Psychology Modules 21 and 22
Reinforcer
Anything that is likely to increase behavior.
The partial reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response after unpredictable time periods is a ____________ schedule.
Variable-interval
Gamblers and fishermen have a difficult time controlling their need to gamble and fish because of the _______________ schedule of reinforcement.
Variable-ratio
Generalization
Classical conditioning: The tendency to respond to stimuli similar to the CS. Operant Conditioning: Responses learned in one situation occurring in other, similar situations.
The predictability rather than the frequency of NS-US associations appears to be crucial for classical conditioning, this highlights the importance of _____________ in conditioning
Cognitive processes
Shaping
Conditioning a behavior by reinforcing behavior that is tending toward the desired behvaior
If children get attention for doing cartwheels, they will repeat the trick if they find this attention to be enjoyable. This best illustrates
Operant conditioning
The cognitive processes in __________ involve the organism developing an expectation that a response will be reinforced or punished with or without reinforcement.
Operant conditioning
consequences that occur
Operant conditioning strengthens behavior through the:
Classical Conditioning
Organisms develop an expectation that CS signals the arrival of US (cognitive influences)
Discrimination
Classical conditioning: Learning to distinguish between a CS and other stimuli that do not signal a US Operant Conditioning: Learning that some responses, but not others will be reinforced.
Classical Conditioning
Natural predispositions constrain what stimuli and responses can easily be associated (biological influences)
Michael is busy with a work project that he brought home. His son wants Him to put a movie in the DVD player. Michael tells him to wait ten minutes; however, his son whines and complains so much that Michael decides to put the movie in right away. This best illustrates the value of ___________ reinforcement
Negative
Your dog is barking so loudly that it's making your ears ring. You clap your hands, the dog stops barking, your ears stop ringing, and you think to yourself, "I'll have to do that when he barks again." The end of the barking for you a
Negative reinforcer
When a four-year old girl suddenly picks up her ironing board and plays it like it is an electric guitar in the same manner, thus she has learned via
observation
Your dog racing to greet you on your arrival home.
operant conditioning
Hpw dp different reinforcement schedules affect behavior?
A reinforcement schedules defines how often a response will be reinforced in continued reinforcement (reinforcing desired responses every time they occur), learning is rapid, but so is extinction if rewards cease. In partial (intermittent) reinforcement (reinforcing responses only sometimes), initial learning is slower, but the behavior is much more resistant to extinction. Fixed-ratio schedules reinforce behaviors after a set number of responses, variable-ratio schedules. after an unpredictable number. Fixed -interval schedules reinforce behaviors after set time periods, variable-interval schedules after an unprecedented number. Fixed-interval scheduled reinforce behaviors after set time periods, variable-interval schedules after unpredictable time periods.
In the 1990's, singer-songwriter Alanis Morisette titled a song, "you learn" Presumably, Morisette meant that people
Acquire new behaviors through experience
positive reinforcement
Basirs father praises him every time he practices the piano.
Negative reinforcement
Bebianas parents constantly nag her about cleaning her room, when she finally cleans her room her parents stop nagging
Negative punishment
Ben did not get his homework done on time so his parents took away his favorite video game
Learning
Biological Influences - genetic predispositions, unconditioned responses, adaptive responses, neural mirroring
Disliking chili after becoming sick
Biological predispositions
positive reinforcement
Description: Add a desirable stimulus Examples: Pet a dog that comes when you call it; the person who paints your house.
negative reinforcement
Description: Remove an aversive stimulus Examples: Take painkillers to end pain; fasten seatbelt to end loud beeping.
How do cognitive processes affect classical and operant conditioning?
In classical conditioning animals may learn when to expect a US and may be aware of the link between stimuli and responses. In operant conditioning, cognitive mapping and latent learning research demonstrate the importance of cognitive processes in learning. Other research shows that excessive rewards (driving extrinsic motivation) can undermine intrinsic motivation) can undermine intrinsic motivation.
You have been working nights and weekends to get a project completed at work. You are successful, and a couple of weeks later you come into work and your boss presents you with a bonus check. This best illustrates the value of _______________ reinforcement.
Positive
Variable -interval
Rat is rewarded with 1 food pellet for first bar press after an average of 3 minutes
Thorndike's law of effect was the basis for ______________ 's work on operant conditioning and behavior control.
Skinner.
Learning
Social-cultural influences: culturally learned preferences, motivation, affected by presence of others, modeling)
Newton ordered pizza from a national pizza chain and became very ill immediately after eating the pizza. Years later he still feels queasy when he sees an advertisement for the people chain. or drives by one of the establishments . Newton has developed an taste aversion.
Taste aversion.
Classical conditioning is fastest and strongest when:
The NS occurs shortly before the US.
Which statement best describes the phenomenon of instinctive drift?
