1. Operant Applications
Principles of Learning

3. Applications of Operant Conditioning
Skinner introduced the concept of teaching
machines that shape learning in small steps and
provide reinforcements for correct rewards.
In School LWA-JDL/Corbis

4. Applications of Operant Conditioning
Reinforcers affect productivity. Many companies
now allow employees to share profits and
participate in company ownership.
At work

5. Applications of Operant Conditioning
At Home
In children, reinforcing good behavior increases
the occurrence of these behaviors. Ignoring
unwanted behavior decreases their occurrence.

6. 6
Operant conditioning: Addiction (1)
Drug use is a behaviour that is reinforced by
the positive reinforcement that occurs
from the pharmacologic properties of the
drug.

7. 7
Operant conditioning: Addiction (2)
Once a person is addicted, drug use is
reinforced by the negative reinforcement
of removing or avoiding painful withdrawal
symptoms.

8. Behavior Therapy
• Behavior therapy uses learning methods to
change abnormal behavior, thoughts and feelings
– Behavior therapists use classical and operant
conditioning techniques as well as modeling
– Counterconditioning: learning a new response
• Systematic desensitization: relaxation is paired with a stimulus
that formerly induced anxiety
• Aversive conditioning: an unpleasant event is paired with a
stimulus to reduce its attractiveness
Ch 2.23

9. Counterconditioning

10. Cognitive Behavior Therapy
• Cognitive therapy assumes that thought patterns
can cause a disturbance of emotion or behavior
– Beck’s Cognitive Therapy for Depression
• Depressed mood caused by cognitive distortions
– “Nothing good ever happens to me”
– Ellis’s Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy
• Emotional upset is due to irrational beliefs
– “I must be loved by everyone”
Ch 2.25

11. The Cognitive Paradigm
• Cognition involves the mental processes
of perceiving, recognizing, judging and
reasoning
• The cognitive paradigm focuses on how
people structure and understand their
experiences and how these experiences
are related to past experiences stored in
memory
Ch 2.24

12. 12
Operant conditioning: Addiction (2)
Once a person is addicted, drug use is
reinforced by the negative reinforcement
of removing or avoiding painful withdrawal
symptoms.

13. 13
Operant conditioning: Application to CBT
techniques
• Functional Analysis – identify high-risk
situations and determine reinforcers
• Examine long- and short-term
consequences of drug use to reinforce
resolve to be abstinent
• Schedule time and receive praise
• Develop meaningful alternative
reinforcers to drug use

14. Gary Wilkes (1994) Animal Trainer
• Elephants:
Dangerous, handling stress sensitive
Calluses build-up (unable to walk)
Cut away with sharp tool

15. Elephant Manicure
• Violent Aggressive
Bull
• Callous not
trimmed in 10
years
• Vets can not
touch
• What to do?
• Large steel gate with hole in
corner (size of elephants
foot)
• Clicker + Carrot
• Clicker + approach gate +
carrot
• Clicker +lift foot + carrot
• Clicker + move foot to hole
• Etc….
• After training: elephant would
voluntarily walk to gate and
put foot through

16. Elephant
Manicure
• CS + US
• SHAPING
• Large steel gate with hole in
corner (size of elephants
foot)
• Clicker + Carrot
• Clicker + approach gate +
carrot
• Clicker +lift foot + carrot
• Clicker + move foot to hole
• Etc….
• After training: elephant would
voluntarily walk to gate and
put foot through

17. Self Awareness
• Self Aware: observe ones
own behavior
• “I think Joe will quit
school” ( he is engaged in
those types of behaviors)
• I have observed myself
engaged in those
behaviors. (“I think I will
quit school”)
• Long-term Comas
• Behave like awake:
Open eyes
Turn heads
Move a hand
Coma = not responsive to
environment

18. Boyle and Greer (1983)
• Reinforced spontaneous
behaviors with music
Moved patient
Requested action
Reward = short selection of
favorite music
2 sessions a day/ 16 weeks
• Reinforcement
• Outcome (Reward)
contingent on behavior
• Cause and effect!
• 33% increased
spontaneous movement
1 came out of coma

19. Norris Edwards:
Chapter 8: Wade08.ppt
The Problem withThe Problem with
RewardReward
• Misuse of rewardMisuse of reward ~ rewards must be tied to the~ rewards must be tied to the
behavior we are trying to increase.behavior we are trying to increase.
• Each of use has had the experience of standingEach of use has had the experience of standing
in the checkout line and the market and seeing ain the checkout line and the market and seeing a
child in a shopping cart tempted by the candychild in a shopping cart tempted by the candy
and toys on display adjacent to the line.and toys on display adjacent to the line.
• When we as parents giving a purchase somethingWhen we as parents giving a purchase something
to quiet our kids in that situation, what behaviorto quiet our kids in that situation, what behavior
are we actually reinforcing?are we actually reinforcing?

