• Learning
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  • Operant Conditioning
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  • Edward Thorndike
    • Believed trial-and-error learning was the basis of most behavioral changes
      • Trial-and-error
        • Learning that occurs when a response is associated with a successful solution to a problem after a number of unsuccessful responses
    • Formulated several laws of learning
    • Law of effect
      • Thorndike’s law of learning, which states that connections between a stimulus and a response will be strengthened if the response is followed by a satisfying consequence and weakened if the response is followed by discomfort

 

  • B. F. Skinner (continued)
    • Wrote The Behavior of Organisms, Walden Two, and Science and Human Behavior
    • Later Skinner wrote Beyond Freedom and Dignity, in which he was critical of society’s preoccupation with the notion of freedom
    • Controversy was generated by Skinner’s social theories, but not so much over his research in operant conditioning
  • Process of operant conditioning
    • Operant conditioning
      • A type of learning in which the consequences of behavior are manipulated in order to increase or decrease that behavior in the future
      • Permits the learning of a broad range of new responses
    • Reinforcer
      • Anything that strengthens a response or increases the probability that it will occur

 

  • Shaping behavior
    • Shaping
      • An operant conditioning technique that consists of gradually molding a desired behavior (response) by reinforcing responses that become progressively closer to the desired behavior
      • B. F. Skinner demonstrated that shaping is particularly effective in conditioning complex behaviors
    • Successive approximations
      • A series of gradual steps, each of which is more like the final desired response
    • The motives of the shaper and the person or animal whose behavior is being shaped are different
    • The shaper seeks to change another’s behavior by controlling its consequences
    • The person or animal’s motive is to gain rewards or avoid unwanted consequences

 

  • Extinction
    • The weakening and often eventual disappearance of a learned response
    • In humans and other animals, the withholding of reinforcement can lead to frustration or even rage
    • Spontaneous recovery also occurs in operant conditioning
      • A rat whose bar pressing has been extinguished my again press the bar a few times when it is returned to the Skinner box after a period of rest

 

  • Generalization and discrimination
    • Generalization in operant conditioning is the tendency to make the learned response to a stimulus similar to the one for which it was originally reinforced
    • Discrimination in operant conditioning involves learning to distinguish between a stimulus that has been reinforced and other stimuli that may be very similar

 

  • Positive and negative reinforcement
    • Reinforcement
      • An event that follows a response and increases the strength of the response and/or the likelihood that it will be repeated
    • Positive reinforcement
      • A reward or pleasant consequence that follows a response and increases the probability that the response will be repeated
    • Negative reinforcement
      • The termination of an unpleasant stimulus after a response in order to increase the probability that the response will be repeated

 

  • Primary and secondary reinforcers
    • Primary reinforcer
      • A reinforcer that fulfills a basic physical need for survival and does not depend on learning
      • Examples are:
        • Food
        • Water
        • Warmth/Coolness
        • Sex
    • Secondary reinforcer
      • A neutral stimulus that becomes reinforcing after repeated pairings with other reinforcers

 

  • Schedules of reinforcement
    • A systematic program for administering reinforcements that has a predictable effect on behavior
    • Continuous reinforcement
      • Reinforcement that is administered after every desired or correct response
      • Most efficient way to condition a new response
      • Once the response has been conditioned, partial or intermittent reinforcement is often more effective in maintaining or increasing the rate of response
    • Partial reinforcement
      • A pattern of reinforcement in which some portion, rather than 100%, of the correct responses are reinforced
    • The two types of schedules
      • Ratio schedules
        • Require that a certain number of responses be made before one of the responses is reinforced
      • Interval schedules
        • A given amount of time must pass before a reinforcer is administered
        • Fixed-ratio schedule
          • A schedule in which a reinforcer is given after a fixed number of correct responses
          • Effective way to maintain a high response rate
        • Variable-ratio schedule
          • A schedule in which a reinforcer is given after a varying number of nonreinforced responses based on an average ratio
          • Result in higher, more stable rates of responding than fixed-ratio schedules
        • Fixed-interval schedule
          • A schedule in which a reinforcer is given following the first correct response after a fixed period of time has elapsed
          • Does not depend on the number of responses made, only on the one correct response made after the time interval has passed
          • Characteristic of the fixed-interval schedule is a pause or a sharp decline in responding immediately after each reinforcement and a rapid acceleration in responding just before the next reinforcer is due
        • Variable-interval schedule
          • A schedule in which a reinforcer is given after the first correct response following a varying time of nonreinforcement based on an average time
          • Maintains remarkably stable and uniform rates of responding, but the response rate is typically lower than that of the ratio schedules

