Learning and Behavior

Harry Harlow

- 1905-1981; Field: development; Contributions: realized that touch is preferred in development; Studies: Rhesus monkeys, studied attachment of infant monkeys (wire mothers v. cloth mothers)

Continuous reinforcement means

- A behavior is reinforce every time it occurs ( a rat receives food every time it presses a lever)

forward chaining

- A chaining procedure in which training begins with the first link in the chain and adds subsequent links in order

backward chaining

- A chaining procedure in which training begins with the last link in the chain and adds preceding links in reverse order.

Variable interval schedules

- A schedule in which the reinforcement is presented after a varying amount of time.

Behavior Chain

- A series of behaviors sequenced in a particular order. One response functions as the SD for the next response. (Ex. what steps are needed to wash your hands)

An FR1 schedule is also called __________.

- CRF/ continuous reinforcement

Learned helplessness

- Condition in which repeated attempts to control a situation fail, resulting in the belief that the situation is uncontrollable.

Chaining

- In operant conditioning, combining the steps of a sequence to progress toward a final action

Learned industriousness is the opposite of __________.

- Learned helplessness

Conditioned suppression

- Procedure in which an operant response is decreased by a stimulus that has been paired with an aversive stimulus.

Reinforcement and motivation it will reduce Intrinsic motivation if _________.

- Rewards offered are not contingent on quality or the level of performance of the student's work. Feels like a bribe, you are being manipulated, or controlled

Reinforcement and motivation no negative impact if_____.

- Rewards offered contingent on quality or the level of performance of the student's work. Provides positive information about your performance

Learned industriousness means

- an increased tendency to work hard for prolonged periods as a result of reinforcement of high levels of effort and persistence

Shaping and chaining are essential to an understanding of the _______ of new, complex forms of behavior.

- development

A problem is a situation in which _________ is available, but the behavior necessary to produce it is not.

- reinforcement

___________: The distinctive rate and pattern of responding associated with a particular reinforcement schedule

- schedule effect

Harlow's data show that "insightful" solutions may be arrived at __________ as a result of a number of learning experiences.

- slowly

Positive and negative reinforcement have this in common: Both ___________ behavior.

- strengthen

The procedure of gradually increasing the number of responses required for reinforcement is called _______.

- stretching the ratio

run rate

- the rate at which behaviors occurs once it has resumed following reinforcement.

Superstitious behavior by definition does not produce ________.

- the reinforcers to maintain it

Schedules of reinforcements

- the rule for determining when and how often reinforcers will continue; Four types of schedules: fixed ratio, variable ratio, fixed interval, and variable interval; interval means over a time and ratio means an act; partial reinforcement is on a variable schedule (intermittent) whereas continuous reinforcement(every time) is on a fixed schedule; variable schedules are more effective in learning

Satiation

-A decrease in the frequency of behavior presumed to be the result of continued contact with or consumption of a reinforcer that has followed the behavior. (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, that is the point of ________. )

Law of effect

-A principle developed by Edward Thorndike that says that any behavior that results in satisfying consequences tends to be repeated and that any behavior that results in unsatisfying consequences tends not to be repeated

Premack Principle

-A principle that states that making the opportunity to engage in a high-probability behavior contingent on the occurrence of a low-frequency behavior will function as reinforcement for the low-frequency behavior. high-probability behavior reinforces low probability behavior.

Insight

-A sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem

Skinner

-American psychologist who developed the operant conditioning model of learning; emphasized studying the relationship between environmental factors and observable actions, not mental processes, in trying to achieve a scientific explanation of behavior. (Behaviorism; Operant Conditioning; Pos & Neg reinforcement, punishment)

Extinction burst

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

Reinforcement

-Any effect that increases the probability, frequency, or rate of a behavior. (what things are you willing to work for? What things do you find reinforcing?)

Negative Reinforcer

-Any stimulus that when removed, reduced, or prevented increases the probability of a given response. (it is usually something that an individual tries to escape or avoid.)

Learning perspective

-Approach--Personal experience and reinforcement guide individual development

Response -deprivation theory( equilibrium theory or respond-restriction theory)

-Behavior becomes reinforcing when the individual is prevented from engaging in the behavior at its normal frequency.

