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Operant Conditioning

Operant Conditioning. Operant conditioning is a type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher. Reinforcement: any event that increases the frequency of a preceding response.

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Operant Conditioning

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  1. Operant Conditioning • Operant conditioning is a type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher. • Reinforcement: any event that increases the frequency of a preceding response. • Shaping: gradually guiding an organism's behavior toward the desired goal behavior. • Successive approximations: rewarding of responses that are closer to the desired behavior, and ignoring all other responses. Note the lack of punishment. • Shaping can help us to understand what nonverbal organisms perceive. • Discriminative stimulus signal that a response will be reinforced. (Herrnstein & Loveland, 1964) mp287,cp276.

  2. Operant Conditioning • Positive reinforcement any stimulus that, when presented after a response, strengthens the response. • Negative reinforcement is any stimulus that when removed after a response, strengthens the response. Note: negative reinforcement is not punishment. • Primary reinforcer: an innately reinforcing stimulus, such as one that satisfies a biological need. Eg: food & sex. • Conditionered (or secondary) reinforcer: a stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer. Eg: money. • Immediate reinforcers are innately satisfying rewards (food & sex); most humans need to learn delayed reinforcement as a big step to maturity. (Logue, 1998).

  3. Operant Conditioning • Reinforcement schedule: a pattern that defines how often and when a desired response will be reinforced. • Study mp290 Fig. 21.3, c279 f7.10 it will be on the next exam. • Responding is more consistent when reinforcement is unpredictable than when it is predictable. • Memorize mp291Table 21.2,cp280 t7.2 it will be on the next exam. • Discussion question: As a university student, you have been placed on a modified varible interval schedule. For example: Although this course is a fixed length, and exams are on specified dates, does the timing of your examinations have anything to do with the number and difficulties of the skills that you are expected to acquire?

  4. Operant Conditioning • Punishment: an event that tends to decrease the behavior that it follows. • Positive punishment: administer an aversive stimulus. • Negative punishment: withdraw a rewarding stimulus. • Punished behavior is suppressed, not forgotten. • Punishment teaches discrimination among situations. • Punishment can teach fear. A punished child may associate fear not only with the undesirable behavior but also with the punisher or the place of punishment. • Physical punishment may increase aggression by modeling aggression as a way to cope. The greatest example are the Russian mafia--the Vor y Zhakon-- schooled in the Soviet prison system. • Memorize m p296 Table 21.4, c p284 t7.4 for the next exam.

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