Week 2: Reinforcement

Procedural Variation of Extinction

The positive reinforcement is no longer delivered after the behavior The aversive stimulus is no longer removed after the behavior

Liberman, et al. 1973

- Differentially Reinforced a incompatible set of behaviour "Rational talk" and "Irrational talk" are incompatible behaviours. Reinforced "rational talk" Did not reinforce (i.e., extinguished) "irrational talk.

Problems with the Premarck Principle

- Doesn't nicely account for conditional reinforcement effects - Low prob. behaviour can reinforce high-prob. behaviour when the organism has been deprived of the low-prob. behaviour

The explanatory power of "reinforcement" comes from discovering

- The stimuli that will function as a reinforcer. - The conditions that allow a stimulus to have a reinforcing function.

Motivating Operations have two effects

- They alter the value of a reinforcer - They make the behavior that produces that reinforcer more or less likely to occur at that time

Extinction (weakens)

- Weakens behavior by not providing a desirable consequence - Either you ignore that behavior in the hope that over time it will go away OR - Remove anything that is reinforcing this bad behavior essentially it weakens operant behaviour

Variables affecting reinforcement

- reinforcer magnitude - specific reinforcer used - task characteristics - motivating operations (establishing & abolishing) - Competing Contingencies (should I watch youtube or study?)

When behavior is no longer reinforced, three things may happen...

1. The behavior may briefly increase in frequency, duration, or intensity 2. Novel behaviors may occur 3. Emotional responses or aggressive behavior may occur

When does extinction occur?

A behavior that has been previously reinforced no longer results in the reinforcing consequences o And, therefore, the behavior stops occurring in the future

Operant Behavior

A behavior that is strengthened through the process of reinforcement o Acts on the environment to produce a consequence and in turn, is controlled by, or occurs again in the future as a result of, its immediate consequence

Operant Learning

A change in a class of behaviour as a function of the consequences that followed it. learning = conditioning

Learning

A change in behaviour due to experience

Operant

A class of behaviour that operates on the environment to produce a common environmental consequence.

Generalized Conditioned Reinforcers

A conditioned reinforcer that has been paired with a variety of other reinforcers; money and praise generalized are conditioned reinforcers for many people o i.e. Money is a generalized conditioned reinforcer because it is paired with (exchanged for) an almost unlimited variety of reinforcers - as a result, money is a powerful reinforcer that is less likely to diminish in value (to become satiated) when it is accumulated

Token

A conditioned reinforcer used in a taken economy; the token is something that can be given to another person and accumulated by that person; the token is a conditioned reinforcer because it is given to the person after a desirable behavior and is exchanged for established reinforcers called "back-up reinforcers"

Establishing Operation (EO)

A motivating operation that establishes (increases) the effectiveness of some stimulus, object, or event as a reinforcer. - Makes a reinforcer more potent and makes a behavior that produces the reinforcer more likely - For example, food deprivation establishes food as an effective reinforcer.

Unconditional (Primary) Reinforcer

A reinforcer that acquired its properties as a function of species evolutionary history. - Usually depends on some amount of deprivation. - Often species specific

variable-ratio schedule

A schedule of reinforcement in which a specified number of responses is needed for the delivery of the reinforcer; the number of responses needed varies around an average number o A reinforcer is delivered after an average of x responses Some exist naturally, some are created deliberately

Two types of motivating operations

Abolishing and Establishing

common misconceptions about behaviour

Although extinction is procedurally different depending on the type of reinforcement for the behavior, the outcome is always the same: the behavior stops Extinction means withholding the reinforcer for a behavior - ignoring the problem behavior functions as extinction only if attention is the reinforcer

motivating operation

An environmental variable that alters the reinforcing or punishing effectiveness of some stimulus, object, or event; and alters the current frequency of all behavior that has been reinforced or punished by that stimulus, object, or event Some events can make a particular consequence more or less reinforcing at some times than at other times o These antecedent events, called motivating operations, alter the value of the reinforcer - An antecedent stimulus or event that alters the value of a reinforcer and alters the probability of the behavior that produces that reinforcer

aversive stimulus

An event or stimulus that an organism escapes or avoids

abolishing operations

An operation that decreases the effectiveness of a reinforcer.

establishing operations

An operation that increases the effectiveness of a reinforcer.

