2013 Behaviorism
Learning about learning…
Learning
• A relatively permanent change in an
organisms behavior due to experience.
Associative Learning
• Learning that certain events occur together or
a response and its consequences.
• Our minds naturally connect events that occur
in a sequence.
Components of Conditioning
• There are 5 main components of conditioning.
Classical Conditioning always involves these parts.
They are:
– Neutral Stimulus (NS)
– Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)
– Unconditioned Response (UCR)
– Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
– Conditioned Response (CR)
• Based off of your understanding of vocabulary
alone, predict what you think these different
terms mean in regards to classical conditioning
Classical Conditioning Song
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94lWxsfKE
rM
Classical Conditioning:
• Neutral stimulus paired with a response-producing
stimulus repeatedly. (acquisition)
• Causes the neutral stimulus to elicit the same
response.
Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): A stimulus that automatically and
naturally triggers a response.
-Original Stimulus
Unconditioned Response (UCR): A unlearned, naturally occurring
response to the unconditioned stimulus, like salivation in the dog when
food is in the mouth.
-Natural response
-Would your friend’s brother’s sister’s cousin’s roommate have
the same reaction?
Conditioned (Learned) Stimulus (CS): Originally a neutral stimulus
that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus, comes to
trigger a conditioned response.
-The new stimulus that triggers the response
Conditioned (Learned) Response (CR): A learned response to a
previously neutral conditioned stimulus.
-MOST times-same as the UCR
7
Let’s Talk Classical Conditioning
• Whenever I say,
“Pavlov”, lick your
finger, dip it in your
cup and then lick your
lemonade filled finger.
• Pavlov.
• Pavlov.
• Pavlov.
Ivan Pavlov’s Experiments
Pavlov paired a
neutral stimulus (a
bell) with a meat
powder (which
made the dog
salivate).
Eventually, dog
salivates to bell
alone
Identifying Parts
Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)
Meat (Pavlov)
Unconditioned Response (UCR) (Pavlov)
Salivation
Conditioned Stimulus (CS) (Pavlov)
Bell (Pavlov)
Conditioned Response (CR)
Salivation (Pavlov)
* Hint: replace “conditioned” with “learned” to make it
more intuitive.
More Practice!
http://www.youtube
.com/watch?v=Eo7jc
I8fAuI – BGSU
Example
http://www.youtube
.com/watch?v=CpoL
xEN54ho – Pavlov’s
dog
– The Office
BGSU Example
• What is the:
– Unconditioned Stimulus
(UCS)
– Unconditioned Response
(UCR)
– Conditioned Stimulus
(CS)
– Conditioned Response
(CR)
• Answers
– UCS = Getting shot with
the AirSoft
– UCR = Flinching
– CS = Hearing the word
“that was easy”
– CR = Flinching or facial
expression
The Office
• UCS
– Sight of the mint
• UCR
– Salivating response
• CS
– Sound of Windows
• CR
– Salivating response
Socrative Quiz
A friend has learned to associate the sound of a dentist’s drill to a
fearful reaction because of a painful experience she had getting a root
canal. In this example, what is the:
–
–
–
–
UCS?
UCR?
CS?
CR?
Pain from the drill
Fear
Sound of the drill
Fear
You get in a car accident and find you are afraid to get in a car.
UCS?
UCR?
CS?
CR?
Pain of the accident
Fear
Presence of car
Fear
You go to a fancy restaurant and decide to try an appetizer you’ve
never tried before – escargot. After dinner, you go to a concert
and get violently ill (from a stomach virus that’s been going
around). From then on, you can’t even look at snails without
feeling sick.
UCS?
UCR?
CS?
CR?
Stomach virus
Feeling sick
Sight of snails
Feeling sick
You are cruising on I-94 at 75 mph when you see flashing police
lights behind you. You pull over and the policeman gives
you a ticket. You get in insane amounts of trouble from
your parents. The next time you see flashing police
lights, your heart rate speeds up.
