Elicited and Emitted Behavior The Reflex: Elicitation Properties of Elicited Behavior

Elicited and Emitted Behavior The Reflex: Elicitation Properties of Elicited Behavior Eliciting Stimuli and Response Probabilities Probabilities or Relative Frequencies. Conditional Probabilities Types of Stimulus‑Response Relations Effects of Successive Elicitations Habituation Potentiation Time Since the Last Eliciting Stimulus Reflexes, Fixed Action Patterns, and Other Classes of Behavior From Elicited to Emitted Behavior The Role of Exercise Stimulus Presentations in Imprinting Establishing Operations and the Significance of Stimuli Addendum 4A: The Temporal Patterning of Behavior Addendum 4B: The Evolution of Behavior

The science of behavior has become increasingly quantitative • We should therefore look at how it treats behavior in terms of numbers • Most important will be its treatment of probabilities

Probabilities • A probability is a ratio between 0 and 1. • It is calculated by dividing the number of times an event occurs by the number of times it could have occurred. • If a coin is tossed 10 times and comes up heads 5 times, the probability of heads equals 5/10. • p(heads) = 0.5 4

Probabilities andconditional probabilities • The probability of a blink in A, given no puff of air, is 3/5. • Its probability in B, given a puff of air, is 5/5. • We write these as: • p(blink/no puff) = 0.6 • p(blink/puff) = 1.0 • Relative to no puff, the puff of air made blinking more probable (raised its probability).

Graphing Probabilities • Now let’s look at some ways to describe behavior in terms of probability. • One general theme throughout the text is to look at the probability of some behavioral event A given that some other event B has or has not happened. • We can plot these two probabilities in a unit square where one axis is the probability of A given B and the other is the probability of A given not-B. • We will look at cases where A and B are stimuli or responses (there are four possible combinations: S-S, S-R, R-S, and R-R).

Probability Distributions • Now let’s look at some other ways to describe behavior in terms of probability. • In a probability distribution, we look at the probability of some event as a function of some variable. • For example, we could look at the probability of a knee jerk as a function of the force of a tap on the patellar tendon, or we could look at the probabilities of the various forces with which a rat presses a lever.

More Probability Examples • Signal Detection and Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves • Relativity of Reinforcement • Probabilities of Responding over Time • Probabilities in Pavlovian Procedures • Probabilities in Fluent Learning

Signal-detection contingencies: Possible responses to the presence or the absence of a signal.

Elicited and Emitted Behavior The Reflex: Elicitation Properties of Elicited Behavior Eliciting Stimuli and Response Probabilities Probabilities or Relative Frequencies. Conditional Probabilities Types of Stimulus‑Response Relations Effects of Successive Elicitations Habituation Potentiation Time Since the Last Eliciting Stimulus Reflexes, Fixed Action Patterns, and Other Classes of Behavior From Elicited to Emitted Behavior The Role of Exercise Stimulus Presentations in Imprinting Establishing Operations and the Significance of Stimuli

To be reinforced, • a response first must be emitted

Elicited and Emitted Behavior The Reflex: Elicitation Properties of Elicited Behavior Eliciting Stimuli and Response Probabilities Probabilities or Relative Frequencies. Conditional Probabilities Types of Stimulus‑Response Relations Effects of Successive Elicitations Habituation Potentiation Time Since the Last Eliciting Stimulus Reflexes, Fixed Action Patterns, and Other Classes of Behavior From Elicited to Emitted Behavior The Role of Exercise Stimulus Presentations in Imprinting Establishing Operations and the Significance of Stimuli

Elicited and Emitted Behavior The Reflex: Elicitation Properties of Elicited Behavior