Operant Conditioning

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Operant Conditioning

• Action results in consequence
• Decision
• B.F. Skinner
• Three term contingency
• Stimulus - response - outcome

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Outcomes

• Positive or negative
• Reinforcement or punishment

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Differences from Classical

• Usually assumed to be under conscious control
• Operant conditioned after the behaviour
• Outcome feeds back to alter response

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Probabilities

• Hierarchy of behaviours (actions)
• Probability
• Operant conditioning changes events and/or
  consequences
• Results in adjustment of probability hierarchy

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Trial and Error

• Thorndike
• Puzzle boxes and cats
• Law of effect

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Discriminative Stimulus

• Elicits learned behaviour
• Indicates outcome
• Reward/non-reward condition

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Shaping

• Directed learning
• Behavioural outcome more certain
• Select a specific response to occur in a specific
  way
• Gradual process
• Chaining
• Forward and backward

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Reinforcement Schedules

• Fixed ratio
• Fixed interval
• Variable ratio
• Variable interval

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Reinforcement Consistency

• Continuous schedules
• Intermittent schedules
• Response-reinforcer?
• Technically, only FR-1 is continuous
• Systematic reinforcer
• Any fixed schedule (FR or FI)

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Extinction

• Response - outcome pattern disrupted
• Easiest for
• Continuous reinforcement/punishment
• Low schedules
• Variable ratio schedules hardest to extinguish

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Reinforcers

• Primary
• Secondary
• Speed of learning
• Extinction
• Money

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Delay

• Immediate reinforcement
• Delayed reinforcement
• Generally, delayed harder to condition
• Difference with well conditioned system

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Changing Schedules

• Cost of response
• Contingency
• Rate of reinforcement
• Modification
• Decrease
• Increase
• Delay

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Applications

• Discriminative stimulus
• Blue-light special, coloured sale tags, logos
  (if previous positive experience with product)
• Christmas music in October
• Positive reinforcement
• Give-aways, purchase points, Canadian Tire money,
  parking lot barbeques
• Negative reinforcement
• Purchase to avoid pushy sales pitch

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• VR schedule
• Lotteries, door prizes, etc.
• Shaping
• Free trial periods, leading signs/displays (get
  person into store area)
• Punishment
• Unusual in advertising/marketing
• Commercials showing customer who suffers from not
  using product (observational learning)

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Ecological Design

• Structuring the environment
• Facilitation of particular behaviour(s)
• Increase/decrease probability of response
• Store layout, purchase locations, noises, odors,
  lighting
• A type of shaping of a response

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Behaviour Modification

• Application of operant theory to change behaviour
• Primary application of operant principles
• Skinners behaviour analyst techniques

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Behav. Mod. in Marketing

• Role of marketing as influencing, modifying, and
  controlling consumer behaviour to achieve
  purchasing objectives
• An applied field
• Not aimed at developing theory, but applying
  theory
• Observable behaviour
• No inferred behavioural constructs

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Economic Psychology

• Integration of psychology and economic analysis
• Marketing
• Not a discipline
• An application area for the social sciences and
  other disciplines
• EcPsyc offers detailed analysis of consumer-firm
  interactions

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Behavioural Perspective Model

• Gordon R. Foxall
• Operant behaviourist paradigm
• Modern marketing firms
• Embedded in networks of marketing relationships
• Extra-firm environment (e.g., consumers) drive
  marketing behaviour
• Reinforcement/punishment shift firms behaviour
• Applies also to behaviour of individuals
  comprising the firm (e.g., employees, owners,
  shareholders, etc.)

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A Firms Purpose

• To make marketing relationships more economic
• Production and selling are independent of firms
• Dont need firms to do these
• Creation and maintenance of marketing is what
  firms do

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Uhm So?