UCS? Getting in trouble from parents
UCR? Increased heart rate
CS? Flashing lights
CR? Increased heart rate
A BMW commercial has lots of pretty people in it. People who watch
the commercial find the people pleasing to look at. With
repeated viewing, they begin to associate the car with the
pleasant feeling.
UCS?
UCR?
CS?
CR?
Pretty people
Feeling good
Sight of BMW
Feeling good
Acquisition – initial learning of the stimulus-response relationship
(learning that bell means meat powder)
Extinction – diminished response to the conditioned stimulus when it
is no longer coupled with UCS. (stop giving meat powder with bell
and dog will stop salivating to bell)
Spontaneous recovery – reappearance of an extinguished CR after a
rest.
Generalization – the tendency to respond to any stimuli similar to the
CS (Dog salivates to other noises)
Discrimination – the ability to distinguish between the CS and similar
stimuli (Dog only salivates to specific tone)
Classical Conditioning
Acquisition
(CS+UCS)
Strength
of CR
Spontaneous
recovery of
CR
Extinction
(CS alone)
Extinction
(CS alone)
Pause
Higher-Order Conditioning
• Where one CS is paired with a new NS,
creating a second weaker CS
– Aka second-order conditioning
– Ex:
• A person got struck by lightning now fearful of lighting
(CR), so when sees lightning he gets scared (CR). If that
person then associates thunder with lighting and
becomes fearful of the sound of thunder, then the
thunder became a CS.
• Lightning (CS)  Fear (CR)
• … Thunder (higher order conditioning - CS)  Fear (CR)
Watson identified three innate
emotions and felt they could be
triggered (Fear, Rage, and Love)
•Watson’s student Rosalie
Raynor carried out the Little
Albert Study testing this idea
•Little Albert (9 months)
•Before conditioning
•No fear of white rat, rabbit, dog,
or monkey
•When steel bar made loud sound
behind his head (UCS), he
responded with fear (UCR)
•Experiment
•Experimenter showed him the
rabbit and then slammed steal bar
behind head (occurred 7 times)
•After Conditioning
•Albert is afraid of white rat
•Stimulus Generalization: now
afraid of animals and furry objects
•Criticism
•Poorly designed and researcher
made no effort to extinguish fear
Emotions
& Little Albert
Little Albert Video Clip
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt0ucxOrP
QE
Identify the parts
Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)
Loud noise (Pavlov)
Unconditioned Response (UCR)
Fear/crying (Pavlov)
Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
White rat (Pavlov)
Conditioned Response (CR)
Fear/crying (Pavlov)
Application to Little Albert
If Little Albert generalized, what would we expect to happen?
– He might cry at the sight of similar objects (he did – rabbit, dog, sealskin coat,
some rumors – Santa’s beard)
How could we teach Little Albert to discriminate?
– Continually expose him to stimuli similar to the rat, but only make the loud
noise when exposing him to the rat
How could Little Albert’s conditioning be extinguished?
– Continually expose him to a white rat without making the loud noise
(unfortunately, this was never done because Little Albert was adopted soon
after the original experiments (he would be 83 now if he is still alive –
probably scared of rats!)
If Little Albert is still alive, his fear of white rats is likely to have been
extinguished (no loud noise when he sees a rat). However, occasionally,
when he sees a rat, he may find that his heart races for a second or two.
What is this called?
– Spontaneous recovery
What happened to Albert?
• Sad story…
Water “Can” Demo
• What is the:
– Unconditioned Stimulus
(UCS)
– Unconditioned Response
(UCR)
– Conditioned Stimulus
(CS)
– Conditioned Response
(CR)
• Answers
– UCS = Water squirted
into the subject’s face
– UCR = Flinching or facial
expression
– CS = Hearing the word
“can”
– CR = Flinching or facial
expression
Demo: What did you see?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
UCS: Water in face
UCR: blinking, flinching, faces
CS: hearing word can
CR: blinking, flinching, faces
Generalization: ban, ran, fan, tan, cap...
