Agenda
 1. Review Classical Conditioning (10)
 2. Skinner and Operant Conditioning (25)
 Puzzle Box Clip Embedded


3. BF Skinner Clip Operant Conditioning (10)
4. Pigeon’s and Missile Guidance (5)
 5. Hotter/Colder experiment (15)

 A type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher .

 First psychologist to formulate a theory of operant conditioning
 Called it instrumental conditioning because the response is instrumental in bringing about the reward

 Rewarded behavior is likely to occur again.

Thorndike’s Puzzle
Box – used with cats

Puzzle Box Clip
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDujDOLr e-
8&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=
1&safe=active

Chief Advocate for Operant
Conditioning

Operant Chamber or
Skinner Box
 Used to study operant conditioning; is an elaboration of the puzzle box
 Comes with a bar or key that an animal manipulates to obtain a reinforcer like food or water.
 The bar or key is connected to devices that record the animal’s response.

Classical verses
Operant Conditioning
 Classical conditioning forms associations between stimuli.
 Classical conditioning involves respondent behavior that occurs as an automatic response to a certain stimulus.
 Operant conditioning forms an association between behaviors and the resulting events .
 Operant conditioning involves operant behavior, a behavior that operates on the environment, producing rewarding or punishing stimuli

Operant Conditioning with dogs
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YevlI_s3b
4&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=
1&safe=active
 Stop at 3:39

•
Reinforcement
 Increases a response
Positive reinforcement – add a desirable stimulus
•
• example: a hug
Negative reinforcement –remove an aversive stimulus; this is not a punishment
• Example: fasten seatbelt to stop beeping

Positive reinforcement - Big
Bang
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euINCrDbb
D4&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode
=1&safe=active

 Primary reinforcers – innately satisfying
 Secondary (conditioned) reinforcers – gains power through its association w/the primary reinforcer –learned reinforcer


mean

Immediate and Delayed
Reinforcers
 Immediate reinforcer – a reinforcer that occurs instantly after a behavior
 Delayed reinforcer – a reinforcer that is delayed in time for a certain behavior.
 We may be inclined to engage in small immediate reinforcers (TV time) rather than large delayed reinforcers (getting an
A in a course) which require consistent study.

Schedules of
Reinforcement


Schedules of
Reinforcement
 Partial (intermittent) – reinforcing only some responses, results in slower acquisition but greater resistance to extinction

Schedules of
Reinforcement
 Fixed-ratio (FR) – reinforcement after a fixed number of responses, high rates of responding

Schedules of
Reinforcement
 Variable-ratio (VR) – reinforcement after average/unpredictable number of responses, very high steady rates of responding

Schedules of

Reinforcement
Fixed-interval (FI) – reinforcement after fixed amount of time has lapsed
(prepare for test night before)
 Variable-interval (VI) – reinforcement after an unpredictable amount of time, low steady rate of response(pop quiz)

 Process by which a stimulus follows a response and reduces the frequency of the response
 Opposite of reinforcement


Positive punishment – administer an aversive/ undesired stimulus
 Example: spanking
 Negative punishment – withdrawal a desired stimulus
 Example: time out from TV

Research on Punishment
 Although there may be some justification for occasional punishment (Larzelaere &
Baumrind, 2002), it usually leads to negative effects.

Research on Punishment
 Results in unwanted fears.
 Conveys no information to the organism.
 Justifies pain to others.
 Causes unwanted behaviors to reappear in its absence.
 Causes aggression towards the agent.
 Causes one unwanted behavior to appear in place of another.

 Occurs when successive approximations of a behavior are rewarded so that the organism eventually produces the desired behavior



Vicarious
Reinforcement/
Punishment


Learned Helplessness
 May result from a situation where there is no contingency between behaviors and consequences
 Experience has taught them that they have no control over what will happen to them
 Theoretical explanation for failure in school or work

Cognition and Operant
Conditioning
 Evidence of cognitive processes during operant learning comes from rats during a maze exploration in which they navigate the maze without an obvious reward. Rats seem to develop cognitive maps .

 A mental representation of the layout of one’s environment.
 Cognitive maps are based on latent learning : which becomes apparent only when an incentive is given.

Latent Learning
 Latent Learning occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it.
 EXAMPLE: Learning CPR but now knowing it until you have to administer it.

•

 The effect of promising a reward for doing what one already likes to do.
 Undermines intrinsic motivation

• Extrinsic motivation : desire to perform a behavior due to promised rewards or threats of punishment

Biological
Predisposition
 Biological constraints predispose organisms to learn associations that are naturally adaptive.
 Breland (1961) showed that animals drift towards their biologically predisposed instinctive behaviors.

Skinner’s Legacy
 Skinner argued that behaviors were shaped by external influences instead of inner thoughts and feelings.
 Critics argued that Skinner dehumanized people by neglecting their free will.

Applications of Operant
Conditioning
 Skinner introduced the idea of teaching machines that shape learning in small steps and provide reinforcements for correct rewards.
 Reinforcers affect productivity. Many companies now allow employees to share profits and participate in company ownership.
 In children, reinforcing good behaviors increases the occurrence of these behaviors.
Ignoring unwanted behavior decreases their occurrence.

Operant Experiment
 Using certain words, we will attempt to have a student complete an action that would result in a reward.


What shall they do?
Reward?