A Consequence of a Response That Makes the Response More Likely to Occur Again Is Called a N

Learning Objectives

Past the end of this section, you will be able to:

Define operant conditioning
Explain the divergence between reinforcement and punishment
Distinguish between reinforcement schedules

The previous section of this affiliate focused on the blazon of associative learning known as classical conditioning. Remember that in classical conditioning, something in the environment triggers a reflex automatically, and researchers train the organism to react to a unlike stimulus. Now nosotros turn to the second type of associative learning, operant conditioning. In operant conditioning, organisms learn to associate a beliefs and its outcome ([link]). A pleasant consequence makes that behavior more likely to be repeated in the time to come. For example, Spirit, a dolphin at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, does a flip in the air when her trainer blows a whistle. The consequence is that she gets a fish.

Classical and Operant Conditioning Compared
	Classical Conditioning	Operant Conditioning
Workout approach	An unconditioned stimulus (such equally food) is paired with a neutral stimulus (such every bit a bell). The neutral stimulus somewhen becomes the conditioned stimulus, which brings near the conditioned response (salivation).	The target beliefs is followed by reinforcement or punishment to either strengthen or weaken it, then that the learner is more than likely to showroom the desired beliefs in the hereafter.
Stimulus timing	The stimulus occurs immediately before the response.	The stimulus (either reinforcement or punishment) occurs soon after the response.

Psychologist B. F. Skinner saw that classical workout is limited to existing behaviors that are reflexively elicited, and it doesn't account for new behaviors such every bit riding a cycle. He proposed a theory nearly how such behaviors come up about. Skinner believed that behavior is motivated by the consequences we receive for the beliefs: the reinforcements and punishments. His idea that learning is the result of consequences is based on the law of effect, which was showtime proposed by psychologist Edward Thorndike. According to the police of issue, behaviors that are followed by consequences that are satisfying to the organism are more probable to exist repeated, and behaviors that are followed by unpleasant consequences are less likely to be repeated (Thorndike, 1911). Substantially, if an organism does something that brings most a desired result, the organism is more likely to do it again. If an organism does something that does not bring near a desired result, the organism is less probable to do information technology once more. An example of the law of effect is in employment. 1 of the reasons (and frequently the master reason) we show up for piece of work is because we get paid to do and then. If nosotros stop getting paid, we will likely stop showing up—even if we love our chore.

Working with Thorndike's law of result as his foundation, Skinner began conducting scientific experiments on animals (mainly rats and pigeons) to determine how organisms learn through operant workout (Skinner, 1938). He placed these animals inside an operant conditioning sleeping accommodation, which has come to be known as a "Skinner box" ([link]). A Skinner box contains a lever (for rats) or deejay (for pigeons) that the beast tin press or peck for a food advantage via the dispenser. Speakers and lights can be associated with certain behaviors. A recorder counts the number of responses made by the fauna.

A photograph shows B.F. Skinner. An illustration shows a rat in a Skinner box: a chamber with a speaker, lights, a lever, and a food dispenser.

Link to Learning

Watch this cursory video clip to learn more about operant conditioning: Skinner is interviewed, and operant conditioning of pigeons is demonstrated.

In discussing operant conditioning, we use several everyday words—positive, negative, reinforcement, and penalisation—in a specialized manner. In operant workout, positive and negative do non mean good and bad. Instead, positive ways yous are adding something, and negative means you are taking something abroad. Reinforcement ways you are increasing a behavior, and penalty ways y'all are decreasing a behavior. Reinforcement tin be positive or negative, and punishment can too be positive or negative. All reinforcers (positive or negative) increase the likelihood of a behavioral response. All punishers (positive or negative) decrease the likelihood of a behavioral response. Now let's combine these iv terms: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment ([link]).

Positive and Negative Reinforcement and Penalty
	Reinforcement	Punishment
Positive	Something is added to increment the likelihood of a behavior.	Something is added to decrease the likelihood of a beliefs.
Negative	Something is removed to increase the likelihood of a behavior.	Something is removed to decrease the likelihood of a behavior.