Discrimination: other words
Extinction: after no water with “can”
Spontaneous Recovery: learned response
after extinction.
A friend has learned to associate the sound of a dentist’s drill to a
fearful reaction because of a painful experience she had getting a root
canal. In this example, what is the:
–
–
–
–
UCS?
UCR?
CS?
CR?
Pain from the drill
Fear
Sound of the drill
Fear
Using the example in question 4, give an example of how each of the
following may occur:
Extinction: if the pain does not result when the drill
is used, the CR (fear) will diminish.
Spontaneous recovery: the child returns for a visit
the next day and the sound of the drill elicits fear
again.
Generalization: the child becomes fearful of the
sound of any motor
Discrimination: the child learns that only the high
pitched dentist drill is associated with pain and not a
low pitch hum of the vacuum cleaner.
Biological Preparedness Hypothesis
•
Martin Seligman: evolution has made us
more likely to become conditioned to
stimuli that are “potentially dangerous”
–
heights, thunder, animals, water, fire, people,
insects, etc.
Biological Predispositions
Example – You eat a novel food and
later get sick. You will be
conditioned to associate the taste of
the FOOD with getting sick (and thus
avoid that food in the future), but
NOT the music playing in the
restaurant, the plate it was served
on, or the perfume your neighbor
was wearing.
Conditioned Emotional Reactions: Fears
and Phobias
• People are more ready to learn to fear snakes
and spiders than flowers. Supports Darwin’s
theory of Natural Selection, favors traits that
aid in survival. (prepared, unprepared, contra
prepared)
John Garcia
Aversions
• A classically conditioned dislike for and
avoidance of a particular food that develops
when an organism becomes ill after eating the
food.
Evolutionary Psychology not
Classical Conditioning
• Taste aversion: avoiding a food
because you became ill after eating it
– Violates two classical conditioning rules
• It can occur in a single pairing
• The time span can be several hours
• John Garcia: challenged Classical
Conditioning with lab rats
– Had rats drink liquid (NS) and injects a
drug (UCS) into rats an hour later
making the rats sick
– CR=Rats refused to drink liquid
– Found that NS and UCS could be
separated by as much as 24 hours
– Garcia humorously suggested that
a sick rat, like a sick person ,
speculates, “It must be something I
ate.”
• Many psychologist describe this food-aversion
learning in terms of classical conditioning.
• But John Garcia, a researcher who pioneered
the study of food-aversion, states that such
learning is quite different than standard cases
of classical learning.
– Delay between the conditioned and
unconditioned stimuli
• rather than the unconditioned stimulus immediately
following the conditioned stimulus; with food aversion
the delay can be as long as 24 hrs
– Sorts of stimuli
• in typical classical conditioning cases almost any
detectable stimulus can serve but in food-aversion
cases the stimulus must be a distinctive taste or smell.
Summary of Rules
• When possible, eat what your elders eat.
– such food is probably safe since your elders
have been eating it for some time and haven’t
died yet
• When you eat a new food, remember its
taste and smell
– if you don’t feel sick within a few hours it is
probably safe; if you do, don’t eat it again
Shepherd Siegel
Drugs and Classical Conditioning
• Research by Shepherd Siegel indicates that many
addicts have learned to associate stimuli or cues in the
environment with getting high.
• Addicts can experience a high before they actually
drink/smoke the substance the substance they are
addicted to
– This is due to classical conditioning
• Siegel found that heroin addicts can develop
conditioned tolerance.
• How about students and learning. Are there certain
cues in your environment that will help you remember.
Conditioned Compensatory Response
• Example: Some drugs have similar
effects/problems… if a drug is taken the body
will remember the environment in which the
drug was taken, so if you usually take a drug
with friends your body begins to build up a
tolerance for the drug in the presence of the
conditioned stimulus - friends, but later take it
by your self, you have a higher likelihood of
overdosing because the conditioned stimulus
is absent.
