Behaviorism

Behaviorism

1. Operant Conditioning

   • Operant conditioning involves learning through the consequences of behavior
   • Skinner identified three types of responses or operant that can follow behavior.
     • Neutral operants: responses from the environment that neither increase nor decrease the probability of a behavior being repeated.
     • Reinforcers: Responses from the environment that increase the probability of a behavior being repeated. Reinforcers can be either positive or negative.
       • Positive Reinforcement Presenting the subject with something that it likes. e.g., Skinner rewarded his rats with food pellets.
       • Negative Reinforcement Reward – in the sense of removing or avoiding some aversive (painful) stimulus. e.g., Skinner's rats learned to press the lever in order to switch off the electric current in the cage.
       • Primary Reinforcers These are stimuli which are naturally reinforcing because they directly satisfy a need. e.g., food, water.
       • Secondary Reinforcers These are stimuli, which are reinforcing through their association with a primary reinforcer. i.e., they do not directly satisfy a need but may be the means to do so. e.g., Money! You cannot eat it or drink it, but if you have it, you can buy whatever you want. So a secondary reinforcer can be just as powerful a motivator as a primary reinforcer.
     • Punishers: Responses from the environment that decrease the likelihood of a behavior being repeated. Punishment weakens behavior.

2. Classical Conditioning

   • Classical conditioning refers to learning by association, and involves the conditioning of innate bodily reflexes with new stimui.
   • two stimuli are linked together to produce a newly learned response in a person or animal. There are three stages of classical conditioning. At each stage the stimuli and responses are given special scientific terms:
     • 1) The unconditioned stimulus produces an unconditioned response in an organism.This means that a stimulus in the environment has produced a behavior / response which is unlearned and therefore is a natural response which has not been taught. In this respect, no new behavior has been learned yet.
       • For example, a stomach virus would produce a response of nausea.
     • 2) During this stage a stimulus which produces no response is associated with the unconditioned stimulus at which point it now becomes known as the conditioned stimulus.
       • For example, a stomach virus might be associated with eating a certain food such as chocolate. Also, perfume might be associated with a specific person.
     • 3) Now the conditioned stimulus has been associated with the unconditioned stimulus to create a new conditioned response.
       • For example, a person who has been associated with nice perfume is now found attractive Also, chocolate which was eaten before a person was sick with a virus (UCS) now produces a response of nausea