20. Norris Edwards: Chapter 8: Wade08.ppt Page: 20©1999 Prentice Hall
Hidden Cost of Rewards
• Preschoolers played
with felt-tipped markers
and observed
• Divided into 3 groups:
– Given markers again and
asked to draw
– Promised a reward for
playing with markers
– Played with markers,
then rewarded

21. Albert Bandura
Social Cognitive Theory
• Theories that emphasize how behavior is learned
and maintained through observation and imitation
of others, positive consequences, and cognitive
processes such as plans expectations, and beliefs.
• Observational Learning ~ A process in which an
individual learns new responses by observing the
behavior of another (a model) rather than through
direct experience; sometimes called Vicarious
Conditioning.

22. Skinner (1953) and Verbal Behaviors
• “That itches”
• “That tickles”
• “That hurts”
• Observed behavior:
• Scratching
• Giggling
• Tears and groans

23. Basic Behavioral Principles
• Antecedent - any stimulus that
happens before a behavior (S)
• Behavior - an observable and
measurable act of an individual (R)
• Consequence - any stimulus that
happens after a behavior (O)

24. Social-Cognitive Learning Theories
• To this point most American learning
theories have maintained the position
that most learning can be explained in
terms of the behavioral ABCs.
• Antecedents event preceding the
behavior
• Behavior itself
• Consequences of the behavior.
• Social Learning Theories emphasizes
the importance of observational
learning by observing people in social
context.

25. Verbal Conditioning
S-R-O

26. Skinner (1957)

27. The Mand
(Requesting)
• All mands have one thing in common:
in the antecedent condition, there is a
Motivative Operation (or motivation {S-S})
in place.
• A= thirst (MO) (S)
• B= “I want juice” (R)
• C= student gets juice (O)
• If a child does not want the item, you
cannot teach them to mand for it.

28. Verbal Conditioning
• S
Hungry?
Sleepy?
• O
Reinforced (Behavior
and self aware
observation)
Reward or Punish?
• R
Yes!
No! (self
awareness?)

29. Norris Edwards:
Chapter 8: Wade08.ppt
When Punishment Fails
• Most misbehavior is hard to punish
immediately.
• Punishment conveys little information.
• An action intended to punish may instead
be reinforcing because if brings attention.

30. Behavior and the Mind
• Edward Tolman (1938) experiment with rats
demonstrated latent learning
• Latent learning is learning that in not
immediately revealed through a change in
behavior
• Latent learning occurs without obvious
reinforcement
• Perception of the model and of themselves
influence individual's learning.

31. Tolman
Latent Learning: A Classic Experiment
(Tolman & Honzik, 1930)
Three groups of rats were given practice trials in a
maze, 1 trial per day.
The maze consisted of a series of components shaped
like the letter T.
A trial started when the rat was placed in the Start box
and ended when he entered the Goal box, after which
he was removed from the maze.

32. Tolman
Latent Learning: A Classic Experiment
(Tolman & Honzik, 1930)
T
START
T
T
T
i
T
T
...
GOAL
When the rat went up the
stem of the T, he
reached a choice point.
If he turned one way, he
came to a dead end.
If he turned the other
way, he came to the
entrance of the next
component.

33. Tolman
Latent Learning: A Classic Experiment
(Tolman & Honzik, 1930)
T
START
T
T
T
i
T
T
...
GOAL
Each time the rat turned
into the dead end, it was
counted as an error.
The measure of
performance (dependent
variable) was the number
of errors on a trial.
If learning occurred, the
number of errors should
decrease as more and
more trials were given.