Siegel
• UCS
– Epinephrine shot
• UCR
– Tachycardia (Increased heart rate)
• CS
– Syringe, stand, color
• CR
– Tachycardia
• CCR
– Bradycardia (Decreased HR in preparation for drug)
Drug Rebound
• Drug rebound-After a drug is discontinued,
the symptoms being treated return more
severely than first experienced.
Contemporary Views Of Classical
Conditioning: Reliable Signals
•
•
Is it possible that Pavlov’s dogs were learning
more than a mere association of two stimuli
that occurred very close together in time?
•
– Group one of rats heard a tone (CS) and
then received a shock (UCS)
An analogy to understand that
question:
– Group two of rats heard a tone (CS) and
then received a shock (UCS); they also
received additional shocks
– YOU
•
You have to go through a railroad crossing
on the way to class and the warning lights
flash.
•
You wait and a train soon passes
•
You learned that the warning lights flashing
are a reliable signal.
Robert A. Rescorla
– Group 1 feared the tone more than Group
2
– Reliable Signal
•
When an animal/human predicts the value
of the stimuli (is it a good signal?)
•
Humans and railroads or Rats and shocks
– YOUR FRIEND
•
Your friend is also on the way to class and
the warning lights flash.
•
Your friend waits but no train comes
•
You friend learns that flashing lights are
unreliable signals
•
Cognition plays a role. Animals must
learn predictability and expectancy. Not
just a mindless mechanism
Operant vs. Classical Conditioning
Classical Conditioning
Operant Conditioning
Behavior is controlled by the
stimuli that precede the response
(by the CS and the UCS).
Behavior is controlled by
consequences (rewards,
punishments) that follow the
response.
No reward or punishment is
involved (although pleasant and
averse stimuli may be used).
Often involves rewards
(reinforcement) and punishments.
Through conditioning, a new
stimulus (CS) comes to produce
the old (reflexive) behavior.
Through conditioning, a new
stimulus (reinforcer) produces a
new behavior.
Extinction is produced by
withholding the UCS.
Extinction is produced by
withholding reinforcement.
Learner is passive (acts
reflexively): Responses are
involuntary. That is behavior is
elicited by stimulation.
Learner is active: Responses are
voluntary. That is behavior is
emitted by the organism.
More Word Problems!
• Try your best to unscramble the following
word problems!
Learned Helplessness
Martin Seligman
• A phenomenon in which exposure to
inescapable and uncontrollable aversive
events produces passive behaviors.
• Get to the point where the individual is
conditioned to just give up.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU7RBqTn
dJ8
Operant Learning
• The frequency of behavior depends on the
consequence that follows that behavior.
• Uses desirable/undesirable consequences
• Voluntary responses
• Ex. Grades
Jesse the Dog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9Fyey4D5h
g
The Law of Effect
Click picture to see a better
explanation of the Law of Effect.
• Edward Thorndike
• Locked cats in a cage
• Behavior changes because
of its consequences.
• Rewards strengthen
behavior.
• Law of Effect- behaviors with
favorable consequences will
occur more frequently and
behaviors followed by less
favorable consequences will
occur less frequently.
Law of Effect…Cats
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb6DqfYw6U
Skinner Videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_ctJqjlrH
A
Chaining http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSc
4VLbE5EQ&feature=player_detailpage
Pigeon Ping Pong http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u1Zhh5
ZfGM
B.F. Skinner
• The Mac Daddy of
Operant
Conditioning.
• Nurture guy through
and through.
• Used a Skinner Box
(Operant
Conditioning
Chamber) to prove
his concepts.
Skinner Box (Operant Chamber)
• Skinner created a box that had a bar that an
animal pressed to receive a reward of
food/water. The device then recorded the
response.