 

  • Punishment
    • The removal of a pleasant stimulus or the application of an unpleasant stimulus, which tends to suppress a response
    • Lowers the probability of a response by
      • following it with an aversive or unpleasant consequence
      • following it with the removal of a pleasant stimulus
  • Punishment & Negative Reinforcement
    • In punishment an aversive condition is added following the undesirable behavior thus decreasing the probability of occurrence
    • In negative reinforcement an aversive condition is terminated or avoided by the display of a desirable behavior thus increasing the probability of occurrence
      • Grounded for a week because your room is not clean (Punishment – keeping your room messy less likely)
      • Grounded until your room is clean (Negative Reinforcement – cleaning your room more likely to occur)
  • Escape and avoidance learning
    • Escape learning
      • Learning to perform a behavior because it terminates an aversive event
    • Avoidance learning
      • Learning to avoid events or conditions associated with dreaded or aversive outcomes
      • Many avoidance behaviors are maladaptive and occur in response to phobias
    • Learned helplessness
      • The learned response of resigning oneself passively to aversive conditions, rather than taking action to change, escape, or avoid them; learned through repeated exposure to inescapable or unavoidable aversive events
      • Overmeier and Seligman did a experiment with dogs and learned helplessness
      • Seligman reasoned that humans who have suffered painful experiences they could neither avoid nor escape may also experience learned helplessness

 

  • Behavior modification
    • The systematic application of the learning principles of operant conditioning, classical conditioning, or observational learning to individuals or groups in order to eliminate undesirable behavior and/or encourage desirable behavior
    • Token economy
      • A program that motivates and reinforces socially acceptable behaviors with tokens that can be exchanged for desired items or privileges
    • Many classroom teachers and parents use time out
    • Used successfully in business and industry to increase profits and to modify employee behavior related to health, safety, and learning
    • The treatment of psychological problems ranging from phobias to addictive behaviors has been one of the most successful applications of behavior modification

 

  • Learning by insight
    • Wolfgang Köhler
      • Wrote The Mentality of Apes
      • Did experiments on chimpanzees confined in caged areas
      • Observed the chimps’ unsuccessful attempts to reach a bunch of bananas inside the caged area but overhead
      • Eventually the chimps solved the problem by piling the boxes one on top of the other until they could reach the bananas
    • Insight
      • The sudden realization of the relationship between elements in a problem situation, which makes the solution apparent

 

  • Latent learning
    • Edward Tolman
      • Believed that learning could take place without reinforcement
      • Differentiated between learning and performance
      • Maintained that latent learning could occur
    • Latent Learning
      • Learning that occurs without apparent reinforcement but that is not demonstrated until sufficient reinforcement is provided
    • Cognitive map
      • A mental representation of a spatial arrangement such as a maze

 

 

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  • Observational learning
    • Albert Bandura
      • Contends that many behaviors or responses are acquired through observational learning, or as he more often calls it nowadays, social-cognitive learning
      • Learning by observing the behavior of others and the consequences of that behavior; learning by imitation
      • Sometimes called modeling
      • The individual who demonstrates a behavior or serves as an example in observational learning
      • The effectiveness of a model is related to his or her status, competence, and power
      • Recent research has also shown that observational learning is improved when several sessions of observation precede attempts to perform the behavior and are also repeated in the early stages of practicing it
      • An observer must also be physically and cognitively capable of performing the behavior in order to learn it