Reinforcer

Any event or stimulus that follows an operant response and increases or maintains its future probability

positive reinforcement

Any event or stimulus that, when presented as a consequence of a behaviour, increases or maintains the future probability of that behaviour.

negative reinforcement

Any event or stimulus that, when removed as a consequence of a behaviour, increases or maintains the future probability of that behaviour.

resistance to extinction and reinforcement schedule

Because of resistance to extinction, the reinforcement schedule before extinction has implications for the successful use of extinction in a behavior modification program - if reinforcement occurs in the course of extinction, it takes longer for the behavior to decrease

___________________ may occur during extinction bursts

Emotional responses

Reinforcer Magnitude

Generally, larger reinforcers are more reinforcing than smaller reinforcers. - Relation between size and effectiveness is NOT linear. - Generally, the more you increase magnitude, the less benefit you get from the increase. - Effectiveness of unconditional reinforcers tends to diminish quickly

Factors that Influence the Effectiveness of Reinforcement

Immediacy- A stimulus is more effective as a reinforcer when it is derived immediately after the behavior Contingency- A stimulus is more effective as a reinforcer when it is delivered contingent on the behavior Motivating Operations- Establishing operations make a stimulus more effective as a reinforcer at a particular time; abolishing operations makes a stimulus less potent as a reinforcer at a particular time Individual Differences- Reinforcers vary from person to person Magnitudes- Generally, a more intense stimulus is a more effective reinforcer

In the FR and VR schedules, the delivery of the reinforcer is based on - what happens as a result?

In the FR and VR schedules, the delivery of the reinforcer is based on the number of responses that occur - As a result, in both FR and VR schedules, more frequent responding results in more frequent reinforcement o This is why ratio schedules are the intermittent schedules most often used in behavior modification

Abolishing Operation (AO)

Makes a reinforcer less potent; it abolishes or decreases the effectiveness of a reinforcer Makes a reinforcer less potent and makes a behavior that produces that reinforcer less likely

Satiation

Occurs when a person has recently consumed a large amount of a particular reinforcer (such as food or water) or has had substantial exposure to a reinforcing stimulus o As a result, these reinforcers are less potent at that time

conditional (secondary) reinforcer

Otherwise neutral stimuli or events that have acquired the ability to reinforce due to a contingent relationship with other, typically unconditional, reinforcers.

fixed-interval schedule

Reinforcer delivered for the first response that occurs after a fixed interval of time; produce a low rate of behavior, with an on-and-off pattern; the response rate increases near the end of the interval

variable-interval schedule

Reinforcer delivered for the first response that occurs after a variable interval of time; produces a steady, low-to-moderate rate of behavior, with no on-and-off pattern

Backup Reinforcer

Tangible objects, activities, or privileges that serve as reinforcers and that can be purchased with tokens.

Response Effort

The amount of force, exertion, or time involved in executing a response. With an increase in response effort for one behavior, the probability of that behavior decreases relative to the probability of a functionally equivalent alternative behavior.

Premack Principle

The concept, developed by David Premack, that a more-preferred activity can be used to reinforce a less-preferred activity. i.e. High-probability behaviour reinforces low-probability behaviour. E.g. If a child prefers playing pinball to eating candy, you can reinforce eating candy by letting them play pinball each time they eat some candy.

Contingency

The degree of correlation between a behaviour and its consequence A relationship between a response and a consequence in which the consequence is presented if and only if the response occurs; when such a relationship exists, the consequence is said to be contingent on the response

delay-reduction theory

The effectiveness of a stimulus as a conditional reinforcer is determined by the degree to which it is correlated with a reduction in the delay to terminal reinforcement.

individual differences

The likelihood of a consequence being a reinforcer varies from person to person, so it is important to determine that a particular consequence is a reinforcer for a particular person - It is important not to assume that a particular stimulus will be a reinforcer for a person just because it appears to be a reinforcer for most people

immediacy

The longer the delay between the response and the consequence, the less effective the consequence will be because the contiguity or connection between the two is weakened If the time between the response and the consequence becomes too long and there is no continuity, the consequence will not have an effect on behavior

Reinforcement

The procedure of providing consequences for a behaviour that increase or maintain the probability of that behaviour occurring in the future. - The process in which the occurrence of a behavior is followed by a consequence that results in an increase in the future probability of the behavior - The process in which a behavior is strengthened by the immediate consequence that reliably follows its occurrence

operant extinction

The process by which, when a previously reinforced behavior is no longer followed by the reinforcing consequences, the frequency of the behavior decreases in the future

Respondent Spontaneous Recovery

The process in which, when a conditioned response (CR) has been extinguished, the CR may occur at a later time when the conditioned stimulus (CS) is presented again - If extinction is still in place when spontaneous recovery occurs