The biological predisposition to perform natural behaviors can interfere with learning operant behaviors.
Instinctive drift and latent learning are examples of what important idea?
The success of operant conditioning is affected not just by environmental cues, but also by biological and cognitive factors.
Which of the following is likely to require shaping a new behavior rather than simply reinforcing an existing behavior?
Training an elephant to sit on a stool.
In conditioned taste aversion , spoiled or poisoned food is a powerful
Unconditioned stimulus
Positive punishment
Whenever calls her brother a bad name, he pinches her arm
classical cord
involuntary behaviors
Ever since she foolishly drank too much tequila at a rock concert and vomited all over her best friend, Erin becomes nauseous at the smell or taste of tequila. In this example, the conditioned stimulus is __________ and the conditioned response is
the smell or taste of tequila or nausea
secondary reinforcer
Money is an example of:
Your little brother getting into a fight after watching a violent action movie
Observational learning
How does observational learning differ from associative learning? How may observational learning be enabled by neural mirroring?
Observational learning involves learning by watching and imitating, rather than learning associations between different events. We learn to anticipate a behavior's consequences because we experience vicarious reinforcement of vicarious punishment. Our brain's frontal lobes have a demonstrated ability to mirror the activity of another's brain, which some psychologists believe is enabled by mirror neurons others argue it may be more due to the brain's distributed brain networks.
Children who have fathers who are incarcerated for committing violent crimes are at high risk for following the same path in life unless the child is adopted near the time of his or birth. Then he or she is no more risk for violence than the average child. This difference in outcome can be attributed to:
Observational learning.
Operant Conditioning
Organisms most easily learn behaviors similar to their natural behaviors, unnatural behaviors instinctively drift back toward natural ones (biological influences)
Reinforcing a desired response only some of the times it occurs is called intermittent reinforcement.
Partial intermittent.
spammers are reinforced on a variable-ratio schedule (after sending a varying number of emails) Cookie checkers are reinforced on a fixed interval schedule. Sandwich shop programs use a fixed ratio schedule.
People who send spam email are reinforced by which schedule? Home bakers checking the oven to see if the cookies are done are on which schedule? Sandwich shops that offer a free sandwich after every 10 sandwiches purchased are using which reinforcement schedule?
To reduce the self-destructive behavior of some children, a therapist might squirt water in the children's whenever they bite themselves. The squirt of water is a _________________________________
Positive punishment
Which example could serve as evidence that animals are predisposed to learn associations that help them adapt and survive in their environment?
Rats appearing biologically primed to develop aversions to the taste of tainted food because they taste small portions of a novel food first before eating it again.
Findings from Garcias research on taste aversion in rats indicate
Rats are more likely to develop aversions to taste than they are to sights or sounds
Varying in the number of responses.
A variable-ratio schedule reinforces behavior after a:
How do biological constraints affect classical and operant learning?
An animals capacity for conditioning is limited by biological constraints, so some associations are easier to learn. Each species learns behaviors that aid its survival- a phenomenon called preparedness. Those who readily learned taste aversions and were unlikely to eat the same toxic food again and were more likely to survive and leave descendants. Nature constrains each species capacity for both classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Our preparedness to associate a CS with a US that follows predictably and immediately is often (but not always) adaptive. During operant training may display instinctive drift by reverting to biologically predisposed patterns.
Repeated exposure to graphic violence in movies, television, and violent video games may increase the likelihood of limitation of violent behavior and also tends to:
Cause dessensitization to observed violence.
Response
Classical Conditioning: Involuntary, automatic Operant Conditioning: Voluntary, operates on environment.
Why did Skinner's ideas provoke controversy, and how might his operant conditioning principles be applied at school, in sports, at work, in parenting, and for self-improvement?
Critics of Skinner's principles believed that approach dehumanized people by neglecting their personal freedom and seeking to control their actions. Skinner replied that people's actions are already controlled by external consequences, and that reinforcement is more humane than punishment as a means for controlling behavior. Teachers can use shaping techniques to quide students behaviors, and use interactive media such as online adaptive quizzing to provide immediate feedback. (The Learn-ing Curve system available with this text provides such feedback, and allows students to direct the pace of their own learning.) Coaches can build player's skills and self-confidence by rewarding small improvements. Managers can boost productivity and morale by rewarding well-defined and achievable behaviors. Parents can reward desired behaviors but not undesirable ones. We can shape our own behaviors by stating realistic goals planning how to work toward those goals, monitoring the frequency of desired behaviors, reinforcing desired behaviors, and gradually reducing rewards as behaviors become habitual.
During a typical morning, Colin will check the clock more frequently as his lunch break approaches, in this case Colin's clock checking behavior is reinforced on a ________________ schedule.
