PSYCHOLOGY

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PSYCHOLOGY

• Operant Conditioning

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Operant Conditioning

• Operant Conditioning
• type of learning in which behavior is
  strengthened if followed by reinforcement or
  diminished if followed by punishment
• Law of Effect
• Thorndikes principle that behaviors followed by
  favorable consequences become more likely and
  behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences
  become less likely

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Thorndike's Puzzle Box Introduction

• Operant conditioning is a type of associative
  learning in which animals associate behaviors
  with consequences and change their behaviors to
  alter consequences.
• Edward Thorndike conducted studies to demonstrate
  the law of effect When an animal's behavior is
  rewarded, it is likely to repeat the behavior.
• These findings were later expanded upon by B. F.
  Skinner.

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A reenactment shows Edward Thorndike conducting
his puzzle box experiments with cats. A hungry
cat, placed in the puzzle box and motivated by
food just outside the box, learns by trial and
error how to escape from the box. The cat escapes
faster in each subsequent trial.
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Thorndike's Puzzle Box Questions

• How does the cat find the way to escape from the
  box the first time it is placed inside?
• Thorndike was most struck by the gradual nature
  of the cat's learning in these trials. What did
  this finding indicate about the learning process?
  
• Based on his puzzle box studies, what general
  conclusion did Thorndike reach about learning?
• Discuss some examples of "real-life"
  trial-and-error learning.
• 5. Distinguish between operant and classical
  conditioning.

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Operant Conditioning

• Operant Behavior
• complex or voluntary behaviors
• push button, perform complex task
• operates (acts) on environment
• produces consequences
• Respondent Behavior
• occurs as an automatic response to stimulus
• behavior learned through classical conditioning

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Operant Conditioning

• B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)
• elaborated Thorndikes Law of Effect
• developed behavioral technology

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B.F. Skinner Interview Introduction

• B. F. Skinner was modern behaviorisms most
  important and controversial figure. He developed
  the principals of operant conditioning and
  believed that external influences, not internal
  thoughts and feelings, create behavior.
• Through the principles of operant conditioning,
  beings learn to produce behaviors that are
  followed by reinforcing stimuli and to suppress
  behaviors that are followed by punishing stimuli.
  
• Skinner placed animals in an operant chamber
  (also called a Skinner box) to shape them to
  display desired behavior.
• Skinner explored the effects of reinforcement on
  learning, including the effects of primary and
  secondary reinforcers, immediate and delayed
  reinforcers and various reinforcement schedules.

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This archival footage from Skinners lab shows
pigeons in a Skinner box demonstrating the power
of shaping and operant conditioning. B.F.
Skinner discusses the effect of schedules of
reinforcement on learning in pigeons and humans
and the role of free will in human affairs.
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B.F. Skinner Interview Questions

• Summarize the principles of operant conditioning,
  explaining the role of shaping and reinforcement.
• How could parents and teachers use principles of
  operant conditioning to improve children's
  behavior or their academic achievement?
• What are some of the possible objections to
  Skinners views of human nature?

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Operant Chamber

• Skinner Box
• soundproof chamber with a bar or key that an
  animal presses or pecks to release a food or
  water reward
• contains a device to record responses

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Operant Conditioning

• Reinforcer
• any event that strengthens the behavior it
  follows
• Shaping
• conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide
  behavior toward closer approximations of a
  desired goal
• Successive Approximations
• reward behaviors that increasingly resemble
  desired behavior

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Principles of Reinforcement

• Primary Reinforcer
• innately reinforcing stimulus
• satisfies a biological need
• Secondary Reinforcer
• conditioned reinforcer
• learned through association with primary
  reinforcer

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Schedules of Reinforcement

• Continuous Reinforcement
• reinforcing the desired response each time it
  occurs
• learning occurs rapidly
• extinction occurs rapidly
• Partial Reinforcement
• reinforcing a response only part of the time
• results in slower acquisition
• greater resistance to extinction

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Operant Conditioning Matrix
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Schedules of Reinforcement

• Fixed Ratio (FR)
• reinforces a response only after a specified
  number of responses
• faster you respond the more rewards you get
• different ratios
• very high rate of responding
• like piecework pay

