Basic Principles
of Operant Conditioning
Chapter 6
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Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
Two Types of Behavior
• Classical Conditioning
Respondents – reflexive, elicited behavior
CS controls behavior
• Operant Conditioning
Operants – voluntary, emitted behavior
outcomes control behavior
Type of learning in which the future probability
of a behavior is affected by its consequences
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Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
Edward Thorndike (1874-1949)
The Law of Effect
• of several responses
made to the same
situation
– those which are
accompanied or closely
followed by
satisfaction ….will be
more likely to reoccur
– those accompanied or
closely followed by
discomfort will be less
likely to occur
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Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
Thorndike
The Law of Effect
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Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
The Law of Effect
• Satisfying- animal does not avoid
• Discomfort – animal commonly avoids or
abandons
• “satisfying state” - positive reinforcer
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Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
But????????
• What is satisfying ????????
– List of Environmental Events That Can Serve
As Reinforcers
•
•
•
•
•
•
Food
Sex
Drugs
Warmth
Money
Shock
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Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
But????????
• What is annoying ????????
– List of Environmental Events Which May Be
Avoided
•
•
•
•
•
•
Food
Sex
Drugs
Warmth
Money
Shock
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Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)
• American psychologist B.
F.Skinner became famous for
his pioneering research on
learning and behavior. During
his60-year career, Skinner
discovered important principles
of operant conditioning, a type
of learning that involves
reinforcement and punishment.
A strict behaviorist, Skinner
believed that operant
conditioning could explain even
the most complex of human
behaviors.
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Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
Operant Conditioning
• Type of learning in which the future
probability of a behavior is affected by its
consequences
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Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
Operant Behavior
• A class of emitted responses that result in
certain consequences, in turn, affect the
future probability or strength of those
responses.
• “class of responses” all of the responses in
that are capable of producing the
consequence.
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Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
Operant Consequences
• Reinforcers: events that follows behavior
and increases the future probability of that
behavior
• Punishers: events that follow behavior and
decrease the future probability of behavior.
• Behaviors are reinforced or punished not
organisms.
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Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
Operant Antecedents
• Discriminative stimuli: environmental
stimuli in the presence of which responses
are reinforced and in the absence of which
they are not reinforced.
• Signal that indicates that a response will be
reinforced.
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Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
Contingencies of Reinforcement
• Operant behavior is define by a 3 term
contingency
• Events that set occasion for behavior
• The operant class
• Consequences that fellow the behavior
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Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
Classes of Reinforcing and
Punishing Stimuli
Present
Positive
Increase
Reinforcer
Positive
Reinforcer
Decrease
Punisher
Positive
Punisher
Remove
Negative
Negative
Reinforcer
Negative
Punisher
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Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
Basic Contingencies
•
•
•
•
Positive Reinforcement
Negative Reinforcement
Positive Punishment
Negative Punishment
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Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
Immediate versus Delayed
Reinforcement
• The more immediate the reinforcer the
stronger the effect on behavior.
• The more delayed the reinforcer the less
valuable the reinforcer.
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Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
Primary and Secondary Reinforcers
• Primary reinforcer – environmental event innately
reinforcing.
• Secondary reinforcer (conditioned reinforcer) –
event acquires reinforcing effects because it has
been associated with a reinforcer.
• Generalized secondary reinforcers –
environmental events associated with several
reinforcers.
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Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
Intrinsic and Extrinsic
Reinforcement
• Intrinsic reinforcement is reinforcement
provided by the mere act of performing the
behavior.
• Extrinsic reinforcement is reinforcement
provided by some consequence that is
external to the behavior.
• Learned helplessness versus learned
industriousness
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Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
Intrinsic and Extrinsic
Reinforcement
• What if extrinsic reinforcers are provided
for behaviors that are intrinsically
reinforcing?
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Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
Shaping – Successive
Approximations
• Variability is a good thing
• As behavior continues to be reinforced
variability tends to decrease.
• Conditioned reinforcers are good
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Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
Shaping the lever press response
(responses are shaped not rats)
• Extinguish any UR to the chambers
• Pair sound of pellet dispenser with pellet
delivery
• Reinforce successive approximations of
desired response.
• Watch what the rat does
• Too little time response not strengthened
• Too much time variability decreases
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Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
Shaping Behavior in the Classroom
• Don’t try it
• I have read this
chapter
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Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.