Fixed-interval
A restaurant is running a special deal. After you buy your meals at full price, your fifth meal will be free. This is an example of a __________________ schedule of reinforcement
Fixed-ratio
Jonah works in a packaging plant. For every 100 packages he completes, he is given an additional 10-percent increase in his hourly pay. This is a _____________ reinforcement schedule
Fixed-ratio
How did Garcia and Koelling's taste aversion studies help disprove Gregory Kimble's early claim that "just about any activity of which the organism is capable can be conditioned to any stimulus that the organism can perceive?
Garcia and Koelling demonstrated that rats may learn an aversion to tastes on which their survival depends but not to sights or sounds.
Undesired/aversive (for example, an insult)
Give it: PP Take it away:NR
Example A teen's9 use of the car
Give it: PR Take it away: NP
Reinforcement is any consequence that strengthens behavior. Positive reinforcement adds a desirable stimulus to increase the frequency of a behavior. Negative reinforcement reduces or removes an aversive stimulus to increase the frequency of a behavior. Primary reinforcers (such as receiving food when hungry or having nausea end during an illness) are innately satisfying - no learning is required. Conditioned or secondary reinforcers such as cash are satisfying because we have learned to associate them with more basic rewards such as the food or medicine we buy with them. Immediate reinforcers such as purchased treat offer immediate payback delayed reinforcers such as paycheck require the ability to delay gratification.
How do positive and negative reinforcement differ, and what are the basic types of reinforcers?
Operant conditioning is a type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher.
What is operant conditioning?
Reinforcer
a pleasant consequence following a behavior tends to strengthen the behavior
successive approximations
a step by step process moving gradually closer to the desired behavior
A medieval proverb notes that a burnt child dreads the fire. In operant conditioning, the burning would be an example of a
punisher
variable-ratio
reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses
Many countries use speed cameras to photograph drivers that exceed the posted speed limits. When speeding drivers pass a speed camera, they feel anxious and distressed, because they realize an expensive speeding ticket will soon arrive in their mail. In order to reduce their speed in a congested area the authorities often post many signs warning about speed cameras, even if there are no speed cameras at that location, Based on Rescorla's research, what are the likely outcome of the overuse of these signs?
Drivers will begin to ignore speed cameras warnings because the signs have low information value in predicting speed camera locations
If Ethan is seeking attention, the teacher's scolding may be reinforcing rather than punishing. To change Ethan's behavior, his teacher could offer reinforcement (such as praise) each time he behaves well. The teacher might encourage Ethan toward increasingly appropriate behavior through shaping, or by rephrasing rules as rewards instead of punishments. (You can have a snack if you play nicely with the other children) (reward) rather than "You will not get a snack if you misbehave!"
Ethan constantly misbehaves at preschool even though his teacher scolds him repeatedly. Why does Ethan's misbehavior continue, and what can his teacher do to stop it?
Critics of Skinner were concerned that:
He dehumanized people because he ignored the existence of personal freedom and dignity.
Hoe does operant conditioning differ from classical conditioning?
In operant conditioning, an organism learns associations between its own behavior and resulting events, this form of conditioning involves operant behavior (behavior that operates on the environment, producing rewarding or punishing consequences). In classical conditioning, the organism forms associations between stimuli-events it does not control, this form of conditioning involves respondent behavior (automatic responses to some stimulus).
Jason's parents and older friends all drive over the speed limit, but they advise him not to. Juan's parents and friends drive within the speed limit, but they say nothing to deter him from speeding. Will Jason or Juan be more likely to speed?
Jason may be more likely to speed. Observational learning studies suggest that children tend to do as others do and say what they say.
Which psychologist studied the development of taste aversions and how they could not be explained by the basic principles of classical conditioning.
John Garcia
The idea that an animals natural behavior patterns did not matter and had little or no effect on the effectiveness of operant conditioning principles was challenged by research conducted by
Kellar and Marlan Breland
Knowing your way from the bedroom to the bathroom at night
Latent learning
Operant conditioning
Learning an association between a voluntary behavior and a consequence that follows the behavior.
According to BF Skinner, which example best illustrates the best use of an alternative to punishment in the attempt to reduce and undesirable behavior.
Mark is reinforced by working quietly in class instead of being punished for disrupting class.
What is the violence-viewing effect?
Media violence can contribute to aggression. This violence-viewing effect may be prompted by imitation and desen-sitization. Correlation does not equal causation, but study participants have reacted more cruelly when they have viewed violence (instead of entertaining nonviolence).
Neurons fire both when action is performed and when action is simply observed.
Mirror
Operant conditioning
Organisms develop an expectation that a response will be reinforced or punished, they also exhibit latent learning without reinforcement (cognitive influences)
Learning
Psychological Influences, previous experiences, predictability of associations, generalization, discrimination, expectations
How does punishment differ from negative reinforcement , and how does punishment affect behavior?