• Operant conditioning theory and firms
• Economic behaviour is instrumentally conditioned
• Behaviour that operates on the environment to
  produce consequences changes the future rates of
  behaviour
• Reinforcement/punishment shifts economic (market)
  factors

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Consumer Behaviour

• Economic purchasing and consumption activities
• Basic three-term contingency applies
• Stimulus - response - outcome
• Plus, consumer behavioural setting and learning
  history

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Behav. Persp. Model and Consumers Choice

• Consumer choice reduces aversive consequences of
  facing multiple equivalent options

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Model
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Marketing Management in BPM

• Influence two factors
• Consumer behaviour settings
• Social, physical, temporal, and regulatory
  discriminative stimuli
• Utilitarian and information reinforcers
• Actual outcome and knowledge gained

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Managing Reinforcers

• Three ways
• Enhancing effectiveness of reinforcers
• Controlling the schedules of reinforcer delivery
• Increasing the quantity or quality of reinforcers

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Complexities

• Multiple systems operating simultaneously
• Is operant conditioning separable from classical?
• Do stimuli fulfill role of CS, SD, or both?

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Role of Operant Reinforcer in Classical
Conditioning

• In classical conditioning
• US presented regardless of CR
• Defining feature
• But, operant reinforcement can slip in
• Operant reinforcement via
• 1. Reinforcing CR directly
• e.g., food (US) coming after CR
• 2. CR increases value of US
• e.g., salivation (CR) makes swallowing food (US)
  easier

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Omission Control Procedure

• US presentation depends on occurrence of CR
• CS presented if no CR, US follows
• CS presented if CR, no US follows
• Therefore, US cant operantly reinforce CR

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Omission Control
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Conclusion

• Can have classical conditioning without operant
  reinforcement
• But what about classical conditioning in operant
  conditioning?

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Associative Structure in Operant Conditioning

• Basic form of association
• S-R
• S-O
• Pavlovian processes
• Can keep instrumental reinforcement out of
  classical conditioning, but not vise versa

Outcome
Stimulus
Instrumental response
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S-R, S-O, rg-sg

• Thorndikes Law of Effect
• Focus on S-R association
• Hull and Spence
• Law of Effect plus a classical conditioning
  process

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• Classical conditioning process --gt motivation
• Expectancy of reinforcement motivates operant
  response
• Classical conditioning via stimulus substitution
• S acquires properties of O
• rg fractional anticipatory goal response
• Response leads to feedback
• sg sensory feedback
• So classical conditioning develops during operant
  conditioning
• rg-sg constitute expectancy of reward

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Fractional Anticipatory Goal Response

• SD influences rg-sg through sensory
  substitution-like process
• Classical conditioning
• Elicits expectancy of reward

Timeline
Stimulus
rg
sg
Response
Outcome
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Prediction

• According to rg-sg
• CR occurs before operant response
• But, not always true
• e.g., lever pressing and salivation
• CR should occur before operant, but it doesnt

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Central Emotional State

• Classical conditioning in operant conditioning
• Not for learning response
• For CES (Central Emotional State)
• CES --gt motivation, mood

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Modern Two-Process Theory

• Classical in operant conditioning
• Neutral stimulus --gt elicit motivation (CES)
• CES elicited by CS corresponds to US
• CES a characteristic of CNS mood
• CES doesnt produce only one response
• e.g., anger --gt multiple responses
• CES conditioned during ordinary operant training
• CES conditioned to situational cues or
  discriminative stimulus
• CES motivates operant behaviour

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Prediction

• Rate of instrumental response will be modified by
  presentation of CS
• Consider
• In operant conditioning, CES develops to motivate
  operant response
• CS from classical conditioning also elicits CES
• Therefore, giving CS during operant conditioning
  will alter CES that motivates/maintains operant
  response

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Conditioned Emotional Response

• Suppression ratio
• CES elicited by CS --gt decrease response

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Explicit Predictions

• Emotional states

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• Behavioural predictions

Aversive US Instrumental schedule CS(fear)
CS-(relief) Positive reinforcement decrease incr
ease Negative reinforcement increase decrease