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why did skinner's legacy provoke controversy?

Critics of skinner believed his approach dehumanized people by neglecting their personal freedom and seeking to control their actions.

what makes a reinforcer a reinforcer?

It is important to note that a reinforcer is defined by its impact on behavior. A reinforcer increases the likelihood that the behavior will increase.

what do thorndike do?

Thorndike used a fish reward to entice cats to find their way out of a puzzle box through a series of maneuvers.

what is the law of effect?

Thorndike's principle that behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely, and that behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences become less likely

4 types of partial reinforcement

fixed ratio, variable ratio, fixed interval, variable interval

what did skinner design?

for his pioneering studies on operant conditioning, Skinner designed an operant chamber, popularly known as a Skinner box.

What is positive reinforcement?

increasing behaviors by presenting positive reinforcers. A positive reinforcer is any stimulus that, when presented after a response, strengthens the response. (adds a desirable stimulus increasing the likelihood that behavior will repeat).

What is negative reinforcement?

increasing behaviors by stopping or reducing negative stimuli. a negative reinforcement is any stimulus that when removed after a response, strengthens the response. (removes an aversive stimulus to increase the frequency of a behavior).

what are primary reinforcers?

innately reinforcing stimuli, such as those that satisy a biological need. exx...food, pain relief

how does a skinner box operate?

inside the box, the rat presses a bar for a food reward, outside, measuring devices (not shown here) record the animal's accumulated responses.

Reinforcement

is any consequence that strengthens behavior

operant conditioning

organisms associate their own actions with consequences, behavior that operates on the environment to produce rewarding or punishing stimuli is called operant behavior.

comparison to classical conditioning

organisms form associations between stimuli ( a CS and the US it signals). classical conditioning also involves respondent behavior automatic responses to a stimulus.

parenting lesson break

partial reinforcement also works with children. Occasionally giving in to children's tantrums for the sake of peace and quiet intermittently reinforces the tantrums. This is the very best procedure for making a behavior persist.

examples of positive/negative reinforcements

pos-studying hard(behavior) to receive an A (reinforcement) from the teacher. neg-taking an aspirin (behavior) to reduce a painful headache (removal of aversive stimulus)

what are two ways to punish unwanted behavior?

positive punishment adds something negative negative punishment takes away something positive.

what is punishment and how is it different from negative reinforcement?

punishment- is an event that tends to decrease the behavior it follows, behavior that is punished is less likely to occur again. Punishment adds an aversive stimulus or removes a pleasant stimulus.

fixed-interval schedule

reinforcement occurs after a set length of time ex. mail arriving at 2pm every day.

fixed-ratio schedule

reinforcement occurs after a set number of responses. ex.one free coffee after every 10 purchased.

variable-interval schedule

reinforcement occurs after an unpredictable length of time. ex. checking our phone for a text from our friend.

variable-ratio schedule

reinforcement occurs after an unpredictable number of responses. ex. payoff on slot machine after a varying number of plays.

what are reinforcement schedules?

reinforcement schedules are patterns that define how often a desired response will be reinforced.

partial reinforcement schedule

reinforcing a response only part of the time

continuous reinforcement schedule

reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs

delayed gratification exx..

trophy at the end of the season, good grade at the end of the year.

continued difference between punishment/neg reinforcement

whereas negative reinforcement increases the likelihood that the behavior will occur again. negative reinforcement removes an aversive stimulus. Punishment tells u what not to do, reinforcement tells you what to do.

how have pigeons learned to discriminate?

After being reinforced with food when correctly spotting breast tumors, pigeons became as skilled as humans at discriminating cancerous from healthy tissue.

which of the following best describes negative reinforcement?

Charles smokes because his anxiety is reduced when he does so.

how would Skinner shape a rat's behavior to press a bar to get food?

First, researchers watch how the animals naturally behaves, to build on its existing behaviors. the rat would be given a bit of food (reinforcement) each time it approaches the bar. Once the rat is approaching regularly, food would only be given when it moves close to the bar, then closer still. Finally, experiments would require the rat to actually touch the bar to get food.

what is an operant chamber?

In operant conditioning research, a chamber (also known as a Skinner box) containing a bar or key that an animal can manipulate to obtain a food or water reinforcer; attached devices record the animal's rate of bar pressing or key pecking.

are all reinforcers created equal?

No, what is reinforcing (a heat lamp) to one animal (a cold meerkat) may not be to another (an overheated child)

how does partial reinforcement impact learning?

Real life rarely provides continuous reinforcement. Salespeople do not make a sale with every pitch. But they persist because their efforts are occasionally rewarded. This persistence is typically with partial reinforcement schedules, in which responses are sometimes reinforced, sometimes not. Learning is slower to appear, but resistance to extinction is greater than with continuous reinforcement.

how is behavior shaped through operant conditioning?

Shaping is an operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcement guides behavior toward closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior. This is also called reward by successive approximations.

Who was B.F. Skinner?

Skinner was behaviorism's most influential and controversial figure. His work elaborated on what psychologist Edward L. Thorndike called the law of effect.

what does the Skinner box allow researchers to investigate?

The Skinner box creates a stage on which rats and other animals act out Skinner's concept of reinforcement. any event that strengthens (increases the frequency of) a preceding response. What is reinforcing depends on the animal and the conditions. For ppl, it may be praise, attention, or a paycheck. For hungry and thirsty rats, food and water work well.

shea bought 100 tickets in the raffle for a free homecoming ticket and lost. Months later she also buys 100 tickets for the senior prom raffle, hoping this will be the time she wins. Which schedule of reinforcement is best used to explain this scenario?

Variable-ratio schedule

how does continuous reinforcement impact learning?

With continuous reinforcement, learning occurs rapidly, so its the best choice for learning a behavior. extinction also occurs rapidly. when continuous reinforcement stops, the behavior soon stops (is extinguished).

What is a discriminative stimulus?

a stimulus that elicits a response after association with reinforcement (in contrast to related stimuli not associated with reinforcement) so Skinner may train a pigeon to peck at a green circle(the discriminative stimulus), but not a red square.

What is operant conditioning?

a type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher

the purpose of reinforcement is to

cause a behavior to continue

what are four major drawbacks to the use of physical punishment?

encouraging, creating fear, teaching aggression, and fostering depression and low self esteem.

how does the immediacy of the reinforcement impact behavior?

some animals will need immediate (within 30 secs for instance) reinforcement in order to tie the reinforcement to the behavior. Human animals respond to delayed reinforcement---even learn to delay gratification as a point go maturity.

conditioned (secondary) reinforcers

stimuli that gain their reinforcing power through their learned association with a primary reinforcer. ex.. money, good grades, a pleasant tone of voice