Principles of Behavior
Sixth Edition
Richard W. Malott
Western Michigan University
Power Point by Nikki Hoffmeister
Chapter 9
Unlearned Reinforcers &
Unlearned Aversive Stimuli
What is an Unlearned Aversive
Condition?
Unlearned Aversive Condition:
• A stimulus that is aversive,
• though not as a result of pairing with other
aversive stimuli.
Example: Electric shock
What is an Unlearned Reinforcer?
Unlearned Reinforcer:
• A stimulus that is a reinforcer,
• though not as a result of pairing with
another reinforcer.
Examples: Food, water, sex
What is Deprivation?
Deprivation:
• Withholding a reinforcer
• increases relevant learning and
performance.
Deprivation Example
• When Mae worked with Jimmy, she used
food as a reinforcer.
• Food deprivation improved Jimmy’s
performance of behavior he had previously
learned with food reinforcers.
• Food deprivation improved Jimmy’s
learning of new behaviors with food
reinforcers.
Deprivation
Before
Behavior
After
Jimmy has no
cereal.
Jimmy touches
his ear.
Jimmy has cereal.
Behavior
Deprivation
Jimmy has not
had breakfast.
What are Learning and
Performance?
• By relevant learning and performance, we
mean
• the learning of a response reinforced by
that reinforcer
• and the performance of a response
previously reinforced by that reinforcer.
What is Satiation?
Satiation:
• Consuming a substantial amount of a
reinforcer
• temporarily decreases relevant learning
and performance.
Satiation Example
• When Jimmy responded often, he
received a lot of cereal. This caused him
to become full.
• Food satiation then involved a decrease in
Jimmy’s performance.
• If Jimmy already had breakfast, satiation
affected his learning new skills.
• Thus, food satiation decreased relevant
learning.
Satiation
Before
Behavior
After
Jimmy has no
cereal.
Jimmy touches
his nose.
Jimmy has
cereal.
Satiation
Jimmy has had
breakfast.
Learning
• Deprivation at the time of reinforcement
• increases the impact the delivery of a
single reinforcer has
• on the subsequent frequency
• of the reinforced response.
Performance
• Deprivation at the time to perform that
response
• increases the frequency of that previously
reinforced,
• and thus previously learned, response.
Example of Satiation
• After a male and female rabbit have been
together for a while, their frequency of
having sex will decrease.
Before
Behavior
After
Rabbit has had
no sexual
stimulation.
Rabbit copulates.
Rabbit has
sexual
stimulation.
Satiation
Rabbit has
recently had
sexual
stimulation.
What is this decrease in the
frequency of the copulation an
example of?
•Satiation
Does this satiation effect show itself
in a decrease in learning or
performance?
•Performance
More Examples
Before
Behavior
After
Rudolph has no
water.
Rudolph
presses the
lever.
Rudolph has
water.
Satiation
Rudolph has
recently had
water.
Before
Behavior
After
Rudolph has no
sexual
stimulation.
Rudolph
copulates.
Rudolph has
sexual
stimulation.
Deprivation
Rudolph has not
had sexual
stimulation for 72
hours.
What is a Motivating Operation?
Motivating Operation (MO):
• A procedure or condition that affects
learning and performance
• with respect to a particular reinforcer or
aversive condition.
Examples of Motivating Operations
• Deprivation
• Satiation
What are Reflexive MOs?
• An MO for aversive conditions.
– In an escape contingency, the MO is the same
as the before condition…
– So we don’t diagram it separately.
Reflexive MO
What is the MO in this escape contingency?
Before
Behavior
After
The shock is on.
Rudolph presses
the lever.
The shock is off.
Turning on the shock (shock on).
The Don’t Say Rule:
A Refresher
Don’t say:
• Rudolph will start pressing the lever
because he knows he’ll get water…or…
• Rudolph learned that he would get water.
What should you say?
• Rudolph will start pressing the lever on
Tuesday because lever pressing was
reinforced on Monday.
• And that he was deprived of water on both
Monday and Tuesday.
What is the Premack Principle?
Premack Principle:
• If one activity occurs more often than
another,
• the opportunity to do the more frequent
activity
• will reinforce the less frequent activity.
Example of the Premack Principle
• A teacher allowed her 3-year-old students
to get up and run around the room for 2
minutes.
• Then she rang a bell.
• The kids sat down and listened to her
lesson.
• After a few minutes, another bell rang, and
the kids got up and ran around for 2
minutes.