REINFORCEMENT

The near constructive way to teach a person or animal a new behavior is with positive reinforcement. In positive reinforcement, a desirable stimulus is added to increase a beliefs.

For example, yous tell your five-year-old son, Jerome, that if he cleans his room, he volition go a toy. Jerome quickly cleans his room considering he wants a new art set. Let's interruption for a moment. Some people might say, "Why should I reward my child for doing what is expected?" Only in fact we are constantly and consistently rewarded in our lives. Our paychecks are rewards, equally are high grades and acceptance into our preferred school. Existence praised for doing a skilful job and for passing a driver'southward test is also a reward. Positive reinforcement as a learning tool is extremely effective. It has been institute that i of the most effective ways to increase achievement in school districts with beneath-boilerplate reading scores was to pay the children to read. Specifically, 2nd-form students in Dallas were paid $ii each time they read a book and passed a curt quiz virtually the book. The result was a pregnant increase in reading comprehension (Fryer, 2010). What do you think about this program? If Skinner were alive today, he would probably call back this was a smashing idea. He was a strong proponent of using operant workout principles to influence students' behavior at schoolhouse. In fact, in addition to the Skinner box, he too invented what he called a pedagogy machine that was designed to reward small-scale steps in learning (Skinner, 1961)—an early on forerunner of computer-assisted learning. His education motorcar tested students' cognition every bit they worked through various school subjects. If students answered questions correctly, they received firsthand positive reinforcement and could continue; if they answered incorrectly, they did not receive whatever reinforcement. The thought was that students would spend boosted fourth dimension studying the material to increment their take a chance of being reinforced the next time (Skinner, 1961).

In negative reinforcement, an undesirable stimulus is removed to increase a behavior. For instance, auto manufacturers use the principles of negative reinforcement in their seatbelt systems, which go "beep, beep, beep" until y'all fasten your seatbelt. The annoying sound stops when you lot showroom the desired behavior, increasing the likelihood that y'all will buckle up in the futurity. Negative reinforcement is also used ofttimes in horse training. Riders apply force per unit area—past pulling the reins or squeezing their legs—so remove the pressure when the equus caballus performs the desired behavior, such every bit turning or speeding up. The pressure is the negative stimulus that the equus caballus wants to remove.

PUNISHMENT

Many people confuse negative reinforcement with penalization in operant workout, but they are two very unlike mechanisms. Retrieve that reinforcement, even when it is negative, always increases a behavior. In contrast, punishment always decreases a behavior. In positive penalty, you add together an undesirable stimulus to decrease a behavior. An instance of positive punishment is scolding a student to get the student to stop texting in class. In this example, a stimulus (the reprimand) is added in society to decrease the beliefs (texting in grade). In negative penalisation, you remove a pleasant stimulus to decrease a behavior. For example, a commuter might blast her horn when a light turns greenish, and go along blasting the horn until the car in front moves.

Punishment, especially when it is immediate, is 1 way to decrease undesirable behavior. For case, imagine your four-year-onetime son, Brandon, runs into the decorated street to get his ball. You give him a time-out (positive punishment) and tell him never to go into the street again. Chances are he won't echo this behavior. While strategies like time-outs are common today, in the by children were often subject to concrete punishment, such every bit spanking. It's of import to be aware of some of the drawbacks in using physical punishment on children. Outset, penalisation may teach fear. Brandon may go fearful of the street, but he also may become fearful of the person who delivered the penalisation—you, his parent. Similarly, children who are punished past teachers may come to fear the instructor and endeavour to avoid school (Gershoff et al., 2010). Consequently, nearly schools in the United states have banned corporal punishment. 2d, penalization may cause children to go more aggressive and prone to hating behavior and delinquency (Gershoff, 2002). They encounter their parents resort to spanking when they become angry and frustrated, so, in turn, they may act out this same beliefs when they become angry and frustrated. For instance, considering y'all spank Brenda when you are aroused with her for her misbehavior, she might start hit her friends when they won't share their toys.

