Module 21 - Operant Conditioning

§ type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by reinforcement or diminished if followed by punishment

• Law of Effect
• Thorndike’s principle that behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely, and behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences become less likely

Types of Behavior

• Operant Behavior
• operates (acts) on environment
• produces consequences
• Respondent Behavior
• occurs as an automatic response to stimulus
• behavior learned through classical conditioning

B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)

• elaborated Thorndike’s Law of Effect
• developed behavioral technology
• Skinner Box
• chamber with a bar or key that an animal manipulates to obtain a food or water reinforcer
• contains devices to record responses

Reinforcer

• any event that strengthens the behavior it follows

• Shaping
• operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer approximations of a desired goal

Principles of Reinforcement

• Primary Reinforcer
• innately reinforcing stimulus
• i.e., satisfies a biological need
• Conditioned Reinforcer
• stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with primary reinforcer
• secondary reinforcer

Schedules of Reinforcement

• Continuous Reinforcement
• reinforcing the desired response each time it occurs
• Partial (Intermitent) Reinforcement
• reinforcing a response only part of the time
• results in slower acquisition
• greater resistance to extinction

• Fixed Ratio (FR)
• reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses
• faster you respond the more rewards you get
• different ratios
• very high rate of responding
• like piecework pay

• Variable Ratio (VR)
• reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses
• average ratios
• like gambling, fishing
• very hard to extinguish because of unpredictability

• Fixed Interval (FI)
• reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed
• response occurs more frequently as the anticipated time for reward draws near

• Variable Interval (VI)
• reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals
• produces slow steady responding
• like pop quiz

Punishment

• aversive event that decreases the behavior that it follows
• powerful controller of unwanted behavior

Cognition and Operant Conditioning

• Cognitive Map
• mental representation of the layout of one’s environment
• Example: after exploring a maze, rats act as if they have learned a cognitive map of it
• Latent Learning
• learning that occurs, but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it

Latent Learning

Motivation

• Overjustification Effect
• the effect of promising a reward for doing what one already likes to do
• the person may now see the reward, rather than intrinsic interest, as the motivation for performing the task

• Intrinsic Motivation
• desire to perform a behavior for its own sake and to be effective

• Extrinsic Motivation
• desire to perform a behavior due to promised rewards or threats of punishments

NOTE:

See: www.uwc.edu/OperantCon - an interactive explanation of Reinforcement and Punishment, Positive and Negative.