Reward learning

-Changes in behavior due to positive reinforcement

________ refers to the likelihood that a reinforcer will follow a behavior

-Contingency

Positive reinforcement is associated with the release of __________ in the brain.

-Dopamine

Primary reinforcers (unconditioned)

-Events that are innately (unconditioned) reinforcing ( you are hungry so you eat food, reflexes, water, sex, etc...)

According to the Premack principle, _________ behavior reinforce ___________ behavior.

-High-probability/likely/strong Low-probability/unlikely/weak

variable-ratio schedules

-In Operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses.

fixed-interval schedule

-In Operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed.

Motivating operation

-Is anything that changes the effectiveness of a consequence.

Insight is by definition a solution that occurs without benefit of ________.

-Learning

Chaining occurs ______ and accounts for many of the routines that people develop, from brushing our teeth and getting dressed to performing a surgical procedure or flying an airplane.

-Naturally

Self control

-One of two meanings: A person's ability to "delay gratification" (long term reward) by emitting a response that will produce a larger (or higher quality) delayed reward over a response that produces a smaller(short term) but immediate reward (sometimes considered impulse control).

Types of reinforcers

-Primary, secondary, contrived or natural, delayed

Contiguity means

-Refers to the gap in time between a behavior and its reinforcing consequence.

The reappearance, during extinction of previously effected reinforced behavior, is called _________.

-Resurgence

Neuromechanics

-Reward center, reward pathway, reward circuit. Dopamine, neurotransmitter, natural high. Positive Reinforcers are associated with the release of dopamine in the brain.

The rate at which a behavior occurs once it has begun is called the _______ rate

-Run

When people or animals behave as if their behavior produces reinforcement,when in fact it does not, the behavior is called ________.

-Superstitious

The best know experiments on insightful problems solving are those described in __________ by the German researcher Wolfgang Kohler.

-The mentality of Apes

shaping

-The reinforcing successive approximations of the behavior

Post-reinforcement pauses

-The short pauses that follow reinforcement.

behavioral momentum

-The tendency for a behavior to persist when the reinforcement contingency is changed. Behaviors that are more resistant to change have more momentum. (behaviors that have been reinforced many times is more likely to persist (have momentum) when ( obstructed) in some way, as (for example) when one confronts a series of failures.)

Contrived reinforcers

-They are arranged by someone to change behavior (they are used to modify behavior)

Drive-reduction theory

-Works reasonably well with primary reinforces such as food and water because these reinforces alter a physiological state.

Fixed Ratio Schedule means

-a behavior is reinforced when it has occurred a fixed number of times. (reinforcement occurs after the desired act is performed a specific number of times)

Secondary reinforcers (conditioned )

-a learned reinforcer (a conditioned reinforcer) (approval, praise, smile, a head nod...) you don't need them to survive

Negative Reinforcement

-a response is followed immediately by the removal, termination, reduction, or postponement of a stimulus, which leads to an increase in the future occurrence of that response. - increasing behaviors by removing negative stimuli; subtraction

Variable schedule reinforcement

-a schedule in which reinforcement is applied at different rates or at different times

Shaping is the reinforcement of successive ____________of a desired behavior.

-approximations

Natural/ automatic reinforcers

-are consequences of the behavior that fellow

Instrumental learning

-associative learning in which a behavior becomes more or less probably depending on its consequences (precursor to operant conditioning)

theory of avoidance

-avoidance behaviors negatively reinforced simply by lower rate of aversive stimulation it produces. OPERANT

Operant learning

-behavior is strengthened or weakened by its consequences.

Whatever form the progression takes, it continues until the rate of the behavior falls off sharply or stops entirely. This is called the __________. ( the amount of food provided might get smaller and smaller, or its quality might diminish, or it might be delivered after a longer and longer delay).

-break point.

Shaping is the means by which new forms of behavior are __________ from old forms of behavior.

-drawn /brought out

The relationship between behavior and consequences is called the law of _________

-effect

FR means

-fixed ratio

Reinforcers that have been paired with many different kinds of reinforcers and can be used in a wide variety of situation is a ________________.

-generalized reinforcers

Exposure to _______ aversive lead to learned helplessness.

-inescapable

Superstitious behavior means

-is any behavior tat occurs repeatedly even though it does not produce the reinforcers that maintain it.

