L&B wk 4

1. Operant Conditioning

2. Operant Conditioning
• A type of learning in which behavior is
strengthened if followed by reinforcement
or diminished if followed by punishment.

3. Edward Thorndike
• Law of Effect:
rewarded behavior is
likely to recur.

4. B.F. Skinner: The Operant
Chamber
Recording
device
Bar or lever
that an animal
presses,
randomly at
first, later for
reward
Food/water dispenser
to provide the reward

5. Classical conditioning: Operant conditioning:
Operant and Classical Conditioning are
Different Forms of Associative Learning
 involves respondent behavior,
reflexive, automatic reactions
such as fear or craving
 involves operant behavior,
chosen behaviors which
“operate” on the environment
There is a contrast in the process of
conditioning.
The experimental (neutral)
stimulus repeatedly
precedes the respondent
behavior, and eventually
triggers that behavior.
The experimental
(consequence) stimulus
repeatedly follows the
operant behavior, and
eventually punishes or
reinforces that behavior.

6. Operant Conditioning
• Where classical conditioning illustrates
S-->R learning, operant conditioning is
often viewed as R-->S learning
• It is the consequence that follows the
response that influences whether the
response is likely or unlikely to occur
again.

7.  Associate “response” (behavior) with consequences.
Associative Learning:
Operant Conditioning

8. Acquisition and Extinction
• Acquisition – conditioning of a response
–Behavior increases because it is reinforced
• Extinction – loss of a conditioned response
–Occurs because behavior is no longer
reinforced
–Extinction burst- temporary increase in
behavior in the absence of the reinforcer

9. Reinforcer
• Any event that STRENGTHENS the
behavior it follows.
Two Types of Reinforcement:
Positive and Negative

10. Positive Reinforcement
• Strengthens a response by presenting a
stimulus after a response.

11. Negative Reinforcement
• Strengthens a response by reducing or
removing an aversive stimulus.

12. Reinforcement
 Reinforcement refers to
any feedback from the
environment that makes a
behavior more likely to
recur.
 Positive reinforcement:
adding something
desirable
 Negative
reinforcement: ending
something unpleasant
For the
meerkat, this
warm light is
desirable.
This meerkat has
just completed a
task out in the cold

13. Primary Reinforcer
• An innately reinforcing stimulus

14. Conditioned (Secondary) Reinforcer
• A stimulus that gains its reinforcing
power through its association with a
primary reinforcer.

15. A cycle of mutual
reinforcement
15
• Child  temper tantrum
• positively reinforced parents
occasionally respond by giving
in to a child’s demands.
• Parents who occasionally give in to
tantrums
• negatively reinforced when the
child responds by ending the
tantrum.

16. How often should we
reinforce?
 Do we need to
give a reward
every single
time? Or is that
even best?

17. Continuous Reinforcement
• Giving a reward after the target every
single time.
• Quick Acquisition
• Quick Extinction

18. Partial Reinforcement
• Reinforcing a
response only part of
the time.
• The acquisition
process is slower.
• Greater resistance to
extinction.

19. Fixed-ratio Schedules
• A schedule that reinforces a response only
after a specified number of responses.
Example: I give Carl a banana every FIVE
times he says “Whaaat?”

20. Variable-ratio Schedule
• A schedule of
reinforcement that
reinforces a
response after an
unpredictable
number of
responses.
Example: slot machines and sales bonuses

21. Fixed-interval Schedule
• A schedule of reinforcement that reinforces
a response only after a specified time has
elapsed.
Example: I give Kevin chocolate TEN MINUTES
after every time he provides a ride.

23. Variable-interval Schedule
• A schedule of
reinforcement that
reinforces a response
at unpredictable time
intervals.
Pop Quizzes

24. Which reinforcements produce more
“responding” (more target behavior)?

25. Premack Principle
• The Premack Principle, often called
"grandma's rule," states that a high-
frequency activity can be used to reinforce
low-frequency behavior.
• Access to the preferred activity is contingent
on completing the low-frequency, non-
preferred behavior.
•Reinforcement hierarchy

26. Analyzing Examples

27. HOW COMPLEX BEHAVIORS
ARE LEARNED
• Shaping
– A procedure in Operant Conditioning in which
reinforcers guide behavior closer and closer
towards a goal.
• Successive Approximations
– An intermediate behavior
• Prerequisite for terminal behavior or
• Higher order member of the same response topography

28. Shaping:
Response Differentiation
• Involves two components:
– Differentially reinforce behaviors that resemble the
terminal behavior
– Carefully changing the criterion for reinforcement
• Result
– Increase in behaviors successively closer to terminal
behavior
– Decrease in behaviors that are not successively closer to
terminal behavior

29. Dimensions of Behavior that can
be Shaped
• Topography
– Form of the behavior
• Frequency
– Number of responses per unit of time
• Latency
– Time between onset of antecedent stimulus and the occurrence of the
behavior
• Duration
– Total elapsed time for the occurrence of the behavior
• Amplitude
– Magnitude

30. Guidelines for Implementing
Shaping
• Consider nature of behavior to be learned and
resources available
• Select the Terminal Behavior
• Determine Criteria for Success
• Analyze the Response Class
• Identify the first behavior to reinforce
• Eliminate Interfering Stimuli
• Proceed in Gradual Stages

31. Guidelines for Implementing
Shaping
• Limit the Number of Approximations at each
level
• Continue reinforcement when the terminal
behavior is achieved

32. Limitations of Shaping
• Can be time consuming
• Progress is not always linear and may be
erratic
• Requires a skillful trainer, who can recognize
subtly closer approximations
• Can be misapplied (problem or harmful
behaviors can be accidentally shaped)

33. Criticisms of Skinner’s
behaviorism
• Problem of instinctive drift

34. HOW COMPLEX BEHAVIORS
ARE LEARNED
• Successive approximation/shaping
• Superstitious Behavior
• Self-control of behavior
Stimulus avoidance
Self-administered satiation
Self-reinforcement

35. Punishment
• An event that
DECREASES
the behavior
that it follows.
Does punishment work?

36. Operant Effect: Punishment
+ Positive
Punishment
You ADD something
unpleasant/aversive
(ex: spank the child)
- Negative
Punishment
You TAKE AWAY
something pleasant/
desired (ex: no TV
time, no attention)

37. When is punishment
effective?
 Punishment works best in natural
settings.
 Artificially creating punishing
consequences for other’s choices;
works best when consequences
happen as they do in nature.

38.  Punished behaviors may restart when the
punishment is over; learning is not lasting.
 The child may learn to discriminate among
situations
 Instead of behaviors, the child might learn
an attitude of fear or hatred. This can
generalize.
 Physical punishment models aggression
and control as a method of dealing with
problems.
Applying operant conditioning to parenting
Problems with Physical Punishment

39. Making Punishment More
Effective
• Tell child about appropriate behavior, then
reinforce it
• Minimize situations that tempt bad behavior
• Use punisher that’s aversive
• Punishment must occur right after behavior
• Punishment must occur every time behavior
occurs
• Remain calm while punishing

40. Hawthorne Effect
• Carefully observing a person’s behavior in
order to determine appropriate consequences
– These things have major benefits themselves,
regardless of the actual effect of being reinforced
or punished for a behavior.

41. Operant Conditioning Table
Outcomes of Conditioning
Stimulus Increase Behavior Decrease Behavior
pleasant
aversive
• In the cells – input whether it is positive/negative
reinforcement or punishment; also put in each cell
whether you are adding or subtracting a stimulus