OPERANT CONDITIONING

Part II

BY: ESTEFANIA SEYFFERT PD.2

Ivan Pavlov, Legacy in Conditioning

Pavlov dedicated many of his studies to conditioning, it was a phenomenon that captured his attention and triggered his experiments.

Pavlov’s work paved the way for objective conditioning principles and their practical applications.

Pavlov’s classical conditioning, established the idea of an organism associating different stimuli that it cannot control.

EX: suspense/action/slasher movies use overexposed women parts and associate their promiscuity with violence or negative outcomes, such as murders.

Our organism associates actions with consequences. Responses to consequences are very often automatic.

B.F. Skinner, Contrasting Understanding to Conditioning

Skinner showed that when placed in an effect of primary and secondary reinforcers, slower, or faster acquisition is targeted. Punishment is most effective when strong and immediate, but most importantly when constant.

Skinner stimulated intellectual debate on the nature of human freedom and strategies and ethics of managing people. However, his principles are applied today.

So what is Operant Conditioning?

Through operant conditioning, people associate behaviors with their consequences. They become likely to repeat actions that result with rewards as a consequence as opposed to a punishment.

Classical conditioning and operant conditioning go hand in hand, both involve: Acquisition Extinction Spontaneous recovery Generalization Discrimination However, classical conditioning involves more of a respondent behavior .. Ex: salivating when hungry

Operant conditioning involves operant behavior which basically operates on surrounding environment.

Ex: behavior strengthened if followed by reinforcement or behavior diminished if followed by a punisher.

CONDITIONING(According to Skinner and Pavlov)

SHAPING BEHAVIORFirst and foremost, the successive approximations- rewarding responses that almost

reach the final goal. Ex: when a baby is being potty trained and are rewarded if they warn that

they need to go, later when they make an attempt to sit in the bathroom, and finally when they are potty trained.

The above is how behavior in humans is shaped.

Reinforcer- any event which strengthens the behavior it follows.

Primary reinforcer- reinforcing stimulus, such as one that satisfies a biological need.

  Conditioned reinforcer- stimulus which gains power through its association with a

primary reinforcer.

The words above demonstrate the pattern seen in a shaping situation such as one like the following:

A child asks his parents to get a cookie from the top shelf of the pantry The parent ignores the child The child continues to ask for the cookie The parent delays getting the cookie because they are busy The child whines and throws a tantrum The parent tells the child not to whine and asks the child which cookie they want.

The tantrum is positively enforced while the dad’s response is negatively enforced.

Skinner’s Experiments

Pavlov’s Experiments

Reinforcement Schedules Discrimination- the ability to distinguish among similar signals or stimuli Ex: fire alarms and school bells. Extinction- the loss of a behavior when no consequence follows it.

Ex: not using the same chess strategy when you realize you do not win when you use it.

Continuous Reinforcement- reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs

Partial Reinforcement- reinforcing a response only part of the time which results in a slower acquisition of a response but much greater resistant to extinction than does continuous reinforcement

Fixed ratio schedule- in operant conditioning, a schedule of reinforcement that reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses.

Variable ratio schedule- a schedule of reinforcement that reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed

Variable interval schedule- a schedule of reinforcement that reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals.

Role of Cognition and Biology Evidence of cognitive processes have come from studying rate sin mazes.

The rats develop a cognitive map or a mental representation of the maze to help them get to the goal.

During explorations of “the maze” in this case, rats would experience latent learning which is apparent only when there is some incentive to demonstrate it.

Over justification effect, this phenomenon occurs when an already justifiable activity becomes over justified by the promise or reward.

Intrinsic motivation undermines the desire to perform a behavior effectively and for its own sake.

Extrinsic motivation is seeking external rewards and avoiding threatened punishment.

Biological predispositions are more likely to be seen in animals, it is easier to reinforce when an animal digs, jumps, or runs, because they are biologically predisposed to do those things. The are not things that need rewards in order for them to be accomplished. However, goals such as getting an animal to walk on its hind legs, are harder to accomplish because they are not predisposed to this behavior and would therefore need consistent and strong reinforcement.

WORKS CITED

MYERS, DAVID G. PSYCHOLOGY SEVENTH EDITION 2003. PRINT.

THINKING ABOUT PSYCHOLOGY (THE SCIENCE OF MIND AND

BEHAVIOR) SECOND EDITION. PRINT.