6.9 Understanding Discrimination and Generalization in Operant Conditioning

Overview of Discrimination and Generalization in Conditioning

• Discussed in the context of classical conditioning and its parallels in operant conditioning

• Key concepts involved:

  • Discrimination

  • Generalization

  • Extinction

Example: Transit Bus Doors in Winnipeg

• Local example familiar to many viewers: Back doors of transit buses

Types of Doors

• Door Types:

  • Left Door:

  • Features a thin rubber strip along its length

  • Contains a wire acting as a button that must be depressed to activate the door mechanism

  • Requirement: Press the button to open the door and exit the bus.

  • Right Door:

  • Marked by tape along its length, no functional button

  • Operates via an infrared sensor located above the door

  • Requirement: Break the beam of light with your hand to activate the doors.

Behavior Issues with Doors

• Many people struggle to differentiate between the two types of doors, leading to incorrect actions.

  • Poor Discrimination:

  • Examples of Behaviors:

    • Approaching the left door, pressing hand gently, expecting it to open (Wrong behavior - needs button press).

    • Approaching the right door, poking the tape, expecting it to work like a button (Wrong behavior - needs to break the beam).

  • Responses:

  • Observed behaviors include frustration, confusion, and attempts such as throwing shoulders at doors when actions don’t yield expected results.

Generalization of Knowledge

• Importance of generalizing information across situations:

  • Green Light:

  • Located above both types of doors.

  • Indicates active door: green means engagement in correct behavior is necessary for opening the door.

  • Conceptual understanding required:

  • When light is on, the user's action is relevant (correct behavior needed).

  • When light is off, any action will be ineffective regardless of behavior.

Discriminative Stimulus

• Definition: Stimuli that indicate the availability of reinforcement.

  • Example in context: The green light serves as a discriminative stimulus indicating that the reward (door opening) is possible if the correct behavior is performed when the light is activated.

Impact of Delayed Reinforcement

• Explanation of delayed reinforcement:

  • Older doors may show a delay (e.g., five seconds) before opening after the appropriate action is performed.

  • This delay disrupts the contiguity necessary for learning associations between stimuli and behaviors.

Extinction of Learning

• Explanation of extinction in behavior learning:

  • Occurs when repeated failures to escape through the back doors lead to frustration and the abandonment of attempted behaviors.

  • Example of social behavior: "Walk of shame" to the front of the bus after failed attempts to exit via back doors.

Conclusion

• Aimed to provide insights for better navigation of city transit systems and to help alleviate frustrations experienced with bus door mechanisms.