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Operant or Instrumental Conditioning

Operant or Instrumental Conditioning. Psychology 3306. Introduction. Thorndike and his puzzle boxes Guthrie and Horton Superstitious Behaviour Interim Terminal Adjunctive Not exactly superstitious or random. Shaping. Successive approximations Get closer and closer to behaviour

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Operant or Instrumental Conditioning

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  1. Operant or Instrumental Conditioning Psychology 3306

  2. Introduction • Thorndike and his puzzle boxes • Guthrie and Horton • Superstitious Behaviour • Interim • Terminal • Adjunctive • Not exactly superstitious or random

  3. Shaping • Successive approximations • Get closer and closer to behaviour • Secondary reinforcers • Feeder click for example • Behaviour modification

  4. Freddie! • Coined the phrase ‘Operant conditioning’ • The animal operates on the environment • Unlike ‘respondent conditioning’ (Pavlovian) • Pioneered the use of free operants • Pioneered the use of respone rate

  5. The Skinner Box • Basically this allowed the researcher to walk away • Allowed for a dependent variable that could be easily measured and compared across species too

  6. Criticisms of the Skinner box • Is it artificial? • Well duh… • But • Many species can be tested • Real world applications • Therapy • Who cares?

  7. Key concepts and terms • Discriminative stimulus • Three term contingency • Acquisition • Extinction • Spontaneous recovery • Generalization • Conditioned reinforcement • Response chains

  8. Constraints • Instinctive drift and the Brelands • Autoshaping (Brown and Jenkins, 1968) • Superstitious behaviour? • Form of response depends on reinforcer (Jenkins and Moore, 1973) • Wasserman’s chicks (1973) • Timberlake’s behaviour systems approach

  9. Schedules of Reinforcement • You could give a reinforcement after each behaviour you are interested in • This is called CRF or Continuous reinforcement • However this is rarely used • Does not maintain behaviour very well

  10. Schedules of Reinforcement • Fixed Interval • First response after a given interval is rewarded • FI Scallop • Variable Interval • Like FI but varies with a given average • Scallop disappears

  11. Schedules of Reinforcement • Fixed Ratio • Reinforcement is given after a given number of responses • A little less smooth • Variable Ratio • After a varying number of responses

  12. Schedules and their properties • Variable schedules are more robust • PREE, Partial reinforcement extinction effect • Harder to extinguish responding on VI, FI, VR and FR than on CRF • DRL, Differential reinforcement for low rates of responding • DRH, High rates

  13. Schedule this…. • Concurrent and chained schedules • Behaviour follows the schedule in effect at the time • Allowed people to determine that the post reinforcement pause in FR schedules is due to the present schedule and not the previous one

  14. Applications • Work with autistic kids • Prompts • Fading • Secondary reinforcers • Token economies • I/O applications • Behaviour therapy

  15. These ideas are nothing new… • Most folks are unaware of schedules and contingencies • Systematic application thereof • Who cares?

  16. Punishment and avoidance Behavior increases decreases Stimulus Presented Stimulus Removed or omitted

  17. Avoidance • Shuttle box • Go from escape to avoidance • Avoidance paradox • Two factor theory • Avoid by escaping CS • Animals will avoid a CS that predicts shock in another context

  18. But…. • Does the CS induce fear? • Equivocal at best • Maybe avoidance itself is reinforcing • This is the one factor theory • The Sidman test shows that this is true, avoidance itself is reinforcing • But, temporal conditioning

  19. Cognitive theories • Selligman and Johnston • Expectations • Animal expects: • No shock if it responds • Shock if it does not respond • This explains the slow extinction • Shock avoidance response blocking, remove the ability to escape, you get extinction

  20. More on avoidance • Bob Bolle’s idea about SSDRs • Learned helplessness • Is it depression? • Suggestive, but not quite I don’t think

  21. Punishment • Opposite of reinforcement? • Sorta • But, to be effective it must be: • Introduced at full intensity • Given immediately • After every behaviour • Motivational effects • Other contingencies and behaviours

  22. Bad boys bad boys, watcha gonna do? • Maybe a punisher is an SD? • All that said punishment CAN control behaviour • So, what’s the down side?

  23. punishment • Fear and anger are bad for learning • General suppression • Constant monitoring needed • Avoidance • Reluctance to use it • Bad consequences • It is just plain mean

  24. Omission • The avoidance of punishment • Easily learned • With all this stuff on punishment, remember morality and data are two different things

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