While positive penalization can be effective in some cases, Skinner suggested that the use of penalization should be weighed against the possible negative effects. Today'south psychologists and parenting experts favor reinforcement over punishment—they recommend that you catch your child doing something good and reward her for information technology.

Shaping

In his operant conditioning experiments, Skinner often used an approach chosen shaping. Instead of rewarding just the target behavior, in shaping, we reward successive approximations of a target behavior. Why is shaping needed? Call up that in social club for reinforcement to work, the organism must first display the beliefs. Shaping is needed because it is extremely unlikely that an organism will brandish annihilation but the simplest of behaviors spontaneously. In shaping, behaviors are cleaved down into many small, achievable steps. The specific steps used in the process are the following:

Reinforce any response that resembles the desired beliefs.
Then reinforce the response that more closely resembles the desired behavior. You lot volition no longer reinforce the previously reinforced response.
Side by side, begin to reinforce the response that fifty-fifty more than closely resembles the desired behavior.
Keep to reinforce closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior.
Finally, simply reinforce the desired behavior.

Shaping is often used in didactics a complex behavior or chain of behaviors. Skinner used shaping to teach pigeons non only such relatively unproblematic behaviors equally pecking a disk in a Skinner box, just too many unusual and entertaining behaviors, such as turning in circles, walking in figure eights, and even playing ping pong; the technique is unremarkably used by animal trainers today. An important function of shaping is stimulus discrimination. Recall Pavlov'south dogs—he trained them to respond to the tone of a bong, and not to similar tones or sounds. This bigotry is as well important in operant conditioning and in shaping beliefs.

Link to Learning

Here is a brief video of Skinner's pigeons playing ping pong.

It's easy to run across how shaping is effective in teaching behaviors to animals, only how does shaping work with humans? Let's consider parents whose goal is to have their kid larn to clean his room. They apply shaping to help him primary steps toward the goal. Instead of performing the unabridged task, they set upwardly these steps and reinforce each stride. First, he cleans up ane toy. Second, he cleans upward five toys. Third, he chooses whether to pick upward 10 toys or put his books and clothes away. Fourth, he cleans up everything except two toys. Finally, he cleans his entire room.

Principal AND SECONDARY REINFORCERS

Rewards such every bit stickers, praise, money, toys, and more tin can be used to reinforce learning. Permit's become back to Skinner's rats again. How did the rats larn to printing the lever in the Skinner box? They were rewarded with food each time they pressed the lever. For animals, food would exist an obvious reinforcer.

What would be a adept reinforce for humans? For your daughter Sydney, it was the promise of a toy if she cleaned her room. How about Joaquin, the soccer player? If y'all gave Joaquin a piece of processed every time he made a goal, y'all would exist using a chief reinforcer. Primary reinforcers are reinforcers that have innate reinforcing qualities. These kinds of reinforcers are not learned. Water, food, slumber, shelter, sex activity, and touch, amid others, are primary reinforcers. Pleasance is as well a principal reinforcer. Organisms do not lose their drive for these things. For most people, jumping in a cool lake on a very hot day would be reinforcing and the cool lake would be innately reinforcing—the water would cool the person off (a physical need), as well as provide pleasure.

A secondary reinforcer has no inherent value and simply has reinforcing qualities when linked with a primary reinforcer. Praise, linked to affection, is one instance of a secondary reinforcer, every bit when y'all chosen out "Dandy shot!" every time Joaquin made a goal. Another example, money, is only worth something when you can use it to buy other things—either things that satisfy basic needs (food, water, shelter—all main reinforcers) or other secondary reinforcers. If you were on a remote isle in the heart of the Pacific Ocean and you lot had stacks of coin, the coin would non be useful if you could not spend it. What about the stickers on the behavior chart? They besides are secondary reinforcers.

Sometimes, instead of stickers on a sticker nautical chart, a token is used. Tokens, which are too secondary reinforcers, can so be traded in for rewards and prizes. Entire behavior direction systems, known as token economies, are built effectually the apply of these kinds of token reinforcers. Token economies have been establish to be very constructive at modifying beliefs in a variety of settings such as schools, prisons, and mental hospitals. For example, a written report by Cangi and Daly (2013) constitute that use of a token economic system increased appropriate social behaviors and reduced inappropriate behaviors in a group of autistic schoolhouse children. Autistic children tend to exhibit disruptive behaviors such as pinching and hitting. When the children in the study exhibited appropriate behavior (not hitting or pinching), they received a "repose hands" token. When they hit or pinched, they lost a token. The children could and so exchange specified amounts of tokens for minutes of playtime.