Shaping
• Skinner used shaping to guide his animal’s
actions in toward a desired behavior
– Shaping
• Reinforcers that guide behavior toward closer and
closer approximations of the desired behavior
• Ex: Giving a gymnast a cookie for attempting a
cartwheel, then giving them one for landing onelegged, then giving them one for performing it perfectly
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSc4VLbE5EQ&feat
ure=player_detailpage
Chaining
• Reinforcing the connection of the parts of the
sequence
B.F. Skinner
• Skinner box (operant
chamber)
• Shaping: (Chaining)
method of successive
approximations.
• Ex. Teach toddlers to
dress oneself.
Let’s try to do a little shaping as a
class…
• We will need one volunteer, however,
everyone else will also participate in this
demo…
Can you name…
• Classical Conditioning ~ (respondent) associative behavior
– Pavlov
• Biological preparedness ~ aversions
– Garcia
• Conditioned emotions ~ fear
– Watson
• Biological preparedness ~ learned helplessness
– Seligman
• Cognitive process ~ predictability
– Rescorla
• Removal of conditioned emotions ~ therapy
– Mary Cover Jones
• Conditioned compensatory response ~ drugs
– Seigel
Big Bang Theory
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt4N9GSBo
MI
Types of Reinforcers:
•Primary Reinforcersfunction due to biological
make-up
•Things that are in
themselves rewarding
–Ex. Food, water, & warmth
•Secondary Reinforcersmust be learned. Acquire
value through being paired
with primary reinforces.
–Ex. Money, attention, &
social approval
Positive
• Something is added to the environment
• An event is started or presented
Negative
• Something is taken away or removed from the
environment
• An event is ended or taken away
Reinforcement
• Increases the likelihood of the event/behavior
occurring in the future
– $50 if you get an A on your report card (Positive)
– Not having to watch your sister on Friday night because
you got an A on your report card (Negative)
• Both positive and negative reinforcements increase the
likelihood that you will get an A (desired behavior)
Punishment
• Decreases the likelihood of the event
occurring in the future
– If you break curfew you will get a $75 ticket
– Not allowed to use the family car if you break curfew
(losing your great date Saturday night)
• Both positive and negative punishments decrease the
likelihood you breaking curfew (undesirable behavior)
In Summary…
• Positive reinforcement
– Adding something good in order to increase the likelihood of
that event/behavior occurring in the future.
• Negative reinforcement
– Removing something bad in order to increase the likelihood of
that event/behavior occurring in the future.
• Positive Punishment
– Adding something bad in order to decrease the likelihood of
that event/behavior occurring in the future.
• Negative Punishment
– Removing something good in order to decrease the likelihood of
that event/behavior occurring in the future.
Operant Conditioning Guide
Steps to O.C.
• Identify the behavior and the
consequence
• Does the consequence
increase or decrease the
likelihood of the behavior
happening again in the future
– Increase  Reinforcement
– Decrease  Punishment
• Is the consequence adding
something to the situation or
taking it away?
– Added  Positive
– Taken away  Negative
Steps to the O.C.
• http://goo.gl/cWH0q9
Fun Examples of Using Operant
Conditioning for Good
• Musical Stairs
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw
• World’s Deepest Garbage Can
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcrhp-IWK2w
Making Punishment Work
• To make punishment work:
– Punishment should be swift.
– Punishment should be certain-every time.
– Punishment should be limited in time and intensity.
– Punishment should clearly target the behavior, not
the person.
– Punishment should not give mixed messages.
– The most effective punishment is often omission
training-negative punishment.
Premack's Principle
• preferred behaviors can be used to reinforce
unpreferred behaviors
• high-probability behaviors (those performed
frequently under conditions of free choice)
can be used to reinforce low-probability
behaviors.
• “You have to finish your veggies, before you
eat any icecream.”
Instinctive drift
• Brelands
• Biological constraints predispose organisms to
learn associations that are naturally adaptive
• Animal training
• Constraints of biological predispositions
• Revert to biologically predisposed patterns
Time to think…
• So what’s wrong with Punishment?
