The Behaviorist Viewpoint

Reinforcement occurs when

an outcome strengthens a particular response tendency

positive _____ stimulus while negative ______ stimulus

applies; removes

Avoidance learning is regulated by

classical and operant conditioning working together

Spontaneous recovery occurs when

the conditioned stimulus is alone

What determines the amount of discrimination?

the degree of similarity between new and conditioned stimuli

Classical conditioning: What is extinction?

the gradual weakening and disappearance of a conditioned response tendency

Biological Preparedness:

species-specific predisposition to be conditioned in certain ways (fear of snakes) and not others (fear of knives).

What type of stimuli have more potential to become conditioned stimuli

stimuli that are new, unusual, or especially intense have more potential than routine stimulus

Extinction can vary depending on

strength of conditioned response

What are reinforcement contingencies?

the circumstances that determine whether responses lead to the presentation of reinforcers

Who termed operant conditioning

B.F. Skinner

The longer the interval,

the more resistance to extinction

Two examples of a variable-ratio schedule:

(1) A rat is reinforced for every tenth lever press on the average. The exact number of responses required for reinforcement varies from one time to the next (2) A slot machine in a casino pays off once every six tries on the average. The number of nonwinning responses between payoffs varies greatly from one time to the next.

Two examples of a fixed-ratio schedule:

(1) A rat is reinforced for every tenth lever press. (2) A salesperson receives a bonus for every fourth gym membership sold.

Two examples of a variable-interval schedule:

(1) A rat is reinforced for the first lever press after a 1-minute interval has elapsed, but the following intervals are 3 minutes, 2 minutes, 4 minutes, and so on—with an average length of 2 minutes. (2) A person repeatedly dials a busy phone number (getting through is the reinforcer)

Two examples of a fixed-interval schedule:

(1) A rat is reinforced for the first lever press after a 2-minute interval has elapsed and then must wait 2 minutes before being able to earn the next reinforcement. (2) A man washing his clothes periodically checks to see whether each load is finished. The reward (clean clothes) is available only after a fixed time interval (corresponding to how long the washer takes to complete a cycle) has elapsed, and checking responses during the interval are not reinforced.

Classic conditioning: What is acquisition?

-Acquisition is the initial stage of learning in conditioning which depends on stimulus contiguity -it is also the pattern of the pairings of the conditioned and unconditioned stimuli

Common specific phobias

-Animal phobias: Most common specific phobias. Examples include fear of dogs, snakes, insects, or mice. -Situational phobias: Involve a fear of specific situations, such as flying, riding in a car or on public transportation, driving, going over bridges or in tunnels, or of being in a closed-in place, like an elevator. -Natural environment phobias: Examples include the fear of storms, heights, or water. -Blood-injection-injury phobias: Involve a fear of being injured, of seeing blood or of invasive medical procedures, such as blood tests or injections. -Other phobias: These include a fear of falling down, a fear of loud sounds, and a fear of costumed characters (e.g., clowns).

Some examples of classical conditioning in everyday life

-Conditioned fears and anxiety • Phobias: can often be traced to specific past experiences and traumas • Everyday fear responses (e.g., dentist's drill) -Pleasant emotional responses • e.g., holiday music, partner's perfume/cologne -Physiological responses • Taste Aversions: rapidly developing associations between food & illness (common in cancer patients) • Immunosuppression, sexual arousal, sexual fetishes

What is higher-order conditioning and give an example (also look on higher order conditioning slide for another example)

-where a conditioned stimulus functions as if it were an unconditioned stimulus -Higher-order conditioning shows that classical conditioning does not depend on the presence of a genuine, natural US. An already established CS can do just fine. In higher-order conditioning, new conditioned responses are built on the foundation of already established conditioned responses. Many human conditioned responses are the product of higher-order conditioning (Rescorla, 1980). ---For example, many drivers react to the sight of a police car with a surge of anxiety, even if they are going under the speed limit. This reflexive response is an example of higher-order conditioning. The visual stimulus of a police car has probably been paired with a traffic ticket in the past. The traffic ticket is a previously established CS.

