Chapter 5: Instrumental Conditioning: Foundations
Superstitious Behavior
Behavior that increases in frequency desiredinstrumental response.
Instinctive Drift
A gradual drift of instrumental behavior away from the responses required for reinforcement to species-typical, or instinctive, responses related to reinforcer and to other stimuli in the experimental situation.
Positive Contrast
A greater response for a favorable or large reinforcer following previous experience with a less desired or small reinforcer, than in the absence of such prior experience.
Discrete-trial Procedure
A method of instrumental conditioning in which the participant can perform the instrumental response only during specified periods, usually by the presentation of a stimulus.
Free-Operant Procedure
A method of instumental conditioning that permits repeated performance of the instrumental response without intervention by the experimenter. (compare with discrete-trial procedure.)
Appetitive Stimulus
A pleasant or satisfying stimulus that can be used to positively reinforce an instrumental response.
Learned-Helplessness Hypothesis
A theoretical idea that assumes that during exposure to inescapable and unavoidable aversive stimulation participants learn that their behavior does not control environmental events. This reduces motivation to respond and disrupts subsequent instrumental conditioning.
Instrumental Behavior
An activity that occurs because it is effective in producing a particular consequence or reinforcer.
Accidental Reinforcement
An instance in which the delivery of a reinforcer happens to coincide with a particular response, even though that response was not responsible for the reinforcer presentation. also called adventitious reinforcement.
Omission Training
An instrumental conditioning procedure in which the instrumental response prevents the delivery of a reinforcing stimulus; see differential reinforcement of other behaviors
Avoidance
An instrumental conditioning procedure in which the instrumental response prevents the delivery of an aversive stimulus.
Escape
An instrumental conditioning procedure in which the instrumental response terminates an aversive stimulus. (see also negative reinforcement.)
Negative Reinforcement
An instrumental conditioning procedure in which there is a negative contingency between the instrumental response and an aversive stimulus canceled; if the instrumental response is not performed, the aversive stimulus is presented.
Positive Reinforcement
An instrumental conditioning procedure in which there is a positive contingency between the instrumental response and a reinforcing stimulus. If the participant performs the response, it receives the reinforcing stimulus; if the participant does not receive the aversive stimulus.
Differential Reinforcement of Other Behavior (DRO)
An instumental conditioning procedure in which a positive reinforcer is periodically delivered only if the participant does something other than the target response.
Running Speed
How fast (e.g., in feet per second) an animal moves down a runway.
Negative Contrast
Less responding for a less desired or small reinforcer following previous experience with a more desired or large reinforcer than in the absence of such prior experience.
Adventitious Reinforcement
Same as accidental reinforcement.
Secondary Reinforcer
Same as conditioned reinforcer.
Temporal Contiguity
Same as contiguity.
Belongingness
The theoretical idea, orginally proposed by Thorndike, that an organism's evolutionary history makes certain responses fit or belong with certain reinforcers. Belongingness facilitates.
Contiguity
The occurrrence of two events, such as a response and a reinforcer, very close together in time. Also called temporal contiguity.
Response-Reinforcer Contingency
The relation of a response to a reinforcer defined in terms of the probability of getting reinforced for making the response as compared to the probability of getting reinforced in the absence of the response.
Latency
The time between the start of a trial (or the start of a stimulus) and the instrumental response.
Temporal Relation
The time interval between an instrumental response and the reinforcer.
Magazine Training
A preliminary stage of instrumental conditioning in which a stimulus is repeatedly paired with the reinforcer to enable the participant to learn to go and get the reinforcer when it is presented. The sound of the food-delivery device, for example, may be repeatedly paired with food so that the animal will learn to go to the food cup when food is delivered.
Marking Procedure
A procedure in which the instrumental response is immediately followed by a distinctive event (the participant is picked up or a flash of light is presented) that makes the instrumental response more memorable and helps overcome the deleterious effects of delayed reinforcement.
Interim Response
A response that increases in frequency after the delivery of a periodic reinforcer, and then declines as time for the next reinforcer approaches.
Operant Response
A response that is defined by the effect it produces in the environment. Examples include pressing a lever and opening a door. Any sequence of movements that depresses the lever or opens the door constitutes an instance of that particular operant.
Terminal Response
A response that is most likely at the end of the interval between successive reinforcement that are presented at fixed intervals.
Law of Effect
A rule for instrumental behacior, proposed by Thorndike, which states that if a response in the presence of a stimulus is followed by a satisfying event, the association between the stimulus and the response will be strengthened; if the response is followed by an annoying event, the association will be weakened.
Conditioned Reinforcer
A stimulus that becomes an effective reinforcer because of its association with a primary or unconditioned reinforcer. Also called secondary reinforcer.
Shaping
Reinforcement of successive approximations to a desired instrumental response.