Analysis
• The children behaved so well during the
teacher’s lesson because the teacher
reinforced appropriate school work (less
preferred activity),
• with the ability to run around for 2 minutes
(preferred activity).
How can I tell if something will act
as a reinforcer before I use it?
• Measure the frequency of occurrence of
the potentially reinforcing activity.
• Measure the frequency of the response
you want to reinforce.
• If the potentially reinforcing activity occurs
more often than the response you want to
reinforce,
• then that potentially reinforcing activity will
be an effective reinforcer for that
response.
Basic Enrichment
• You deprived Rudolph of water for 23
hours.
• He rapidly learned lever pressing, and now
presses the lever rapidly.
• But one day, you forgot to deprive him of
water.
• He has been drinking his fill for the last
few days.
• Now he barely contacts the lever.
This is an example of…
• Satiation
In this case, what did satiation hurt: learning
or performance?
• Performance
Another Example
• You forgot to remove the water bottle from
Rudolph’s cage before the first few lab
sessions.
How effective would water be as a
reinforcer?
• Not too effective
In this case, what did satiation hurt?
• Learning
Intermediate Enrichment
Unlearned Reinforcers with Direct Biological
Benefits
• Food and water provide us with direct biological
benefits
Unlearned Reinforcers that Don’t Provide
Biological Benefits
• Visual stimulation
– Pigeons in cages will face out through an opening of
the cage door rather than the inside where it’s dark.
Examples
Before
Behavior
After
Animal has little
visual
stimulation.
Animal turns
toward opening.
Animal has more
visual
stimulation.
Before
Behavior
After
Baby has little
visual
stimulation.
Baby turns
toward TV.
Baby has much
visual
stimulation.
Another Example
• A monkey’s lever press opened a window.
• Then the monkey could see a toy train
running around a track.
• The monkey often pressed the lever.
• The monkey had no previous experience
with the train.
Before
Behavior
After
Monkey can’t
see train.
Monkey
presses lever.
Monkey can see
train running.
Example of Sound as an Unlearned
Reinforcer
• Sound will act as a mild reinforcer for rats
– It will maintain a low frequency of lever press
responses.
Before
Behavior
After
Rat hears no
sound.
Rat presses
lever.
Rat hears sound.
No-Calorie Sweetners
• People dump non-nutritive sweeteners in
their coffee by the tons.
Before
Behavior
After
Person has no
sweet coffee.
Person dumps
sweetener in
coffee.
Person has
sweet coffee.
Before
Behavior
After
Rat has no
sweet taste.
Rat drinks
saccharine
water.
Rat has sweet
taste.
How do you know if it was learned
or unlearned?
• The rats were born and raised in the lab,
where the experimenters controlled their
diet and withheld all sweet tastes.
Indirect Reinforcers
• Unlearned reinforcers may have indirect
biological benefits.
• Orienting toward sights and sounds helps
animals (and us) to avoid injury and death
(to survive).
Before
Behavior
After
Animal less likely
to survive.
Animal orients
toward stimulus.
Animal more
likely to survive.
But…
• This is an ineffective natural
contingency…
• It does not control behavior.
• So through evolution, nature has added a
performance management contingency to
control behavior.
Before
Behavior
After
Animal has no
audio-visual
reinforcer.
Animal orients
toward stimulus.
Animal has
audio-visual
reinforcer.
Unlearned Reinforcers & Aversive
Stimuli
2 Types of Unlearned Reinforcers:
1. Directly cause biological benefits
2. Indirectly cause biological benefits
2 Types of Unlearned Aversive Stimuli
1. Directly cause biological harm
2. Indirectly cause biological harm
Unlearned Aversive Stimuli
• Directly cause
biological harm:
– Predator’s bite
– Spoiled food
• Indirectly cause
biological harm:
– Shadow of a hawk
– A loud noise
– Taste/smell of spoiled
food
Unlearned Reinforcers with No
Biological Benefits
• Sensory Stimulation:
– Unlearned reinforcer with no known biological
benefit (direct or indirect)
– Example: Hand Flapping
On DickMalott.com
• Chapter 9 Advanced Enrichment Section
– Approaching Reinforcers vs. Escaping Aversive
Stimuli
– The Incentive Operation
– The Motivating and Incentive Operations and Aversive
Stimuli
– The Motivating Operation: Escape vs. Reinforcement
– The Incentive Operation: Escape vs. Reinforcement
– The Incentive Operation: Punishment
Join us for Chapter 10: Special
Motivating Operations