Operant Conditioning

Operant Conditioning

1. Created by B.F Skinner and explains how we learn new voluntary and complex behaviour

   • Learning through consequenece

2. Rewarded/reinforced a behaviour so likely to repeat a behaviour

3. Punished - Less likely to repeat behaviour

4. Positive reinforcement

   • Receive something we want/like for performing a desirable behaviour
   • Primary renforcement satisfies a basic/ survival need
   • Secondary reinforcement allows us to get an object that will satisfy a basic need

5. Negative reinforcement

   • Something undesirable is taken away in response to a desirable behaviour
   • Reinforced by avoiding something unpleasant happening
   • Reinforcement sometime unintentional and lead to an undesired behaviour

6. Punishment

   • Weakens or stops an undesired behaviour by presenting something unpleasant or painful
   • Removing something pleasant after undesirable behaviour

7. Skinner's research

   • Recorded behaviour of animals in response to different consequences
   • Skinner's box contained a lever for an animal to press for food to be delivered
   • Had a speaker and lights to trigger a behaviour and a shock generator
   • Demonstrating positive reinforcement
     • Skinner placed hungry rats in Skinner Box
     • Rats would press lever by accident whilst exploring cell, releasing a food pellet
     • Reward for desired behaviour so rats continue to press lever
   • Demonstrate negative reinforcement
     • Skinner subjected rats to unpleasant electric shocks and if rats pressed lever, shocks stopped
     • Quickly learned to press lever as soon as they were placed in the box
   • Demonstrate punishment
     • Rats roamed around and if they pressed the lever, they received an electric shock
     • Soon learned pressing lever was undesirable behaviour and rats learned to stop pressing the lever

8. Behaviour shaping

   • Principles can be used to develop complex behaviour that are not displayed naturally
   • Reinforces behaviour that closely resembles target behaviour
   • Gradually becomes more selective by reinforcing more and more closely behaviour

9. Supporting studies and Strengths

   • Skinner 1948
     • 8 pigeons needed and swung a food hopper into their cage for 5 seconds, several times a day
     • Did not have to display any behaviour for a food hopper to be presented
     • 6 birds seemed to think there was a connection with behaviour and appearance of a food hopper
       • 1 turned anti-clockwise
       • 1 pushed head into upper corners of cage
       • 1 tossed its head
       • 1 made incomplete pecking motions
       • 2 made pendulum motions
     • How humans developed superstitious behaviour
   • Vaughan et al
     • Calves could learn to associate a stall with urinating through the use of rewards
   • Weiss and Wilson
     • 4 tortoises given rewards if approached a red plastic ball on a stick
   • Ramesh et al
     • Positive and negative reinforcement used in a neonatal intensive care unit and noise levels decreased
   • Videan et al
     • Positive reinforcement used to train chimpanzees to present parts of their body for anaesthetic injections
   • Helps explain development of new behaviours

10. Contradicting studies and weaknesses

    • Breland and Breland
      • Pigs given reward if wooden token placed in a piggy bank
      • Didn't do this, dropped in imitation of natural behaviour
      • Operant conditioning only works if learning behaviours similar to natural behaviour
    • Researchers found that the more negative votes a commentator gets, the more likely they are to post
    • Ignore the role that our biology plays in our behaviour
    • Conducted on animals
    • Latent Learning

11. Schedules of reinforcement

    • Continuous reinforcement
      • Rewarded for a desirable behaviour every time it is displayed
      • Results in a slow, steady response
      • Become extinct if reinforcement stops
    • Partial reinforcement
      • Fixed ratio schedule
        • Reinforcement is related to number of behaviours performed
        • Takes place after a set number of times
        • High steady response rates
        • May be a post-reinforcement pause
          • Gap between receiving reinforcement and resuming reinforcement of the behaviour
        • Extinction are quite rapid
      • Variable ratio schedule
        • No set number of responses for when behaviour is reinforced
        • Unpredictable average number of responses
        • Response rate tends to be high
        • PRP tends to be absent
        • Reinforcement are not equally spread out
        • Greatest resistance to extinction
      • Fixed interval schedule
        • Reinforcement after a set amount of time if the desired behaviour has been shown in that time
        • Uneven pattern of responses
          • Desired response displayed before the fixed interval approaches
        • Slow responding at start and lot towards the end
        • Response extinguishes quite quickly
        • PRP may follow
      • Variable interval schedule
        • No set time intervals for when behaviour is reinforced
        • Unpredictable average amount of times at which behaviour will be reinforced
        • Response rate is fairly high and extinction occurs very gradually