Punishment administers an undesirable consequence (such as spanking) or withdraws something desirable (such as taking away a favorite toy) to decrease the frequency of a behavior (a child's disobedience). Negative reinforcement (taking an aspirin) removes an aversive stimulus (a headache) This desired consequence (freedom of pain) increases the likelihood that the behavior (taking aspirin to end pain) will be repeated. Punishment can have undesirable side effects such as suppressing rather than changing unwanted behaviors, encouraging discrimination (so that the undesirable behavior appears when the punisher is not present); creating fear, teaching aggression, and fostering depression and feelings of helplessness.
variable-interval
Reinforcement occurs after a specified amount of time
Fixed-ratio
Reinforcement occurs after a specified number of responses
Marcus owns a landscaping company and employs several college students in the summer. He would like to improve the productivity of his employees. According to research on improving job performance through operant conditioning , Marcus should:
Reward specific achievable behaviors, not vaguely defined "merit"
respondent; operant
Salivating in response to a tone paired with food is a(n) ______________ behavior; pressing a bar to obtain food is a(n) ______________ behavior
In teaching her son to play basketball, Mrs. Richards initially reinforce him with praise for simply dribbling while standing still, then only for walking while dribbling, and finally only for running while dribbling. She is using a procedure known as:
Shaping
One way to change behavior is to reward natural behaviors in small steps, as the organism gets closer to a desired behavior. This process is called ________________
Shaping
Ways to decrease behavior
Type of punisher: Positive punishment: Description: Administer an aversive stimulus Example: Spray water on a barking dog; give a traffic ticket for speeding. Negative punishment: Description: Withdraw a rewarding stimulus Example: Take away a misbehaving teen's driving privilege's; revoke a rude person's chat room access.
positive punishment
Whenever Bethany calls her brother a bad name, he pinches her arm.
B F Skinner was a college English major and aspiring writer who later entered psychology graduate school. He became modern behaviorism's most influential and controversial figure. Expanding on Edward Thorndike's law of effect. Skinner and others found that the behavior of rats or pigeons placed in an operant chamber. ( Skinner box) can be shaped by using reinforcers to guide successive approximations of the desired behavior.
Who was Skinner, and how is operant behavior reinforced and shaped?
do not; resulting
With classical conditioning, we learn associations between events we ________ do or do not control. With operant conditioning, we learn associations between our behaviors and _________ resulting/random events.
How could your psychology instructor use negative reinforcement to encourage your attentive behavior during class?
Your instructor could reinforce your attentive behavior by taking away something you dislike. For example, your instructor could offer to shorten the length of an assigned paper or replace standard lecture time with an interesting in-class activity. In both cases, the instructor would remove something aversive to negatively reinforce your focused attention.
Fixed-ratio
reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses
Fixed-interval
reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed
What is the impact of prosocial modeling and of antisocial modeling?
Children tend to imitate what a model does and says, whether the behavior being modeled is prosocial (positive, constructive, and helpful) or antisocial if a mode's actions and words are inconsistent, children may imitate the hypocrisy they observe.
Basic Idea
Classical Conditioning: Learning associations between events we do not control. Operant Conditioning: Learning associations between our behavior and its consequences.
Salivating at the smell of brownies
Classical conditioning
Aquisition
Classical conditioning: Associating events; NS is paired with US and becomes CS. Operant Conditioning: Associating a response with a consequence (reinforcer or punisher)
Extinction
Classical conditioning: CR decreases when CS is repeatedly presented alone. Operant Conditioning: Responding decreases when reinforcement stops.
Spontaneous recovery
Classical conditioning: The reappearance, after a rest period, of an extinguished CR. Operant Conditioning: The reappearance, after a rest period, of an extinguished response.
Why did Skinner's ideas provoke controversy, and how might his operant conditioning principles be applied at school, in sports, at work, in parenting, and for self-improvement?
Critics of Skinner's principles believed the approach dehumanized people by neglecting their personal freedom and seeking to control their actions. Skinner replied that people's actions are already controlled by external consequences, and that reinforcement is more humane than punishment as a means for controlling behavior. Teachers can use techniques to guide students behaviors, and use interactive media such as online adaptive quizzing to provide immediate feedback. (The Learn-ing Curve system available with this text provides such feedback, and allows students to direct the pace of their own learning.) Coaches can build players' skills and self-confidence by rewarding small improvements. Managers can boost productivity and morale by rewarding small improvements. Managers can boost productivity and morale by rewarding well-defined and achievable behaviors. Parents can reward desired behaviors but not undesirable ones. We can shape our own behaviors by stating realistic goals, planning how to work toward those goals, monitoring the frequency of desired behaviors, reinforcing desired behaviors, reinforcing desired behaviors, and gradually reducing rewards as behaviors become habitual.