Operant or Instrumental Conditioning Psychology 3306 Introduction l

Operant or Instrumental Conditioning Psychology 3306

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

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

Freddie! l l l 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Punishment and avoidance Behavior increases Stimulus Presented Stimulus Removed or omitted decreases Positive reinforcement punishment Negative reinforcement Omission

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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