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Schedules of Reinforcement

• Variable Ratio (VR)
• reinforces a response after an unpredictable
  number of responses
• average ratios
• like gambling, fishing
• very hard to extinguish because of
  unpredictability

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Schedules of Reinforcement

• Fixed Interval (FI)
• reinforces a response only after a specified time
  has elapsed
• response occurs more frequently as the
  anticipated time for reward draws near

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Schedules of Reinforcement

• Variable Interval (VI)
• reinforces a response at unpredictable time
  intervals
• produces slow steady responding
• like pop quiz

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Train a Pigeon

• http//www.uwm.edu/johnchay/oc.htm

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Schedules of Reinforcement
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Variable Ratio

• How would you reinforce this positively?
• After an unspecific number of times my child
  makes his bed in the morning, I will throw his
  favorite candy bar in his school lunch.
• After an unspecific number of times my husband
  pushes his chair at the dinner table, following
  dinner, I will give him a kiss.
• After an unspecific number of times that my dog
  brings in the newspaper, I will give him a doggie
  treat.
• After visiting an unspecific number of houses, a
  girl scout makes a cookie sale.
• Slot machines at a casino....never know how many
  pulls it will take before a pay off.

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Variable Ratio

• How would you reinforce this negatively?
• After an unspecific number of times my brother
  washes my car, I will offer to do his laundry (he
  hates laundry so this is a gift).
• After an unspecific number of girl scout cookie
  sales (an unspecific number of houses visited),
  the girl scout can go home and does not have to
  walk around outside anymore.
• After an unspecific number of times my wife makes
  me dinner, I will clean the bathroom (something
  she hates)
• After an unspecific number of times my students
  are ALL in their desks right before or at the
  bell, I will take away one future homework
  (please!)

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Fixed Ratio

• How would you reinforce this positively?
• For every 10 successful telephone sales, a
  telemarketer gets a bonus (an extra 25.00 cash
  added onto their regular salary).
• Every five times my dog sits at the command
  "sit," I scratch his belly.
• Every ten times a student gets an "A" on a test
  or quiz, I give them a 5 Blockbuster gift card.

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Fixed Ratio

• How would you reinforce this negatively?
• For every six times my son cleans his dinner
  plate, I don't serve him vegetables the next
  evening (he hates vegetables).
• After my husband cleans the table, five times, I
  promise I wont drag him to the mall the next time
  I need to shop.
• Every time my sister folds my clothes, I'll take
  one of her chores.

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Variable Interval

• How would you reinforce this positively?
• Every month OR SO, I give my son an extra 10 on
  his allowance for being "good."
• Every once in a while, I'll bring my class frosty
  desserts from Wendy's if they, overall, are
  well-behaved and get their work done.
• After an unspecific amount of time, I'll give my
  puppy a doggie treat if he does not have an
  accident in the house.

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Variable Interval

• How would you reinforce this negatively?
• After an unspecific amount of time, I will remove
  a pop-quiz from my teaching planner if my
  students seem to be well-behaved and the work is
  done.
• After an unspecific amount of time, I take my mom
  out of the house so that my dad can sit and watch
  his sporting events on TV in silence and free
  from distraction.
• Every so often, I'll clean my childrens'
  room.......to make up for all their other efforts
  (like, cleaning their plates, doing their
  homework, getting decent grades, being nice to
  one another, etc.).

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Fixed Interval

• How would you reinforce this positively?
• Every two weeks, full-time employees get their
  paychecks.
• Every month, my husband gets his
  "beer-of-the-month-club" delivery....same day,
  same time.
• Every ten minutes my son does his homework, I
  give my son a Hershey kiss.
• Every half hour my daughter helps me with
  household chores, I give her an extra half hour
  of television time.

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Fixed Interval

• How would you reinforce this negatively?
• For every hour an employee works during the
  weekend, they earn an extra hour off during the
  week.
• For every thirty minutes my husband goes shopping
  with me, I'll promise to do one load of his
  laundry.
• For every full class period that my students are
  on-task and focused, I take away their lowest
  quiz score

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Positive vs. Negative Reinforcement
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Negative Reinforcement

• A response is strengthened when it leads to the
  removal of an aversive stimulus.
• Loud noises, cold, pain, nagging . . .
• We are more likely to repeat behaviors that lead
  to their removal.
• A parents behavior in picking up a crying baby
  to comfort it is negatively reinforced when the
  baby stops crying. The aversive stimuli has been
  removed.