Everyday Connection: Beliefs Modification in Children

Parents and teachers often use behavior modification to change a child's behavior. Behavior modification uses the principles of operant conditioning to achieve beliefs alter so that undesirable behaviors are switched for more socially adequate ones. Some teachers and parents create a sticker nautical chart, in which several behaviors are listed ([link]). Sticker charts are a grade of token economies, as described in the text. Each time children perform the behavior, they become a sticker, and after a sure number of stickers, they get a prize, or reinforcer. The goal is to increase acceptable behaviors and decrease misbehavior. Remember, it is all-time to reinforce desired behaviors, rather than to utilise punishment. In the classroom, the instructor can reinforce a broad range of behaviors, from students raising their hands, to walking quietly in the hall, to turning in their homework. At home, parents might create a behavior chart that rewards children for things such every bit putting away toys, brushing their teeth, and helping with dinner. In order for behavior modification to exist constructive, the reinforcement needs to exist connected with the behavior; the reinforcement must matter to the child and be done consistently.

A photograph shows a child placing stickers on a chart hanging on the wall.

Time-out is another pop technique used in behavior modification with children. It operates on the principle of negative punishment. When a child demonstrates an undesirable behavior, she is removed from the desirable activeness at paw ([link]). For example, say that Sophia and her blood brother Mario are playing with building blocks. Sophia throws some blocks at her brother, then you give her a warning that she will go to time-out if she does it once more. A few minutes later, she throws more blocks at Mario. Y'all remove Sophia from the room for a few minutes. When she comes back, she doesn't throw blocks.

There are several of import points that y'all should know if you plan to implement time-out every bit a behavior modification technique. First, make sure the kid is being removed from a desirable activity and placed in a less desirable location. If the activity is something undesirable for the child, this technique will backfire because it is more enjoyable for the child to exist removed from the activity. Second, the length of the time-out is of import. The general rule of thumb is one minute for each year of the child's historic period. Sophia is v; therefore, she sits in a time-out for five minutes. Setting a timer helps children know how long they have to sit in time-out. Finally, as a caregiver, keep several guidelines in mind over the course of a time-out: remain calm when directing your child to time-out; ignore your child during time-out (because caregiver attention may reinforce misbehavior); and give the kid a hug or a kind word when time-out is over.

Photograph A shows several children climbing on playground equipment. Photograph B shows a child sitting alone at a table looking at the playground.

REINFORCEMENT SCHEDULES

Recall, the best way to teach a person or animal a behavior is to utilise positive reinforcement. For case, Skinner used positive reinforcement to teach rats to press a lever in a Skinner box. At first, the rat might randomly hit the lever while exploring the box, and out would come a pellet of food. Later eating the pellet, what practice you lot think the hungry rat did next? It hitting the lever again, and received another pellet of food. Each time the rat striking the lever, a pellet of food came out. When an organism receives a reinforcer each fourth dimension information technology displays a beliefs, it is called continuous reinforcement. This reinforcement schedule is the quickest way to teach someone a behavior, and it is especially effective in training a new beliefs. Let'southward look back at the canis familiaris that was learning to sit down before in the chapter. Now, each time he sits, yous requite him a treat. Timing is important here: you lot volition exist most successful if y'all present the reinforcer immediately subsequently he sits, and so that he can brand an association betwixt the target behavior (sitting) and the consequence (getting a treat).

Link to Learning

Watch this video clip where veterinarian Dr. Sophia Yin shapes a canis familiaris'southward behavior using the steps outlined above.

