Psychology of Learning Exam 3 (Chp. 5) Prep Guides 7&8

What are the two parts of the law of effect? Restate each in your own words. Sum up the law of effect.

- Behavior followed by pleasant(satisfying) consequences is likely to be repeated. - Behavior followed by unpleasant(annoying) consequences are likely to be stopped. "The behavior contains that purpose of its consequences."

What are motivating operations?

- Changes the effectiveness of a consequence.

Discuss the difference between contrived reinforcers and natural reinforcers and give some examples of each.

- Contrived reinforcers are arranged by someone. * Example: Complete homework = Praise - Natural reinforcers are produced by a behavior & immediate behavior follows. * Example: Brushing teeth = Better smelling breath

Define and give examples of establishing and abolishing operations.

- Establishing operations: increase the effectiveness of a reinforcer (Deprivation) * Example: running a lemonade stand having extra salty popcorn right next to it. Recommending the people to buy the popcorn then the lemonade. - Abolishing operations: decrease in effectiveness of a reinforcer (Satiation) * Example: Reinforcing the effectiveness of food is abolished as a result of food ingestion.

Discuss 4 advantages of using secondary reinforcers.

- First, Less Satiation. - Second, Easier immediate behavior. - Third, Less Disruptive. - Lastly, Used in many situations.

Define "contingency" How is it related to reinforcement? Give some examples.

- It refers to the degree of correlation between a behavior and its consequence. The more reliability a reinforcer follows a behavior, the more it strengthens the behavior. - Example: When a pigeon receives food if it pecks a disc, but only if it strikes the disc with a certain amount of force

What is a positive reinforcer? Negative reinforcer? Give example of each.

- Positive reinforcer indicates good or pleasant things. * Example: If you put money into a vending machine and you get the food you want, you are likely to put money into that machine in the future given the opportunity. (Money, Praise, Rewards) - Negative reinforcer indicates bad or unpleasant things. * Example: If you get into your car and turn the ignition and you are suddenly blasted by loud music, you turn down the volume control. (Alarm clock, Headache, Electric shock)

Define "contiguity" How is it related to reinforcement? Give some examples.

- Refers to the gap in time between a behavior and its reinforcing consequence. The shorter the interval is the faster the learning occurs. - Example: When a rat broke the beam by rising on its hind legs, food fell into a dish immediately when other rats waited longer seconds for their food to come, which resulted in delayed reinforcement.

Discuss how behavior characteristics can affect learning.

- Satiation is a characteristic that can decrease the reinforcing value of an event/stimulus with prolonged exposure to the event or consumption of something. * Example: Get tired of eating at the same restaurant every day. - Deprivation is the increase value of a reinforcer. * Example: If you haven't eaten at your favorite restaurant in a while, you will probably go there for dinner.

What is "satiation?" What does it have to do with using primary reinforcers?

- The prolonged exposure to primary reinforcers that decrease the reinforcing value of the reinforcers. - With food for example, if you have not eaten for some time, food can be a powerful reinforcer, but with each bite the reinforcing power of food is diminished until finally it is ineffective, which gets you to this point.

Why is a negative reinforcement sometimes called escape learning or escape-avoidance learning?

Because what reinforces behavior in negative reinforcement is escaping from an aversive or unpleasant situation.

Define positive reinforcement. Give an example.

Behavior is strengthened by the addition of a stimulus, or an increase in the intensity of a stimulus. * Example: A little girl receives $10 for every A that she has on her report card.

Secondary reinforcers are also called_____ reinforcers.

Conditioned

What did Thorndike mean by "satisfying" and "annoying?"

For example with the "satisfying" consequence, if a baby chick goes down the correct alley, this behavior leads to food and contact with other baby chicks. With the "annoying" consequence, If the baby chick went down the wrong alley, this behavior is followed by continued hunger and separation from other chicks.

Define "primary reinforcers" Give examples.

Satisfies biological needs. * Examples: Food, water, and sexual stimulation.

What are some features of behaviors that can be strengthened by reinforcement?

