How is behavior shaped through operant conditioning Operant

How is behavior “shaped” through operant conditioning? • Operant shaping: demonstration, analysis and terminology • Chaining operant behavior (again) • The cumulative recorder • Asymptotic effects of basic schedules of reinforcement: Fixed-ratio (FR) Fixed-interval (FI) Variable-ratio (VR) Variable-interval (VI)

Examples of operant sequences: Rat in Skinner Box: R presses bar S R S click of approaches food feeder pellet Professor Wall on Stage: R ? S bell R S approaches candy Experimenter

Professor Wall on Stage: Conditioned Reinforcer Unconditioned Reinforcer SD: R SRf “target response” bell Rf SD: R Scandy approach

Operant level Successive approximations Differential reinforcement Reinforcement variables: Delay of reinforcement Magnitude of reinforcement Frequency of reinforcement Partial Reinforcement Effect (PRE)

(from last week’s lecture) etc. order of chained performance SD: R SRf ? ? Conditioned Unconditioned Reinforcer tone SD: R SRf bar-press click SD: R SRf approach food order in which links are learned

Movement of paper Spool Time pen

Reading and interpreting a cumulative record: No responses Cumulative Responses High response rate Low response rate Time

Transient vs. asymptotic behavior

Sample Asymptotic Cumulative Records: reinforcer FR 10 etc. “scallop” FI 1 min. Cumulative Responses etc. VR 10 VI 1 min Time etc.