34. Latent Learning: A Classic Experiment
(Tolman & Honzik, 1930)
GROUP 1: On every trial, these
rats received food when they
reached the goal box.
GROUP 2: These rats never received food. They
were simply removed from the maze when they got to
the goal box.
GROUP 3: These rats got no food on Trials 1 to 10.
But on Trial 11, and every trial afterwards, they
received a food reward.
US = Food
UR = Consume
Food
CS = Maze
CR= Consume Food

35. Latent Learning: A Classic Experiment
(Tolman & Honzik, 1930)
1 10 11 17
Trials (1 Trial per Day)
AverageErrors
0246810
GR 1 — GR 2 — GR 3 —
The day-to-day decrease in
errors represented a “relatively
permanent change in behavior”
that resulted from practice.
This was clear evidence for
learning.
Hull’s theory predicts that the rats in groups 3Hull’s theory predicts that the rats in groups 3
& 2 will not learn& 2 will not learn

36. Latent Learning: A Classic Experiment
(Tolman & Honzik, 1930)
1 10 11 17
Trials (1 Trial per Day)
AverageErrors
0246810
GR 1 — GR 2 — GR 3 —
Group 2 got no food but still improved slightly.
Removal from the maze was a small reward.
There was little evidence for learning.

37. Hull vs. Tolman
• Hull’s law of primary reinforcement:
– “when a stimulus-response relationship is followed
by a reduction in need, the probability increases
that on subsequent occasions the same stimulus
will invoke the same response” (Schultz & Schultz,
op. cit., p. 329)
• Learning can only take place if there is
reinforcement
• S-R connections strengthened by the no. of
reinforcements that have occurred - Hull
called this “habit strength”
• Habit strength = intervening variable

38. Hull vs. Tolman
• Tolman devised an experimental test of
Hull’s theory
• Hull’s theory states - learning must involve
reinforcement
– So we can deduce this hypothesis from his
theory:
• Rats will not learn if they are not rewarded
– Tolman tested this hypothesis

39. Latent Learning: A Classic Experiment
1 10 11 17
Trials (1 Trial per Day)
AverageErrors
0246810
GR 1 — GR 2 — GR 3 —
Getting no food on
Trials 1 – 10,
Group 3 performed
like Group 2
through Trial 11.

40. Latent Learning: A Classic Experiment
1 10 11 17
Trials (1 Trial per Day)
AverageErrors
0246810
GR 1 — GR 2 — GR 3 —
On the next trial,
Group 3 matched
Group 1, and then
did even better!

41. Latent Learning: A Classic Experiment
(Tolman & Honzik, 1930)
Interpretation
Group 3 learned the route to the maze on Trials 1 to
10 but didn’t show it because there was no
motivation to perform. How could they learn if there
was no CS/US pairings?
They outperformed Group 1 because the shift from
no reward to reward made the reward seem larger
by comparison. This is called “positive contrast.”

42. So S-S is the way animals
learn?
Hull
maintained
that maze
itself caused
little S-R
bonds to form
S-R theory
still dominated
psychology for
40 more years

43. Response Vs. Place Learning
GROUP P always found food in Goal Box 1.
Start 1
Start 2
Goal 2 Goal 1
(Tolman, Ritchie & Kalish, 1946)
This maze had no walls or
roof so that rats could see
“landmarks” in the room such
as a window, door, or lamp.
On a random half of the trials,
the rats started from Start
Box 1, and on the other half
they started from Start Box 2.
GROUP R found food in Goal Box 1 when they
started from Start Box 1 but received food in
Goal Box 2 when they started from Start Box 2.

44. Response Vs. Place Learning
GROUP P always found food in Goal Box 1.
Start 1
Start 2
Goal 2 Goal 1
(Tolman, Ritchie & Kalish, 1946)
Cognitive theory predicted
that GROUP P would learn
faster because they only had
to learn one cognitive map.
Behavior theory predicted
GROUP R would learn faster
because they only had to
learn one sequence of
movements at the choice
point—a right turn.
GROUP R found food in Goal Box 1 when they
started from Start Box 1 but received food in
Goal Box 2 when they started from Start Box 2.