The qualities of a variable-ratio schedule

1) higher resistance to extinction 2) high, steady rate without pauses 3) the highest response rate 4) constant response pattern, no pauses 4) most resistance to extinction

The qualities of a variable-interval schedule

1) higher resistance to extinction 2) low, steady rate without pauses 3) moderate response rate 4) stable, uniform response 5) More resistance to extinction than fixed-interval schedule with same average interval

The qualities of a fixed-interval schedule

1) lower resistance to extinction 2) long pause after reinforcement yields "scalloping" effect, followed by gradual acceleration 3) lowest response rate

The qualities of a fixed-ratio schedule

1) lower resistance to extinction 2) rapid responding with short pause after reinforcement 3) higher ratios generate higher response rates 4) response rate: very high 5) pattern of responses: steady response with low ratio; brief pause after each reinforcement with very high ratio

Explain Classical Conditioning with Ivan Pavlov

Before conditioning: Pavlov had an unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned responses, and a neutral stimulus. When the unconditioned stimulus, food, was presented to the dog, the dog would have an unconditioned response, salivation. Then the neutral stimulus was a whistle (tone/bell) and the unconditional response was no salivation (this was a no conditioned response) During conditioning: Pavlov placed the food and whistle (neutral stimulus) together and the unconditioned response was salivation After conditioning: the conditioned stimulus was the whistle and the conditioned response was salivation

Criticisms of the Little Albert Experiment

First, the experimental design and process were not carefully constructed. Watson and Rayner did not develop an objective means to evaluate Albert's reactions, instead relying on their own subjective interpretations. Secondly, the experiment also raises many ethical concerns. The Little Albert experiment could not be conducted by today's standards because it would be unethical.

Reinforcement schedules come in many varieties, but four particular types of intermittent schedules have attracted the most interest:

Fixed ratio schedule, variable ratio schedule, fixed interval schedule, and variable interval schedule

Example of escape learning

In a typical study, an animal is placed in one compart- ment. The shock in the floor of that compartment is turned on, with the doorway open. The animal learns to escape the shock by running out the door. This escape response leads to the removal of an aversive stimulus (shock), so it's seen as being strengthened through negative reinforcement.

Summary of the Little Albert Experiment which involves stimulus generalization

It was carried out by John B. Watson. Watson was interested in taking Pavlov's research further to show that emotional reactions could be classically conditioned in people. Neutral Stimulus: The white rat Unconditioned Stimulus: The loud noise (gong) Unconditioned Response: Fear Conditioned Stimulus: The white rat Conditioned Response: Fear In addition to demonstrating that emotional responses could be conditioned in humans, Watson and Rayner also observed that stimulus generalization had occurred. The stimulus generalization portion of the experiment: After conditioning, Albert feared not just the white rat, but a wide variety of similar white objects as well. His fear included other furry objects including Raynor's fur coat and Watson wearing a Santa Claus beard.

The three very well known behaviorists

Ivan Pavlov, John B. Watson, and B.F. Skinner

What did Martin Seligman say about phobias?

People tend to develop phobias to stimuli that posed genuine threats to our ancient ancestors

______ intervals generate higher rates overall

Short

What determines the amount of generalization?

The degree of similarity between new and conditioned stimulus

How is extinction achieved?

Through repeated presentations of conditioned stimulus without unconditioned stimulus

Overall summary of stimuli in classical conditioning

US -> UR NS -> No response US+NS -> UR NS(CS) -> CR

When is the renewal effect especially strong?

When context is changed back to original context of conditioning?

Intermittent, or partial, reinforcement occurs when

a designated response is reinforced only some of the time.

What is operant conditioning?

a form of learning in which responses come to be controlled by their consequences.

Interval schedules require

a time period to pass between the presentation of reinforcers.

What is classical conditioning?

a type of learning in which a stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus

Positive punishment:

administering unpleasant consequence for behavior such as yelling and spanking

Shaping is necessary when

an organism does not, on its own, emit the desired response.

What are secondary (conditioned) reinforcers? (Give examples)

events that acquire reinforcing qualities by being associated with primary reinforcers • e.g., money, good grades, attention, flattery, praise, and applause

Continuous reinforcement occurs when

every instance of a designated response is reinforced

For a fixed-ratio schedule: The _______ the ratio, the more resistance to extinction

higher

What are primary reinforcers? (Give examples)

inherently reinforcing events that satisfy biological needs • e.g., food, water, warmth, sex, affection

Operant conditioning: What is shaping?

involves reinforcement of closer and closer approximations of a desired response.

What is punishment

it decreases behavior

What is a schedule of reinforcement?

it determines which occurrences of a specific response result in the presentation of a reinforcer (the simplest pattern is continuous reinforcement)

Operant conditioning: When does reinforcement occur?

occurs when an event following a response increases an organism's tendency to make that response

Aversive Conditioning: What is escape learning?

performing an operant response to cause an aversive stimulus to cease

Avoidance learning leads to

persistence of phobias • Avoidance results in negative reinforcement • Prevention of extinction

Classical conditioning: What is the renewal effect?

recovery of an extinguished response that occurs when the context is changed after extinction.

Negative punishment:

removing pleasant stimulus following behavior such as time out, restriction, silent treatment

Operant conditioning: What is acquisition?

the initial stage of learning a desired response pattern

What is stimulus contiguity

the occurrence of the conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus in time and space

Ratio schedules require

the organism to make the designated response a certain number of times to gain reinforcement.