Positive Reinforcer

-is ordinarily something the individual seeks out. (Pick up your toys and get a candy bar)

Reinforcement occurs when the consequences of a behavior ___________ the behavior.

-is strengthening the behavior

In general, the more you increase the amount of a reinforcer, the _______ benefits you get from the increase

-less

The rate of behavior matches (or is proportional to ) the rate of reinforcement is called _______

-matching Law B1 = B2 __ ___ r1 r2

What are the drives in Hull's drive theory?

-motivations that are inborn not learned, such as hunger, thirst, fear, and need for sleep. Also known as instincts.

Shaping is also a ___________ occurring phenomenon that generates new forms of behavior.

-naturally

One process theory

-proposes that avoidance involves only one process:operant learning

Contingency means

-refers to the degree of correlation between a behavior and its consequences.

A _________ of either type (positive or negative) strengthens behavior

-reinforcement

A motivating operation is anything that changes the effectiveness of a _______________.

-reinforcer

Two process theory

-say that two kinds of learning experiences are involved in avoidance learning: pavlovian and operant learning. ( dog gets shocked, dog jumps wall to avoid shock)

What are the two motivating operations

1. Establishing (increase) 2. abolishing (reducing)

What are the two forms of motivation

1. Intrinsic (motivation that is driven by an interest,exists within the individual) 2. Extrinsic (comes from outside of an individual)

In a ________ schedule, reinforcement is contingent on the number of times a behavior occurs, in an _______ schedule, reinforcement is contingent on the behavior occurring after a given period since the last reinforcement.

1. Ratio 2. interval

Theories of positive reinforcement

1. drive-reduction theory 2. premack Principle 3. response -deprivation theory

According to Thorndike's law of __________ , the strength of a behavior depends on its______________.

1. effect 2. its consequences

what are the 4 schedules of partial reinforcement

1. fixed -ratio schedules (FR) 2. variable-ratio schedules (VR ) 3. fixed -interval schedules ( FI ) 4. Variable interval schedules (VI )

the two forms of chaining are______ and ________.

1. forward chaining 2. backward chaining

A behavior typically occurs many more time following _________ reinforcement than following _______ reinforcement.

1. intermittent 2. continuous

Skinner stated that _________ are rewarded, but ______ is reinforced.

1. people 2. behavior

The term __________ and _________ has to do with whether something is added or removed following a behavior

1. positive 2. negative

The terms __________ and ________ do not describe the nature of the consequence; they indicate only that something has been _____ or_______ .

1. positive 2. negative 3. added 4. subtracted

There are four types of operant learning

1. positive reinforcement 2. negative reinforcement 3. positive punishment 4. negative punishment

Best practices for shaping

1. reinforce small steps 2. provide immediate reinforcement 3. don't over -reinforce with rewards 4. Don't be afraid to change the plan 5. know when to back up and slow down

Chaining is the process of reinforcing each of a ______ of relate behaviors to form a ______ chain.

1. series 2. behavior

Evidence suggests that Superstitious behavior is _______ and maintained at least partly by ________ reinforcement.

1. shaped 2. coindental

Chaining like ______ can occur naturally.

1. shaping

The first step in chaining is to break the _______ down into its components elements, a procedure called ______.

1. task 2. task analysis

Avoidance theories

1.Two-process theory 2. Conditioned suppression 3. One-process theory

In chaining the links in a ____ chain do not occur _____ and so must be established through shaping.

1.behavior 2. spontaneously

Thorndike's law identifies four key elements what are they

1.the environment ( situation or context)in which a behavior occurs 2. the behavior that occurs 3.the change in the environment following the behavior 4. the change in the behavior produced by this consequence.

Positive Reinforcement

Occurs when a behavior is followed immediately by the presentation of a stimulus that increases the future frequency of the behavior in similar conditions.

Thorndike studied animals learning as a way of measuring animals _____________.

intelligences

Stretching the ratio must be done with some care, stretch too rapidly or too far and the tendency to perform will break down this is called _________.

ratio strain

This is the reappearance of a previously extinguished behavior is called _________.

spontaneous recovery

Contrast shift

you have two groups , one group is being paid $5 .00 to do the task and group 2 is getting paid $30.00 to do the same task. then you switch the amount of money so group group 2 is now getting $5.00 and group 1 is getting $30.00 the means rating of likability of this for group 1 would increase and group 2 would decrease.