In one case a beliefs is trained, researchers and trainers often turn to another type of reinforcement schedule—fractional reinforcement. In fractional reinforcement, likewise referred to as intermittent reinforcement, the person or animal does not get reinforced every time they perform the desired beliefs. There are several different types of partial reinforcement schedules ([link]). These schedules are described equally either fixed or variable, and as either interval or ratio. Fixed refers to the number of responses betwixt reinforcements, or the amount of time betwixt reinforcements, which is set up and unchanging. Variable refers to the number of responses or amount of time between reinforcements, which varies or changes. Interval ways the schedule is based on the time between reinforcements, and ratio ways the schedule is based on the number of responses between reinforcements.

Reinforcement Schedules
Reinforcement Schedule	Description	Result	Example
Fixed interval	Reinforcement is delivered at predictable fourth dimension intervals (e.g., later on 5, ten, fifteen, and twenty minutes).	Moderate response charge per unit with significant pauses subsequently reinforcement	Infirmary patient uses patient-controlled, doctor-timed pain relief
Variable interval	Reinforcement is delivered at unpredictable time intervals (due east.g., after 5, 7, ten, and twenty minutes).	Moderate yet steady response charge per unit	Checking Facebook
Fixed ratio	Reinforcement is delivered later on a predictable number of responses (e.g., afterward 2, 4, six, and 8 responses).	Loftier response rate with pauses later on reinforcement	Piecework—factory worker getting paid for every x number of items manufactured
Variable ratio	Reinforcement is delivered later on an unpredictable number of responses (e.g., after 1, 4, 5, and 9 responses).	High and steady response rate	Gambling

Now permit's combine these four terms. A stock-still interval reinforcement schedule is when behavior is rewarded afterward a set up amount of fourth dimension. For example, June undergoes major surgery in a hospital. During recovery, she is expected to experience hurting and will require prescription medications for hurting relief. June is given an Iv drip with a patient-controlled painkiller. Her doctor sets a limit: one dose per hour. June pushes a button when pain becomes difficult, and she receives a dose of medication. Since the reward (pain relief) only occurs on a stock-still interval, at that place is no betoken in exhibiting the behavior when information technology will not exist rewarded.

With a variable interval reinforcement schedule, the person or animal gets the reinforcement based on varying amounts of fourth dimension, which are unpredictable. Say that Manuel is the manager at a fast-food restaurant. Every in one case in a while someone from the quality control sectionalization comes to Manuel's restaurant. If the eating house is make clean and the service is fast, anybody on that shift earns a $twenty bonus. Manuel never knows when the quality command person will testify up, and then he always tries to continue the restaurant clean and ensures that his employees provide prompt and courteous service. His productivity regarding prompt service and keeping a clean eating house are steady because he wants his crew to earn the bonus.

With a fixed ratio reinforcement schedule, there are a set number of responses that must occur before the behavior is rewarded. Carla sells spectacles at an eyeglass store, and she earns a commission every time she sells a pair of glasses. She ever tries to sell people more pairs of glasses, including prescription sunglasses or a backup pair, and then she tin increase her commission. She does non intendance if the person actually needs the prescription sunglasses, Carla just wants her bonus. The quality of what Carla sells does not matter considering her committee is not based on quality; information technology's only based on the number of pairs sold. This distinction in the quality of operation can help determine which reinforcement method is most appropriate for a detail situation. Fixed ratios are better suited to optimize the quantity of output, whereas a fixed interval, in which the advantage is not quantity based, can lead to a higher quality of output.

In a variable ratio reinforcement schedule, the number of responses needed for a reward varies. This is the most powerful fractional reinforcement schedule. An example of the variable ratio reinforcement schedule is gambling. Imagine that Sarah—mostly a smart, thrifty woman—visits Las Vegas for the first time. She is non a gambler, but out of curiosity she puts a quarter into the slot car, and so another, and another. Nothing happens. Two dollars in quarters later on, her curiosity is fading, and she is just nigh to quit. But and so, the machine lights up, bells become off, and Sarah gets 50 quarters back. That'southward more similar it! Sarah gets back to inserting quarters with renewed interest, and a few minutes later on she has used up all her gains and is $10 in the hole. Now might be a sensible time to quit. And yet, she keeps putting money into the slot machine because she never knows when the next reinforcement is coming. She keeps thinking that with the adjacent quarter she could win $50, or $100, or even more than. Because the reinforcement schedule in most types of gambling has a variable ratio schedule, people continue trying and hoping that the next fourth dimension they will win big. This is i of the reasons that gambling is so addictive—and then resistant to extinction.