45. Response Vs. Place Learning
GROUP P always found food in Goal Box 1.
Start 1
Start 2
Goal 2 Goal 1
(Tolman, Ritchie & Kalish, 1946)
GROUP R found food in Goal Box 1 when they
started from Start Box 1 but received food in
Goal Box 2 when they started from Start Box 2.
What’s YOUR prediction?
Are you a behaviorist or a cognitivist?
GROUP PGROUP
R

46. Response Vs. Place Learning
GROUP P always found food in Goal Box 1.
Start 1
Start 2
Goal 2 Goal 1
(Tolman, Ritchie & Kalish, 1946)
GROUP R found food in Goal Box 1 when they
started from Start Box 1 but received food in
Goal Box 2 when they started from Start Box 2.
What’s YOUR prediction?
Are you a behaviorist or a cognitivist?
GROUP PGROUP
R
Group P learned
faster.
But
Later studies found that if the maze had a roof
so the rats couldn’t see things in the room,
response learning was faster.

47. Response Vs. Place Learning
GROUP P always found food in Goal Box 1.
Start 1
Start 2
Goal 2 Goal 1
(Tolman, Ritchie & Kalish, 1946)
GROUP R found food in Goal Box 1 when they
started from Start Box 1 but received food in
Goal Box 2 when they started from Start Box 2.
What’s YOUR prediction?
Are you a behaviorist or a cognitivist?
GROUP PGROUP
R
Group P learned
faster.
Both response and place learning
occur. Which type is faster depends
on what cues are available. So both
the S-R and S-S views turned out to
be right!

48. S-R or S-S
Classical
conditioning can
involve both S-R and
S-S
Today:
Controlled vs.
Automatic processing
S-S= While learning
S-R= After learning

49. Theories Explaining Classical
Conditioning
HULL
• Born 1884 in Akron
NY
• Graduated U. of
Michigan in 1913
• Ph.D. U. of Wisconsin
1918
• 1929-1952 Professor
of Psychology at Yale
• Died 1952
Tolman
• Born Newton, Mass. On April
14, 1886.
• BA at MIT in electrochemistry
• Ph.D. psychology in 1915
• Spent month at Giessen under
Kofka. Heavily influenced by
Gestalt movement
• Ardent pacificist
• Dismissed at Northwestern U
• Went to UC Berkley rest of
career
S-R or S-
S

50. Behavioral vs. Cognitive Views
of Learning
These traditions in learning theory have existed for decades.
They give different answers to the fundamental question,
“What is learned” when learning takes place?
Behaviorists say:
“Specific actions”
Cognitivists say:
“Mental representations”
For example, in a
“Skinner Box”, a rat may
receive a food reward
every time he presses
the bar. He presses
faster and faster. What
has he learned?
S-R S-S

51. S-R vs. S-S
Views of Learning
These traditions in learning theory have existed for decades.
They give different answers to the fundamental question,
“What is learned” when learning takes place?
S-R view: “to press
the bar.”
S-S view:
For example, in a
“Skinner Box”, a rat may
receive a food reward
every time he presses
the bar. He presses
faster and faster. What
has he learned?
“that pressing produces food.”

52. S-R vs. S-S
Views of Learning
S-R
(“learns to”)
1. Learning involves the formation of associations between
specific actions and specific events (stimuli) in the
environment. These stimuli may either precede or follow the
action (antecedents vs. consequences).
2. Many behaviorists use intervening variables to explain
behavior (e.g., habit, drive) but avoid references to mental
states.
3. RADICAL BEHAVIORISM (operant conditioning/behavior
modification/behavior analysis): avoids any intervening
variables and focuses on descriptions of relationships
between behavior and environment (“functional analysis”).

53. S-R vs. S-S
Views of Learning
S-S
(“learns that”)
1. Learning takes place in the mind, not in behavior. It
involves the formation of mental representations of the
elements of a task and the discovery of how these elements
are related.
2. Behavior is used to make inferences about mental states
but is not of interest in itself (“methodological behaviorism”).
3. EXAMPLE: Tolman & Honzik’s experiment on latent
learning. Tolman, a pioneer of cognitive psychology, argued
that when rats practice mazes, they acquire a “cognitive map”
of the layout—mental representations of the landmarks and
their spatial relationships.