Frequency/Rate, Intensity, Duration, Persistence, Form and many more can be strengthened as long as this can be contingent on that particular feature.

Define "secondary reinforcers" Give some examples.

Have been paired with other effective reinforcers, but the results of learning experiences. * Examples: Praise, Recognition, Smiles, and Applause.

If someone were trying to change your behavior, would you prefer that they use positive reinforcement or negative reinforcement? Explain.

I would rather someone use negative reinforcement to change my behavior because even though both of them strengthens behavior, if something of mine is taken away from me, I would do everything I am supposed to do so that I can get it back. As for the next time it happens, I'll know what not to do so that I wouldn't get in trouble like that again.

What does it mean to say that the relationship between the reinforcer magnitude and learning is not linear? Give an example.

If you increase the reinforcer magnitude, the less benefit you will get from the increase. * Example: People working for a 55% bonus did not do much more work than the people that got the 3% bonus. The ones who didn't do much work didn't get a bonus at all. But the higher the incentives, the more worse the production and mistakes.

Define "operant learning"

It is any procedure or experience in which a behavior becomes stronger or weaker depending on its consequences.

How is magnitude of reinforcement related to the rate of learning?

Small reinforcers given frequently usually produce faster learning than large reinforcers are given infrequently. The size of the reinforcer does matter. A large reinforcer is generally more effective than a small one.

Define "generalized reinforcer" and give an example.

Reinforcers that are related to a wide variety of existing reinforcers. * Example: Money & Praise

What is the difference between a reward and a reinforcer?

The first one is something that is usually expected when you do something good. The second one usually involves an outcome that will help you learn what to do and what not to do in certain situations. Taking a child's phone away from them after you told them to clean their room and they don't do it would be a reinforcer.

Describe a typical "Skinner Box."

This was an experimental chamber designed so that an electrically operated food magazine dropped a few pellets of food into a tray. This is still heard of today.

How can we determine if something is a positive or negative reinforcer?

The difference between the two is that a positive reinforcer is something that is added to the situation and a negative reinforcer is something that is removed from the situation.

Discuss the importance of competing contingencies.

The effects of reinforcing a behavior will be very different if the behavior also produces punishing consequences or if reinforcers are simultaneously available for other kinds of behavior. * Example: Would you rather study and have a good outcome or go party with friends and have a bad outcome because you chose not to study?

What is behavior momentum?

This is a term used to refer to the strength of a reinforced behavior

Define negative reinforcement. Give an example.

This is when a behavior is strengthened by the removal, or a decrease in the intensity of a stimulus. * Example: A boy decides that he will clean his room so that his mother can stop yelling at him.

In learning, how is "reinforcement" defined?

This means an increase in the strength of behavior due to its consequences

Describe Thorndike's study involving chicks. What were the results?

Thorndike put a chick into a maze. If the chick took the correct route, it found its way to a pen containing food and other chicks. The chick tried to jump out of the enclosure and then wandered down one blind alley after another, peeping loudly until it finally found its way out. With succeeding trials, the chick became more and more efficient, finally when placed in the maze the chick would go directly down the appropriate path.

Describe Thorndike's "puzzle box" experiments. Describe how learning progressed during these studies.

Thorndike would place a hungry cat in this and put food in plain view but out of reach. This contraption had a door that could be opened by some simple act, such as pulling a wire rope or stepping on a treadle, Just like the previous experiment with the chicks, the cat began by performing several ineffective acts.

Primary reinforcers are also called _____ reinforcers.

Unconditioned

Give an example where it is difficult to tell whether positive or negative reinforcement is taking place.

When a person in a cold room turns up the heat, the increase in warmth was the positive reinforcement because the heat was added, but the decrease in cold was the negative reinforcement because the cold is removed.

How are positive and negative reinforcement similar? How are they different?

With the cat escaping from the box, this negatively reinforced pulling the string and once the cat was out of the box, it could eat the food that had been out of reach, which means that reaching the food positive reinforced pulling the string. Sometimes the distinction is impossible to make between the two because they are so similar and because of this reason many experts are thinking of doing away with it