In operant conditioning, extinction of a reinforced behavior occurs at some point after reinforcement stops, and the speed at which this happens depends on the reinforcement schedule. In a variable ratio schedule, the signal of extinction comes very slowly, equally described to a higher place. Simply in the other reinforcement schedules, extinction may come chop-chop. For instance, if June presses the button for the pain relief medication before the allotted time her doctor has approved, no medication is administered. She is on a fixed interval reinforcement schedule (dosed hourly), so extinction occurs quickly when reinforcement doesn't come at the expected fourth dimension. Among the reinforcement schedules, variable ratio is the most productive and the nearly resistant to extinction. Fixed interval is the least productive and the easiest to extinguish ([link]).

Connect the Concepts: Gambling and the Encephalon

Skinner (1953) stated, "If the gambling establishment cannot persuade a patron to turn over coin with no return, it may achieve the same effect by returning part of the patron's money on a variable-ratio schedule" (p. 397).

Skinner uses gambling as an example of the power and effectiveness of conditioning behavior based on a variable ratio reinforcement schedule. In fact, Skinner was so confident in his knowledge of gambling habit that he even claimed he could turn a pigeon into a pathological gambler ("Skinner'due south Utopia," 1971). Beyond the power of variable ratio reinforcement, gambling seems to work on the brain in the aforementioned way as some addictive drugs. The Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery (due north.d.) reports evidence suggesting that pathological gambling is an addiction similar to a chemical habit ([link]). Specifically, gambling may activate the reward centers of the brain, much like cocaine does. Research has shown that some pathological gamblers accept lower levels of the neurotransmitter (brain chemical) known equally norepinephrine than do normal gamblers (Roy, et al., 1988). According to a study conducted past Alec Roy and colleagues, norepinephrine is secreted when a person feels stress, arousal, or thrill; pathological gamblers use gambling to increase their levels of this neurotransmitter. Some other researcher, neuroscientist Hans Breiter, has done all-encompassing research on gambling and its furnishings on the encephalon. Breiter (equally cited in Franzen, 2001) reports that "Monetary reward in a gambling-like experiment produces brain activation very similar to that observed in a cocaine addict receiving an infusion of cocaine" (para. 1). Deficiencies in serotonin (another neurotransmitter) might also contribute to compulsive behavior, including a gambling addiction.

It may exist that pathological gamblers' brains are different than those of other people, and perhaps this difference may somehow have led to their gambling addiction, as these studies seem to suggest. Even so, information technology is very difficult to ascertain the cause because it is incommunicable to bear a true experiment (information technology would be unethical to try to plow randomly assigned participants into problem gamblers). Therefore, information technology may be that causation actually moves in the opposite direction—perchance the act of gambling somehow changes neurotransmitter levels in some gamblers' brains. Information technology as well is possible that some disregarded factor, or misreckoning variable, played a role in both the gambling addiction and the differences in brain chemistry.

A photograph shows four digital gaming machines.

COGNITION AND LATENT LEARNING

Although strict behaviorists such every bit Skinner and Watson refused to believe that cognition (such as thoughts and expectations) plays a role in learning, another behaviorist, Edward C. Tolman, had a different stance. Tolman's experiments with rats demonstrated that organisms can larn even if they do not receive immediate reinforcement (Tolman & Honzik, 1930; Tolman, Ritchie, & Kalish, 1946). This finding was in conflict with the prevailing idea at the fourth dimension that reinforcement must be firsthand in order for learning to occur, thus suggesting a cerebral aspect to learning.