Operant conditioning: What is extinction?

the process by which the association between response and contingency is broken.

Classical Conditioning: What is spontaneous recovery?

the reappearance of an extinguished response after a period of time.

With a fixed-ratio (FR) schedule,

the reinforcer is given after a fixed number of nonreinforced responses.

With a variable-ratio (VR) schedule,

the reinforcer is given after a variable number of nonreinforced responses. The number of nonreinforced responses varies around a predetermined average.

With a variable-interval (VI) schedule,

the reinforcer is given for the first response after a variable time interval has elapsed.The interval length varies around a predetermined average.

With a fixed-interval (FI) schedule,

the reinforcer is given for the first response that occurs after a fixed time interval has elapsed.

Classical conditioning: What is stimulus generalization?

the tendency for stimuli similar to a conditioned stimulus to elicit the conditioned response (*it is important for an organism's survival)

To demonstrate the power of shaping techniques, Skinner once

trained some pigeons so that they appeared to play a crude version of Ping- Pong. They would run about at opposite ends of a tiny Ping-Pong table and peck the ball back and forth.

The mechanism of shaping is the key to

training animals to perform impressive tricks. When you go to a zoo, circus, or marine park and see bears riding bicycles, monkeys playing the piano, and whales leaping through hoops, you are witnessing the results of shaping.

Positive reinforcement

when a response is strengthened because it is followed by the presentation of a rewarding stimulus.

Negative reinforcement

when a response is strengthened by avoidance or escape from an aversive situation.

Aversive conditioning: What is avoidance learning?

when an organism acquires a response that prevents aversive stimulation from occurring

Classical conditioning: What is stimulus discrimination?

when an organism does not respond to a new stimuli in the same way as to the original conditioned stimulus (important for an organism's survival)

Explain conditioned taste aversion with an example:

you eat berries while feeling ill (unconditioned stimulus). Your unconditioned response to this illness is nausea. So every time you eat berries, the taste of berries is a conditioned stimulus which leads to the conditioned response of having nausea

Three applications of Behaviorism: Specifically Operant Conditioning

• Behavior Modification -a treatment approach, based on the principles of operant conditioning, that replaces undesirable behaviors with more desirable ones through positive or negative reinforcement . • Token Economy Method -a form of behavior modification designed to increase desirable behavior and decrease undesirable behavior with the use of tokens. Individuals receive tokens immediately after displaying desirable behavior. The tokens are collected and later exchanged for a meaningful object or privilege. • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy -a common type of talk therapy (psychotherapy). You work with a mental health counselor (psychotherapist or therapist) in a structured way, attending a limited number of sessions. CBT helps you become aware of inaccurate or negative thinking so you can view challenging situations more clearly and respond to them in a more effective way.

Explain the example of elevator phobia and how it is avoidance learning with the combination of classical and operational conditioning:

• Classical Conditioning: Becoming trapped (US) in an elevator (CS) leads to fear response (UR) • Operant Conditioning: Taking stairs to avoid elevator

Two applications of Behaviorism: Specifically Classical Conditioning

• Exposure Therapy -a psychological treatment that was developed to help people confront their fears. When people are fearful of something, they tend to avoid the feared objects, activities or situations. Although this avoidance might help reduce feelings of fear in the short term, over the long term it can make the fear become even worse. In such situations, a psychologist might recommend a program of exposure therapy in order to help break the pattern of avoidance and fear. In this form of therapy, psychologists create a safe environment in which to "expose" individuals to the things they fear and avoid. The exposure to the feared objects, activities or situations in a safe environment helps reduce fear and decrease avoidance. • Systematic Desensitization -a treatment for phobias in which the patient is exposed to progressively more anxiety-provoking stimuli and taught relaxation techniques. -a type of behavioral therapy based on the principle of classical conditioning. It was developed by Wolpe during the 1950s. This therapy aims to remove the fear response of a phobia, and substitute a relaxation response to the conditional stimulus gradually using counter conditioning. There are three phases to the treatment -

Limitations of the behaviorist approach

• Ignores insights from cognitive, humanist, & social psychology • Tends to dehumanize unique human potentials • Explains all differences between individuals as a consequence of their reinforcement histories • Views humans as objects to be trained

Skinner's ideas about personality

• Skinner showed little interest in internal personality structures. • Skinner argued that... • personality is a set of response tendencies learned over the lifespan • personality arises through principles of learning & environmental reinforcement • personality is a continuous, lifelong process • Free will is an illusion! -there are operant response tendencies to a stimulus situation

Strengths of the behaviorist approach

• Strong empirical support • Provides general principles that apply to all organisms • Forces attention on environmental influences on behavior