• displacement…
• Behavior Modification…
– List some of your bad habits
– how are they maintained?
• discriminative stimulus (triggers)
• how extinguish them? (reinf/punish)
• explain how instinctive drift could apply to you and your
habits
Punishment
• Meant to decrease the likelihood of a behavior being repeated
• Is spanking children an effective, or even necessary,
punishment?
– Must be consistent
– Must immediately follow a response
• Could spanking children cause long-term mental health
problems?
– Doesn’t teach or promote desirable behavior
– Can be temporary (less effective with repeated use)
– Undesirable results:
• Fear, anxiety
Spanked~
• Hostility
Demand immediate satisfaction of wants & needs
• Passivity
Easily frustrated
Defiant
Temper tantrums
Lash out physically
Alternative ways to reinforce undesirable
behavior~
•
•
•
•
•
Stop reinforcement
Remove opportunity for reinforcement
Reinforce nonoccurrence
Enhance effectiveness of reinforcement
Reinforce incompatible behavior
Schedules of Reinforcement
Continuous Reinforcement
• Continuous Reinforcement:
A schedule of reinforcement
that rewards every correct
response given.
– Example: A vending machine.
– Put money in…you always win!!!!
Yay!
• What are other examples?
Reinforcement Schedules
• Intermittent Reinforcement: Some, but not
all, correct responses are reinforced.
• Most effective way to maintain a desired
behavior that has already been learned.
• Why?
Continuous v. Partial Reinforcement
•
•
•
•
Continuous
Reinforce the behavior
EVERYTIME the behavior
is exhibited.
Usually done when the
subject is first learning
to make the association.
Acquisition comes really
fast.
But so does extinction.
Partial
• Reinforce the behavior
only SOME of the times
it is exhibited.
• Acquisition comes more
slowly.
• But is more resistant to
extinction.
• FOUR types of Partial
Reinforcement
schedules.
Schedules of Intermittent Reinforcement
DEFINITIONS
• Interval schedule: rewards subjects after a
certain time interval.
• Ratio schedule: rewards subjects after a
certain number of responses.
• Fixed: Rewards subjects after a know and set
amount
• Variable: Rewards subjects after an unknown
or changing/random amount of time
Ratio Schedules
• Fixed Ratio Schedule (FR):
A reinforcement schedule that rewards
a response only after a defined
number of correct answers.
– Example: If you use your Rewards point to
buy 7 Starbucks coffees, you get the 8th
one for free….or something like that?
Results of Fixed Ratio
• Rapid response rates of responding with short
post-reinforcement pauses
• Length of the pause is directly proportional to
the number of responses required
Ratio Schedules
• Variable Ratio Schedule (VR):
A reinforcement schedule that rewards an
unpredictable number of correct responses.
– Example:
• Buying lottery ticket
• Playing the slots
Results of Variable Ratio
• Produce an overall high consistent rate of
responding
Interval Schedules
• Fixed Interval Schedule (FI):
– Require the passage of a specified amount of time
before reinforcement will be delivered set on a
response
– A schedule that a rewards a learner only for the first
correct response after some defined period of time.
– Example: B.F. Skinner put rats in a box with a lever connected to a feeder. It only provided a
reinforcement after 60 seconds.
– The rats quickly learned that it didn’t matter how early or often it pushed the lever, it had to
wait a set amount of time.
– As the set amount of time came to an end, the rats became more active in hitting the lever.
Results of Fixed Interval
• This schedule usually
produces a pattern of
responding in which little
behavior is produced early
in the interval, but as the
interval nears an end, the
rate of responding
increases
• This also produces an
overall low rate of
responding
Interval Schedules
• Variable Interval Schedule (VI):
A reinforcement system that rewards a
correct response after an
unpredictable amount of time.