54. S-R or S-S
• Autoshaping
• Taste aversion
• Eyeblink conditioning
• Blocking
• Extinction
• Spontaneous Recovery
• S-R
• S-S
• S-R
• S-S
• S-R
• S-S

55. Latent Learning
• Rats: one maze trial/day
• One group found food
every time (red line)
• Second group never
found food (blue line)
• Third group found food on
Day 11 (green line)
– Sudden change, day 12
• Learning isn’t
the same as
performance

56. Norris Edwards: Chapter 8: Wade08.ppt Page: 56©1999 Prentice Hall
Cognitive Maps
• Tolman trained rats in this
maze, with all alleys open
– Not to scale; the path on the
left is too long.
• If “Block A” in place, rats
chose green (shorter) path
• If “Block B” in place, rats
chose blue path
– Green path also blocked
• Rats navigate as if they have
an internal map

57. Varieties of cognitive maps? (Gallistel 1990)
Specific issues:
• Spatial scale (local vs. home-range)
• Geometric content (metric, topological)
• Reference frame (egocentric/view-dependent vs. allocentric/view-
independent)
Evidence:
• People: short cuts in cities and VR (errors); mixed evidence
contents of underlying map
• Rodents: most studies on local scale; mixed evidence on contents
• Insects: on local and home-range scale--metric, egocentric
Broader Definition (Gallistel 1990): ‘A cognitive map is a
record in the central nervous system of macroscopic
geometric relations among surfaces in the environment
used to plan movements through the environment. A
central question is what type of geometric relations a
map encodes’.

58. More on Cognitive Maps:
Chimpanzee Behavior

59. More on Cognitive Maps:
Chimpanzee Behavior
• Chimpanzee on experimenter’s back
• Watched site bating: 18 locations
• Later released to retrieve food
• Most food found
• Retrieval route differed from baiting route
• Traveling distance was very efficient
Cognitive Maps (spatial learning)

60. More on Cognitive Maps:
Chimpanzee Behavior
• Second experiment
• Same general plan
• 18 locations: 9 fruits and 9 vegetables
• First retrieval visits were to retrieve fruits,
according with food preferences

61. More on Cognitive Maps:
Chimpanzee Behavior
• Results suggest that chimpanzees have
something like a cognitive map of
compound.
• As they are carried around, chimpanzees
store information about food locations not
on the basis of the particular path that they
are traveling, but on the basis of their
cognitive map. Cognitive Map = A
separate type of
memory (Bedroom, Gestalt)

62. More on Cognitive Maps:
Chimpanzee Behavior
• Chimpanzees work with this cognitive
representation to determine most efficient
route to travel in gathering food.
• This solution depends on cognitive
mediation between inputs and behavior
that transforms and organizes inputs.
• To explain chimpanzees’ behavior without
appeal to mediating processes would
provide an impoverished view of what
animal does.

63. http://www.scottcamazine.com/photos/
BeeBehavior/images/06waggleDance_jpg.jpg
Sun Compass and Memory in Bees
F o o d 2 0 ° 4 0 °
7 5 °
(U p )
2 0 ° 4 0 °
7 5 °
• Bees encode (allocentric?) flight direction in
dances
• As sun moves, dances change
• Dances change even when bees can’t see sun
(thus compensate by memory)
• Reference for memory: landmarks (Dyer &
Gould 1981; Dyer &Dickinson 1996)
H
F
Noon
16:00
α12
α16
The basic task
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.

64. A STRATEGY FOR INCREASING
BEHAVIOUR
• Behavioral self-management is a strategy
for increasing some desired behavior (for
example, hours spent studying or
exercising) by using self-administered
rewards. A behavioral self-management
program requires the following:

65. Strategies for increasing a desired
behavior
• Choose a targetChoose a target
behaviour (the behaviourbehaviour (the behaviour
you want to increase)you want to increase)
• Record a baseline (countRecord a baseline (count
time engaged in thetime engaged in the
desired behaviour ordesired behaviour or
number of times thenumber of times the
desired behaviour isdesired behaviour is
performedperformed )
• Establish goals (setEstablish goals (set
gradual goals – daily andgradual goals – daily and
weekly)weekly)
• Choose reinforcers (forChoose reinforcers (for
when you reach daily andwhen you reach daily and
weekly goals)weekly goals)
• Record your progressRecord your progress
(time you engaged in the(time you engaged in the
behaviour or number ofbehaviour or number of
times you performed thetimes you performed the
activity)activity)