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).

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).

Operant Conditioning Reinforcement schedule: a pattern that defines how often

and when a desired response will be reinforced.

Study Fig. 21.3, it will be on the next exam.

Responding is more consistent when reinforcement is unpredictable than when it is predictable.

Memorize Table 21.2, 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?

Reinforcement SchedulesContinuous reinforcement is rare in real life.

See Fig. 21.3 Intermittent reinforcement schedules.

See Table 21.2 Types of reinforcment.

Fixed Ratio: Think Travel Miles

Variable Ratio: Think Slot Machines

Fixed Interval: Think Christmas

Variable Interval: (the most complex) Think Development Project.

All the most successful people on the planet thrive on variable interval schedules; this is why college courses are designed on a 12-week timeframe, where the most diffcult material is delivered sometime in the first 4 weeks, so that the next 8 weeks are implementation of the new knowledge or skill. Use by movie directors, software designers; automotive engineers, etc.

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 Table 21.4 for the next exam.