Unit 2 Respondent Conditioning Inheritance l All organisms

Unit 2 Respondent Conditioning

Inheritance l All organisms inherit unconditioned reflexes l Instinctive/released behavior ¡ E. g. , l The nest building capacity to be conditioned ¡ Respondent and operant l Environmental first effects to be understood

Respondent Vs Operant l Respondent conditioning ¡ Important to explain emotional responses ¡ Functional relations revealed ¡ Stimulus control l Operant Psychology = BAD NAME ¡ Respondent = smooth muscles and glands ¡ Operant = stripped muscles

Skinner’s work l DV = rate of responding l Each participant exposed to all values of the IV l Few subjects l No significance tests l No theory testing

Response Measures l Response probability = Rate l Latency, reaction time, time to complete a task, number of errors, trials to criterion, etc. l Frequency and rate better than probability

Theory l Hypothetico deductive Vs Inductive l Relations between dependent and independent variables (rate of reinforcement/rate of responses) ¡ See quote on JM p, 115 l Within subject Vs between subject l Description Vs theory testing l Visual inspection Vs significance tests

Behavior analysis… l l l l …is not only concerned with operant conditioning …does not insist that behavior changes only because of exposure to contingencies …acknowledges rule/instruction control …not anti-physiological …not anti-genetic …not anti-theoretical …is the science and technology of behavior

Group discussion l Functional ¡ What Vs Structural analyses is topography? ¡ Object permanence – stage of intellectual development (inferred states) ¡ How can you analyze this behavior functionally?

Terms l Elicited, emitted, evoked l Response class ¡ E. g. , Lever press, call the waiter, etc l Stimulus Class l Stimulus Functions

Methods l Dependent and Independent Variables 1. 2. 3. Co-variation = changes in IV are functionally related to changes in DV Changes in IV precede changes in DV Eliminate confounds

Reversal Design l Baseline – Criterion against which effects of IV will be assessed l B – IV manipulation – repeated measure to assess behavioral change l Reversal – Repeated measures to rule out other explanations (control) l Problems?

Internal Validity l History – conditions that change at the same time as the manipulation of the independent variable l Maturation – Biological/physiological processes that change over time l Instrument Decay – Problems with observers

External Validity l Generalization l Over time l Place l Dependent measures l Similar manipulations l As internal validity increases/external decreases

Replications l Systematic Vs direct replications ¡ Direct – additional participants l Generalization assessed by replication not by large samples l Behavior analysts are interested in predicting and controlling behavior of individual organisms l Participant serves as it’s own control group