Operant Conditioning Skinners Radical Behaviorism Objectives Respondents and

Operant Conditioning: Skinner’s Radical Behaviorism

Objectives • Respondents and operants • The basics of operant learning • Effects of different schedules of reinforcement • The nature and uses of punishment • Possible origins of superstition • What is meant by terms like fading, generalization, discrimination, aversive control, and rat

Skinner’s Radical Behaviorism: An Overview • Basic assumptions – Human behavior follows certain laws – Causes of behavior are outside the person • Operant conditioning • The experimental analysis of behavior

Skinner’s Radical Behaviorism: An Overview • Respondent and Operant Learning – Respondent: response elicited by a stimulus – Operant: response simply emitted by an organism • Prevalence of Operant Behavior • Charles Darwin’s Influence

Skinner’s Radical Behaviorism: An Overview • Pavlov’s Harness and Skinner’s Box

Skinner’s Radical Behaviorism: An Overview • Operant Learning – Discriminative stimulus • Not S-R Learning

Positive and Negative Reinforcement • Positive reinforcement – Satisfying consequence(contingency) of a behavior • Negative reinforcement – Elimination or prevention of annoying outcome

Punishment • Two types of punishment – Positive punishment occurs when a positive contingency is removed – Negative punishment is where a negative contingency follows a behavior • Punishment versus negative Reinforcement

Illustration of Reinforcement and Punishment • • Positive Reinforcement (Reward) Negative Reinforcement (Relief) Presentation Punishment (Castigation) Removal Punishment (Penalty)

Primary and Secondary Reinforcers • Primary reinforcers – Events that are reinforcing without any learning having taken place • Secondary reinforcers – Events that are not reinforcing to begin with but become reinforcing as a result of being paired with other reinforcers • Generalized reinforcer – Learned reinforcer that appears to reinforce any of a wide variety of behaviors

Continuous or Intermittent Reinforcement • Interval or Ratio Schedules • Fixed or Random Schedules • Superstitious Schedules

Effects of Different Reinforcement Schedules • Cumulative Recording

Effects of Different Reinforcement Schedules • Effects of Schedules on Acquisition • Effects on Extinction

Effects of Different Reinforcement Schedules • Spontaneous Recovery • Extinction and Forgetting – Extinction: outcome is a relatively rapid cessation of the responses in question – Forgetting: much slower process that also results in the cessation of a response

Effects of Different Reinforcement Schedules • Effects on Rate of Responding

Shaping and Chaining • Shaping is the technique used to train animals to perform acts that are not ordinarily in their repertoire • Method involving the differential reinforcement of successive approximations • Chaining is the linking of sequences of responses • Chains in Shaping – Differentially reinforcing certain responses leading to the final and complete sequence of responses • Shaping in Human Learning

Fading, Generalization, and Discrimination • Fading: a process that involves both generalization and discrimination • Generalization: making similar responses in different situations • Discrimination: making different responses in similar but discriminably different situations

Relevance to Human Learning • Generalization and Discrimination

Applications of Operant Conditioning • Instructional Applications of Positive Contingencies • The premack principle – Behavior modification

Applications of Aversive Consequences • The case against punishment • Less objectionable forms of punishment – Time out – Response cost – Reprimands • The case for punishment • Negative reinforcement

Other Applications: Behavior Management • Positive reinforcement and punishment • Counterconditioning – Psychotherapy • Extincition • Extinction using noncontingent reinforcement

Skinner’s Position: An Appraisal • Master builder of psychology • His system is a well-defined, highly researched, clear and understandable one. • Some Philosophical Objections – Operant conditioning does not explain symbolic processes – His attempts to explain language through reinforcement theory is not satisfying – He negleted the role of biology in learning

Summary • Skinners’ radical behaviorism • Operant learning • Reinforcement and schedules – Extinction and forgetting • Applications of operant conditioning