Flashcards
Operant Conditioning
Cards in this deck (12)
- 1Voluntary behaviour is conditioned Learning through consequencesTHORNDIKE'S BOX
Cats learned to randomly pull a string to get out of a box and get food.
The more learning trials they did, the quicker they escaped.
"If a certain response has pleasant consequences, it is more likely than other responses to occur again." - 2B.F.Skinner Three possible consequences of behaviour - Positive Reinforcement - Negative Reinforcement - PunishmentReinforcement aims to encourage learning of a behaviour.
A reinforcer can be anything which leads to a behaviour being repeated - 3PRIMARY Reinforcer Necessary for survivalSECONDARY Reinforcer
Provides the means to obtain the primary reinforcer - 4Schedules of Reinforcement 1. Continuous - desired effect is reinforced every time it occurs. (quickest learning) 2. Fixed Ratio - correct response is reinforced every set number of times3. Variable Ratio - necessary correct responses constantly altered (long term learning)
4. Fixed interval - reinforcement is made every fixed number of minutes
5. Variable interval - time between reinforcements is varied - 5Escape Learning Animal learns to get away from the pain/unpleasant experience once is has occurred.Avoidance Learning
Animal learns to get away from the pain/unpleasant experience before it has occurred. - 6Bloomsmith et al 1994 Supports O.C. - dominant chimp became less aggresive and left submissive chimps to eat - learnt through positive reinforcementSkinner 1930's - Superstitious Pigeons
Supports O.C. - Fixed interval - associated unusual/repetitive behaviour with food (reinforcement)
learnt that behaviour brought a reward / learnt through positive reinforcement - 7Mazur 2010 (Supports & Challenges O.C.) Supports O.C. - when punished, 17/29 bears changed their behaviour Aversion was learnt through O.C.Mazur 2010 (Supports & Challenges O.C.)
Challenges O.C. - Some bears didn't change their behaviour when punished.
Result of individual differences - 8Breland & Breland 1961 (S&C's O.C.) Supports O.C. - pigs learnt to put tokens into a piggy bank through positive reinforcement.Breland & Breland 1961 (S&C's O.C.)
Challenges O.C. - After a few months, they stopped the reinforced behaviour & returned to more instinctive pattern of behaviour. (instinctive drift -temporary learning) - 9Breland & Breland 1961 suggests O.C. is a good explanation of simple learning in animals in the S.T. but when looking at a more extensive period of time, it is less successful at explaining simple learning.Approaches
Behaviourist (Nurture)
Evolutionary (Nature)
Conflict of debate suggests O.C. is an interaction - born with biological predispositions, but animals experiences influences the final outcome - 10BEHAVIOURIST APPROACH "tabula rasa" / blank slate O.C. and learning makes animals who they are. Over-simplistic - ignores instinctive drift as behaviours can't explain why instinctive drift occurs. / ignores biological factorsEVOLUTIONARY APPROACH
Animals are born with the capacity to learn behaviours which enhance survival chances. - 11Evolutionary - NATURE Animal behaviour is inherited rather than learnt through learning experience and environmental factors. Behaviourist - NURTUREO.C. type of environmental determinism
Behaviourists (eg Skinner) deny role of free will in animal behaviour, arguing that everything is detrmined by environmental factors beyond our control.
The application of conditioning techniques to control animal behaviour raises moral and ethical questions - 12Behaviour Shaping Animals are reinforced in stages for behaviour which resembles the desired behaviour, until eventually the desired behaviour has to be produced in full, for the reinforcement to occurOPERANT CONDITIONING
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- A Levels PSYA3 (Intelligence and Learning) Flashcards on Operant Conditioning, created by kathrynlouise on 28/09/2014.
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