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Positive Reinforcement

• A response is strengthened by the introduction of
  a stimulus after the response occurs.
• Food, money, and social approval
• You are more likely to continue working at a job
  if you receive steady paychecks.

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vs. -

• Both and reinforcers strengthen behavior
• R behaviors are strengthened when they are
  followed by the introduction of a stimulus
• - R behaviors are strengthened when they lead
  to a removal of a stimulus.

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Two-Way Street

• -R can be a 2-way street
• Crying is an aversive stimulus. It is a
  reinforcer because parents will repeat behaviors
  that succeed in stopping the infants crying.
• Babys crying is reinforced by the parents
  responses

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- Reinforcement is not always good!

• - R may have undesirable effects in some
  situations Consider a child who throws a
  tantrum in a toy store when the parent refuses
  the childs request for a toy.
• Child has learned that throwing tantrums gets her
  what she wants.
• When a tantrum does get results, the child is
  positively reinforced for throwing tantrums,
  while the parent is negatively reinforced for
  complying with the childs demands because the
  tantrum stops.

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Positive Reinforcers
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Negative Reinforcers
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Can you think of examples of positive and
negative reinforcers that have influenced your
behavior?
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• The parents of a 13 yr old boy would like him to
  help out more around the house, including doing
  his share of the dishes. After a meal at which
  it is his turn to do the dishes, he refuses,
  pleading that he has other things to do that are
  more important. Frustrated with his refusal, his
  parents start yelling at him and continue until
  he complies with their request. But as he washes
  the dishes, his mother notices that he is doing a
  very poor job, so she relieves him of his duty
  and finishes the job herself.
• What type of reinforcement did the parents use to
  gain the boys compliance?
• What behavior of the parents did the boy
  reinforce by complying with their request?
• What behavior did the mother inadvertently
  strengthen by relieving the boy of his chores?
• Based on your reading of the text, how would you
  suggest this family change these reinforcement
  patterns?
• Negative Reinforcement -- Parents have learned
  that to get him to do a job, they have to yell at
  him.
• Yelling at him to get his chores done.
• Doing a poor on tasks will get you out of
  situations you dont like.

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Examples of Negative Reinforcement

• Taking aspirin to relieve a headache.
• Hurrying home in the winter to get out of the
  cold.
• Giving in to an argument or to a dogs begging.
• Fanning oneself to escape the heat.
• Leaving a movie theater if the movie is bad.
• Smoking in order to relieve anxiety.
• Following prison rules in order to be released
  form confinement.
• Feigning a stomachache in order to avoid school.
• Putting on a car safety belt to stop an
  irritating buzz.
• Turning down the volume of a very loud radio.
• Putting up an umbrella to escape the rain.
• Saying uncle to stop being beaten.

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Punishment

• Punishment
• aversive event that decreases the behavior that
  it follows
• powerful controller of unwanted behavior

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Problems with Punishment

• Punished behavior is not forgotten, it's
  suppressed- behavior returns when punishment is
  no longer eminent
• Causes increased aggression- shows that
  aggression is a way to cope with problems-
  Explains why aggressive delinquents and abusive
  parents come from abusive homes

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Problems with Punishment

• Creates fear that can generalize to desirable
  behaviors, e.g. fear of school, learned
  helplessness, depression
• Does not necessarily guide toward desired
  behavior- reinforcement tells you what to
  do--punishment tells you what not to do-
  Combination of punishment and reward can be more
  effective than punishment alone
• Punishment teaches how to avoid it

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Cognition and Operant Conditioning

• Overjustification Effect
• the effect of promising a reward for doing what
  one already likes to do
• the person may now see the reward, rather than
  intrinsic interest, as the motivation for
  performing the task

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Operant vs Classical Conditioning

• Extinction CR decreases when CS is Responding
  decreases when
• repeatedly presented alone. reinforcement
  stops.