– Example: A pop-quiz
Results of Variable Interval
• Produce an overall low consistent rate of
responding
Schedules of Reinforcement
Number of
responses
Intermittent Reinforcement Schedules1000
Fixed Ratio
Skinner’s laboratory pigeons produced
these responses patterns to each of
four reinforcement schedules
Variable Ratio
750
For people, as for pigeons, research
linked to number of responses (ratio)
produces a higher response rate than
reinforcement linked to time elapsed
(interval).
Fixed Interval
Rapid responding
near time for
reinforcement
500
Variable Interval
250
Steady responding
0
10
20
30
40
Time (minutes)
50
60
70
80
Schedules of Reinforcement
Why vary opportunity for reward?
FIXED RATIO:
17. Buy three sandwiches, get the 4th one free
23. Climb 43 steps every day to see the rooftop view
25. Collect 50 box tops, get a prize
28. Factory workers make 10 clocks, earn $100
31. Doing 20 pushups to help stay fit
37. Being paid 10 dollars for every 3 puzzles solved
39. Boy asks out 12 girls, eleven say no, but 1 says yes!
41. Frequent flyer program where you get a free flight after a specific
number of miles flown
45. Read 10 books, get tickets to Great America
46. You pay for half the car, parents pay the rest
VARIABLE RATIO:
1. Dialing a busy number
2. A child cries in a store to get what he wants- every so often it works
13. Flipping a coin before a game; sometimes heads? Sometimes tails?
27. Looking under rocks for worms.
29. Going up a staircase to reach a landing with a nice view. I won’t stop
until I find one!
38. Selling a product door to door
40. Slot machines
Fixed Interval
4. Wife watching a boxing match. She receives a kiss at the end of every 3
minute round
7. Doing Extra credit before the end of the quarter
8. Waiting (at 10:03 everyday) near your locker for that special someone
11. Students waiting near door at the end of class
12. Your dog gives you his paw every two minutes
16. Child who likes to hear the theme music from jeopardy every night at 7pm
18. Students shuffling books near the end of class each day
19. Getting your clothes out of the dryer once the dryer buzzes
20. Watching your favorite TV show every Tuesday.
35. Finishing your term paper the day before it’s due
44. Flossing before your dental appointment
48. Getting a paycheck at the end of two weeks
Variable Interval
5. Checking the bathroom stalls when all of them are full
6. Studying for a class that has surprise quizzes
9. Pacing around your house while waiting for your date to arrive
10. Waiting for an elevator
14. Musical chairs
15. Trolling for fish in a lake on a summer day
21. Waiting to be asked to prom
22. Random drug testing
24. Applying to colleges and looking for the mailman once in a while
26. Waiting for papers to be graded
30. Surfer waiting for a perfect wave to ride in
32. Waiting for a sunny day to go to the beach
33. Trying to find a parking spot in a busy city.
34. Speed traps on a highway
36. Playing bingo
42. Waiting for the doctor
43. Calling a mechanic to see if your car is fixed yet
47. Raising your hand in class
Premack's Principle
• preferred behaviors can be used to reinforce
unpreferred behaviors
• high-probability behaviors (those performed
frequently under conditions of free choice) can
be used to reinforce low-probability behaviors.
• “You have to finish your veggies, before you eat
any ice cream.”
• “You can go to the movies if you drop your
brother off at soccer practice first.”
Instinctive drift
• Brelands
– Biological constraints predispose organisms to
learn associations that are naturally adaptive
• Animal training
– Constraints of biological predispositions
– Revert to biologically predisposed patterns
Social Learning
Tell me how to tie a shoe….
Children See, Children Do
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JrtpCM4
yMM
Observational Learning
• Albert Bandura
– Pioneer researcher of observational learning
• Observational learning: Learning in which new responses are acquired after
other’s behavior and the consequences of their behavior are observed.
– Modeling:
• Process of observing and imitating a specific behavior
Observational Learning
• Albert Bandura and his
BoBo Doll
• We learn through
modeling behavior from
others.
