Operant Conditioning

Operant Conditioning

1. A form of learning when the learner is an active participant or important, or instrumental in receiving a reward of consequence for their behaviour

   • Behaviour with desirable consequence will tend to be repeated and vice versa

2. Three Phase Model

   • 1. Discriminative stimulus (antecedent)
     • occurs before response
   • 2. Response (R)
     • Occurs due to SD and is voluntary
   • 3. Consequence
     • to the response

3. Research

   • B.F skinner
   • Skinner box
     • Lever that delivers food when pressed
       • wired to a recorder to mark each time a desired response is made
     • equipped with lights, buzzers and sometimes electric shock flooring
   • Method
     • hungry rat placed in box and displayed random behaviours (trial and error learning
       • Rat was rewarded with food whenever the level is pressed
         • The rat eventually associated the lever pressing behaviour with food
           • The rat displayed operant conditioning when it pressed the lever voluntarily

4. Key Elements

   • Reinforcement
     • Positive reinforcement
       • A pleasant or desired stimulus is applied to increase the likelihood of the behaviour occurring again.
     • Negative reinforcement
       • A plesant or desired stimulus is removed to increase the likelihood of the behaviour occurring again
   • Punishment
     • Positive punishment
       • Unpleasant or undesirable stimulus is applied to decrease the likelihood of the behaviour occurring again
     • Response cost
       • Unpleasant or undesirable stimulus is removed to decrease the likelihood of the behaviour occurring again

5. Key factors

   • Order of presentation
     • Most effective when reinforcement/punishment is presented after response
   • Timing
     • most effective when reinforcement/punishment is given immediately after response
       • less effective when there is a delay
         • But a delay may be unavoidable
   • Appropriateness
     • reinforcer nees to be desirable to the learner
     • punishment needs to be undesirable to learner

6. Schedules of reinforcement

   • Continous reinforcement
     • reinforcement is given after every correct response
     • used during the early stages of conditioning as it is most rapid
     • behaviour is quickly extinguished
   • Partial reinforcement
     • reinforcement is given after some correct responses, but not all
     • used once a desired response consistently occurs to maintain, increase or strengthen the response
     • responses will be stronger and less likely to weaken than those maintained by continuous
       • harder to extinguish
     • fixed ratio
       • reinforcement is given after a definite and unvarying number of desired responses
       • Acquisition
         • very effective because the reinforcer is predictable
       • pattern of response
         • very fast response rate
       • extinction
         • quick and easy
     • Fixed interval
       • reinforcement is given after a definite or predictable period of time has elapsed since the previous reinforcer and if the desired response has been made
       • Acquisition
         • moderate response rate but often erratic
       • pattern of response
         • once organism realises that time is the key factor, it stops responding for a while after last reinforcer but quickly responds as the time for the next reinforcer approaches
       • extinction
         • easy because of the predictable nature of the reinforcement
     • Variable ratio
       • reinforcement occurs after a varying or unpredictable number of correct responses
       • acquisition
         • very effective and fast
       • pattern of response
         • steady responses due to the unpredictable nature of the reinforcement
       • extinction
         • takes a long time
           • hardest schedule to extinguish
     • variable Interval
       • Reinforcement occurs at varying or unpredictable times, provided the correct response has been made.
       • pattern of response
         • slow and steady
       • extinction
         • very slow and gradually

7. Key processes

   • acquisition
     • the speed of learning depends on which schedule of reinforcement is used
     • if behaviour is too complex to be performed completely shaping will be used
   • Extinction
     • the gradual decrease in the strength or rate of a conditioned response following consistent non-reinforcement of the response
     • less likely to occur when partial reinforcement is used because the uncertainty leads to a greater tendency for the response to continue
   • Spontaneous recovery
     • after the apparent extinction of a conditioned response, spontaneous recovery can occur and the organism will once again show the response in the absence of any reinforcement
     • response will be weaker and short lived
   • stimulus generalisation
     • occurs when the correct response is made to another stimulus that is similar to the stimulus that was present when the conditioned response was reinforced
   • Stimulus discrimination
     • occurs when the correct response is made to a stimulus and reinforced but not to any similar stimuli

8. Applications

   • Shaping
     • When a reinforcer is given for any response that successively approximates and ultimately leads to the final response or target behaviour
     • method of successive approximations
     • used for behaviours that have a low probability of occurring naturally
     • this reinforcement increases the likelihood of the progressive steps being taken towards the final response
     • Skinner used it with pigeons
       • other examples
         • leanring to write or swim
   • Token Economy
     • A form of behaviour therapy where desired behaviours are reinforced with tokens which can be exchanged fora reward of the learners choice
     • limitaions
       • difficult to apply in practice because people feel manipulated and refuse to cooperate
       • fail when the underlying cause of the behaviour is not altered

Imágenes y archivos del mapa