the lever 5 times, then 9 times, then 3 times, etc.

    • Other examples of this are gambling (slot machines), lottery tickets, social media, etc.

  • Highest and steadiest rate of behavior change.

  • Pigeon presses the button quickly and constantly because they do not know when the reward will be arriving.

Interval Schedules

• Schedules based on how much time has passed.

Fixed Interval (FI)

• Reward is given after the same amount of time every time.

  • Pigeon is given food for the first lever press after 30 seconds have passed.

    • Other examples of this could be a weekly paycheck, dentist visits, etc.

  • Becomes predictable and creates a “scalloped” pattern of response.

    • Behavior increases the closer you get to the time of reinforcement.

Variable Interval (VI)

• Reward is given at random amount of time

  • Pigeon is given food for the first lever press after 30 seconds, then 90 seconds, then 45 seconds, etc.

  • Creates a slow but steady rate of increase of behavior

  • Pigeon is given food first at two minutes, then at four, then at one, etc.

Successive Approximations

• Reinforcing behaviors that gradually get closer to a desired target behavior.

  • Rewarding steps that progressively get closer to the final goal.

Shaping

• Instead of waiting for the behavior to occur, ANY behavior leading to the targeted behavior is rewarded.

Chaining

• Shaped behaviors are linked together in order to reach the targeted behavior

  • Teaching a child to walk happens in steps

    • First they crawl

    • Next, they stand

    • Finally, they walk.

Discrimination

• The ability to distinguish between stimuli and respond  only to the discriminative stimulus.

  • A dog learning to sit when told to “sit” and not when told to “speak”.

Generalization

• The tendency to respond in the same way to different but similar stimuli.

  • A learned response to one stimulus can also be triggered by slightly different stimuli.

  • In the Little Albert experiment, the child was conditioned to fear a rabbit, but that fear also appeared when he was shown other fluffy animals.

Instinctive Drift

• The tendency for an animal that has been trained to perform a specific behavior to gradually revert back to its natural, instinctual behaviors.

Superstitious Behavior

• A learned behavior that occurs when an action is accidentally reinforced, even if it has no causal relationship to the positive outcome.

Learned Helplessness

• Psychological state where an individual believes they are powerless to change their situation. Even when opportunities arise, they will not be motivated to take action.

  • Comes from repeated exposure to uncontrollable negative events