Click pic to see some observational learning.
Bandura’s Research
• After observing adults seeming to enjoy punching,
hitting and kicking an inflated doll called Bobo, the
children later showed similar aggressive behavior
toward the doll.
• Significantly, these children were more aggressive than
those in a control condition who did not witness the
adult’s violence.
Mirror Neurons…Again!
• Frontal lobe neurons that fire when
performing certain actions or when observing
another doing so. The brain’s mirroring of
another’s action may enable imitation or
empathy.
– Bio-Psycho-Social perspective
• Individuals with autism display reduced mirror
neuron firings in response to yawns and
laugher and empathy
Latent Learning
• Edward Toleman
• Latent means hidden.
• Sometimes learning is
not immediately
evident.
• Rats needed a reason
to display what they
have learned.
Unit 6
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
D
A
C
A
A
E
D
D
E
B
B
B
A
C
C
Punishment
Making Punishment Work
• To make punishment work:
– Punishment should be swift.
– Punishment should be certain-every time.
– Punishment should be limited in time and intensity.
– Punishment should clearly target the behavior, not
the person.
– Punishment should not give mixed messages.
– The most effective punishment is often omission
training-negative punishment.
Time to think…
• So what’s wrong with Punishment?
• displacement…
• Behavior Modification…
– List some of your bad habits
– how are they maintained?
• discriminative stimulus (triggers)
• how extinguish them? (reinf/punish)
• explain how instinctive drift could apply to you and your
habits
Punishment
• Meant to decrease the likelihood of a behavior being repeated
• Is spanking children an effective, or even necessary,
punishment?
– Must be consistent
– Must immediately follow a response
• Could spanking children cause long-term mental health
problems?
– Doesn’t teach or promote desirable behavior
– Can be temporary (less effective with repeated use)
– Undesirable results:
• Fear, anxiety
Spanked~
• Hostility
Demand immediate satisfaction of wants & needs
• Passivity
Easily frustrated
Defiant
Temper tantrums
Lash out physically
Alternative ways to reinforce undesirable
behavior~
•
•
•
•
•
Stop reinforcement
Remove opportunity for reinforcement
Reinforce nonoccurrence
Enhance effectiveness of reinforcement
Reinforce incompatible behavior
Did Not Use This Year
Cancer patients and chemotherapy.
Cancer patients tend to
associate the nausea
produced by
chemotherapy with the
hospital setting.
–
–
–
–
UCS – chemotherapy
UCR – nausea
CS – hospital
CR – nausea
Token Economy
• Every time a desired
behavior is performed,
a token is given.
• They can trade tokens
in for a variety of
prizes (reinforcers)
• Used in homes, prisons,
mental institutions and
schools.
Cognitive Processes
It was once thought that
cognitive processes weren’t
involved in classical
conditioning. Now we know
better.
For example, therapists give
alcoholics drink containing a
nausea-producing drug to
condition them to avoid
alcohol.
Because clients KNOW that
the drug is what is actually
causing the nausea, it
doesn’t work so well.
Biological Predispositions
It was once believed that conditioning occurred the same in all animals (and
therefore you could study human behavior by studying any animal) and
that you could associate any neutral stimulus with a response.
Not so.
Animals have biological predispositions to associating certain stimuli over
others
Example – You eat a novel food and later get sick. You will be conditioned
to associate the taste of the FOOD with getting sick (and thus avoid that
food in the future), but NOT the music playing in the restaurant, the plate
it was served on, or the perfume your neighbor was wearing.
It is much easier to condition someone to have a fear of snake than of
flowers.
Birds hunt by sight and will more quickly become conditioned to the SIGHT
of tainted food
Food Aversion
• Classical conditioning or not?
• When animals, including humans, become ill after eating some new or
unusual food, they will avoid that food thereafter.
• This occurs even if the food was not the cause of illness.
– Ex: one eats anchovies for the first time and later that day develops a stomach flu.