Operant Spontaneous Recovery

The process in which, when an operant behavior has been extinguished, the behavior may occur at a later time in circumstances in which it was usually reinforced - A natural tendency for the behavior to occur again in situations that are similar to those in which it occurred and was reinforced before extinction

Respondent Extinction

The repeated presentation of a conditioned stimulus in the absence of the unconditioned stimulus; the CS (conditioned stimulus) gradually loses its ability to elicit the conditioned response until the conditioned reflex no longer appears in the individual's repertoire.

consequence

The stimulus or event occurring immediately after a behavior - Thorndike was the earliest to demonstrate this with his cat experiment - reinforcers are consequences

factors that influence extinction

There are two important factors that influence the extinction process: the reinforcement schedule before extinction and the occurrence of reinforcement after extinction

concurrent operants

Two or more of different behaviors or response options are concurrently available for the person. Each response option is associated with a specific reinforcement schedule.

concurrent schedules of reinforcement

Two or more reinforcement schedules that operate simultaneously and independently, each for a different response

deprivation

Type of establishing operation that increases the effectiveness of most unconditioned reinforcers and some conditioned reinforcers o A particular reinforcer (such as food or water) is more powerful if a person has gone without it for some time

Hyperbolic decay function

V = (A/(1 + KD))

Avoidance Behaviour

When operant behaviour increases by preventing the onset of the event or stimulus. E.g., Pressing a lever to prevent an electric shock.

Escape Behaviour

When operant behaviour increases by removing an ongoing event or stimulus. E.g. Pressing a lever to stop a electric shock

intermittent reinforcement schedule

a schedule in which consequences are delivered after a specified or average time has elapsed or after a specified or average number of behaviors has occurred

Stimulus

a signal to which an organism responds; any kind of detectable signal that carries information

extinction burst

an increase in the frequency of responding when an extinction procedure is initially implemented.

maintenance

continuation of the behaviour change for a long period after the termination of a behaviour modification program - continuation of an operant behavior with intermittent behavior

types of reinforcement schedules

continuous and intermittent

Although reinforcement often is used to increase the rate of a behavior, reinforcement may also influence what?

dimensions of a behavior such as duration, intensity, or latency

Less contiguity (i.e., longer delays) between the operant response and the reinforcer, diminishes

diminishes the effectiveness of the reinforcer

true or false: reinforcers and rewards are the same thing

false

fixed-ratio schedule

in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses - The number of responses needed before the reinforcement is delivered does not change

essential difference between positive and negative behavior

in positive reinforcement, a response produces a stimulus (a positive reinforcer) o In negative reinforcement, a response removes or prevents the occurrence of a stimulus (an aversive stimulus)

When a behavior is continuously reinforced.... (extinction)

it decreases rapidly once the reinforcement is terminated Lack of reinforcement would be immediately apparent

When a behavior is intermittently reinforced.. (extinction)

it often decreases more gradually once the reinforcement is terminated

both escape and avoidance are types of ____ reinforcement therefore....

negative reinforcement therefore both result in an increase in the rate of behaviour that terminated or avoided the aversive stimulus

resistance to extinction

occurs when an organism continues to make a response after delivery of the reinforcer has been terminated

high contiguity

often referred to as pairing

types of extinction

operant extinction respondent extinction

Two types of reinforcers

primary and secondary reinforcers

continuous reinforcement schedule

reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs

Schedule of Reinforcement

specifies whether every response is followed by a reinforcer or whether only some responses are followed by a reinforce

If a reinforcer is contingent on a particular duration of a behavior

that duration of the behavior is more likely to occur

If extinction is still in place when spontaneous recovery occurs- what happens

that is, if there is no reinforcement - the behavior will not continue for long

If a reinforcer is contingent on a particular intensity of a behavior

the behavior is more likely to occur with that intensity

acquisition

the development of anew behaviour through reinforcement

contiguity

the tendency to perceive two things that happen close together in time as being related Nearness of events in time (temporal contiguity) or space (spatial contiguity).

If a reinforcer is contingent on decreasing the latency of a response

then decreased latency is strengthened

true or false: Continuous reinforcement before extinction produces much less resistance to extinction

true Continuous reinforcement before extinction produces much less resistance to extinction

true or false: as long as behaviour is reinforced, at least intermittently, it will continue to occur

true - if the behaviour is no longer followed by a reinforcing consequence, however, the person will stop engaging in the behaviour - when a behaviour stops occurring, because it is no longer reinforced, we say that the behaviour has undergone extinction or that the behaviour has been extinguished