3/8/2010

Thorndikes Instrumental
Conditioning and Skinner Box
B. F. Skinners Operant or Operant
Chamber
Conditioning
We automatically learn the association
between behavior & the consequences that
follow the behavior.
That learning influences the future
likelihood of the behavior.

Behavior is Controlled by
2 Types of Consequences:
Reinforcement: a consequence that increases the
likelihood of the behavior it follows
Punishment: a consequence that decreases the likelihood
of the behavior it follows
A consequence is defined by its effect on behavior. Lets
watch Skinner using reinforcement to change behavior
http://www.youtube.com/watch#playnext=1&playnext_fr
om=TL&videos=8uS2N0aXSMI&v=mm5FGrQEyBY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_ctJqjlrHA&feature=r
elated
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm5FGrQEyBY

2 Kinds of Reinforcement 2 Kinds of Punishment

Positive (+) Punishment Behavior is followed by the

presenting (or adding) of something bad
Example child cussing
spanking presented
+ Child cusses less in future.

Negative (-) Punishment - Behavior is followed by the

taking away of something good
Example Teen misses their curfew
parents take away
-- driving privileges
Teen is late less often in the future.

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Types of Consequences
Schedule of reinforcement
Stimulus Added Stimulus The schedule refers to the details concerning
+ Taken Away - what behavior has to occur before the
consequence is delivered
Behavior Positive Negative
Increases Reinforcement Reinforcement
(add (+) something good) (take away (-) something bad)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_ctJqjlrH
Positive Negative A&feature=related
Behavior Punishment Punishment
(add (+) something bad) (take away (-) something
Decreases good)

One Possibility: Partial Reinforcement or Intermittent

Continuous Reinforcement Reinforcement
Every correct response is followed by the
reinforcing consequence Every correct response is NOT followed by the
reinforcing consequence; reinforcement occurs only
Continuous reinforcement is often used early some of the time, according to some schedule or
in the training of a response. contingency
Not ideal in the long run Different schedules of reinforcement generate different
patterns of behavior.
Consequence may lose its value Behaviors reinforced on a schedule of partial
Not typical in the real world reinforcement are more resistant to extinction.

Common Schedules of Rf

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Modifying Behavior of Animals

Shaping a Behavior
Reinforcing successive approximations that get http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4txGv9FbqM
closer and closer to the desired behavior
A pet example
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLoHH03QAAI&feature=related

Pay Attention to Consequences

Once an operant behavior has been
You can use consequences to change the conditioned, it may generalize to other similar
occurrence of almost any behavior situations.
Try using social reinforcers to modify the
behaviors of those around you If the reinforcing consequences no longer
follow the behavior, the behavior may
disappear or show extinction.

Pay attention to inadvertent reinforcement of

behaviors Punishment Problems
you dont want to encourage
Only indicates what not to do doesnt
necessarily increase the correct response
Often not delivered immediately after the
undesired behavior
May trigger emotional responses, sometimes
even aggressive responses
Negative punishment has fewer side effects
Reinforcing consequences should only follow
behaviors you wish to encourage

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Discriminative Stimuli that may influence

Skinners A-B-Cs your behavior

Skinner found that consequences were not the

only environmental stimuli we response to. We
also learn what discriminative stimuli or
antecedents typically indicate when certain
consequences are likely.

Antecedents
Behavior
Consequences

Cognitive Learning
Learning based on observation and mental
Does all learning require direct experience? processing of what weve observed
Can you learn without being reinforced? Does not require reinforcement
Do some learned responses require more Does not always require direct experience
mental processing than the simple learned
associations of classical and operant
conditioning?

Edward Tolmans
3 Examples
Latent Learning
Edward Tolman latent learning of a Believed we are learning about our
cognitive map environment all the time dont need
Albert Bandura- observational learning, reinforcement to do so
modeling, or social learning May not see evidence of this learning until
Wolfgang Kohler insight learning in chimps some later time when you need that info
Example: building a cognitive map of your
surroundings

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Rats allowed to become Albert Bandura & Modeling

familiar with the maze with
no reinforcement present The Tale of the Bobo Doll
did better than rats without
this experience once reward
was available.
Even if the original path to the
food is blocked, rats seem to
have a spatial map so try
other nearby routes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjXvVsmyL
04
We often learn through observation of others (observational
learning or social learning), with no reinforcement, and then
model our behavior after what we observed.

Use of Social Learning Model to Create

Soap Operas to Bring About Social Change
Kohler- Insight Learning

Public gets attached to characters on long

running radio or TV dramas which are crafted
to raise awareness and offer strtegies for
dealing with numerous social issues. Dramas
bring about significant changes in social norms
and attududes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjIbKaSXM
3A Twende na Wakati in Tanzania
Ven Conmigo in Mexico
Hum Log in India

Learning Terms

Same terms we encountered with classical conditioning

can be applied to the operant conditioning situation:
Acquisition (gradually increase in the learned response over
trials)
Generalization (behavior learned in one situation may be
shown in other similar situations)
Extinction disappearance of the learned behavior if we fail
to reinforce it for too long
Spontaneous Recovery- return of a previously extinguished
response