In the experiments, Tolman placed hungry rats in a maze with no reward for finding their manner through it. He also studied a comparison group that was rewarded with food at the end of the maze. As the unreinforced rats explored the maze, they adult a cognitive map: a mental picture of the layout of the maze ([link]). After x sessions in the maze without reinforcement, food was placed in a goal box at the end of the maze. Equally before long as the rats became aware of the food, they were able to find their way through the maze speedily, only as rapidly as the comparison grouping, which had been rewarded with nutrient all along. This is known equally latent learning: learning that occurs but is non observable in behavior until there is a reason to demonstrate it.

An illustration shows three rats in a maze, with a starting point and food at the end.

Latent learning as well occurs in humans. Children may learn past watching the actions of their parents just only demonstrate it at a later date, when the learned material is needed. For instance, suppose that Ravi's dad drives him to school every day. In this way, Ravi learns the route from his house to his school, just he's never driven there himself, so he has non had a risk to demonstrate that he's learned the way. One morning time Ravi's dad has to get out early on for a meeting, so he can't drive Ravi to school. Instead, Ravi follows the same route on his bicycle that his dad would take taken in the car. This demonstrates latent learning. Ravi had learned the road to school, but had no demand to demonstrate this knowledge before.

Everyday Connection: This Identify Is Like a Maze

Have y'all always gotten lost in a edifice and couldn't find your way back out? While that tin be frustrating, you're non alone. At 1 fourth dimension or some other nosotros've all gotten lost in places similar a museum, hospital, or university library. Whenever we become someplace new, we build a mental representation—or cognitive map—of the location, every bit Tolman'due south rats built a cognitive map of their maze. However, some buildings are confusing because they include many areas that look akin or take short lines of sight. Because of this, information technology'south often difficult to predict what's around a corner or decide whether to plough left or right to go out of a building. Psychologist Laura Carlson (2010) suggests that what we place in our cognitive map tin impact our success in navigating through the environment. She suggests that paying attention to specific features upon entering a edifice, such every bit a picture on the wall, a fountain, a statue, or an escalator, adds data to our cognitive map that can be used later to help notice our way out of the edifice.

Link to Learning

Sentry this video to learn more about Carlson's studies on cognitive maps and navigation in buildings.

Summary

Operant conditioning is based on the work of B. F. Skinner. Operant conditioning is a form of learning in which the motivation for a beliefs happens after the behavior is demonstrated. An animal or a human receives a consequence later on performing a specific behavior. The consequence is either a reinforcer or a punisher. All reinforcement (positive or negative) increases the likelihood of a behavioral response. All penalisation (positive or negative) decreases the likelihood of a behavioral response. Several types of reinforcement schedules are used to reward behavior depending on either a set or variable period of time.

Self Check Questions

Disquisitional Thinking Questions

1. What is a Skinner box and what is its purpose?

2. What is the difference between negative reinforcement and punishment?

3. What is shaping and how would you use shaping to teach a dog to roll over?

Personal Awarding Questions

4. Explain the difference between negative reinforcement and punishment, and provide several examples of each based on your ain experiences.

5. Think of a behavior that you have that you would like to change. How could yous use behavior modification, specifically positive reinforcement, to alter your beliefs? What is your positive reinforcer?

Answers

1. A Skinner box is an operant conditioning chamber used to train animals such as rats and pigeons to perform certain behaviors, like pressing a lever. When the animals perform the desired behavior, they receive a reward: food or h2o.

2. In negative reinforcement you are taking away an undesirable stimulus in society to increase the frequency of a certain behavior (e.k., buckling your seat belt stops the annoying beeping sound in your car and increases the likelihood that you will wear your seatbelt). Punishment is designed to reduce a behavior (e.k., you scold your kid for running into the street in order to subtract the unsafe behavior.)

3. Shaping is an operant conditioning method in which you lot reward closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior. If you desire to teach your dog to roll over, you might reward him starting time when he sits, then when he lies down, and and then when he lies down and rolls onto his back. Finally, you would reward him merely when he completes the entire sequence: lying downward, rolling onto his back, and so standing to roll over to his other side.

Glossary

cerebral map mental flick of the layout of the environment

continuous reinforcement rewarding a behavior every fourth dimension it occurs

fixed interval reinforcement schedule behavior is rewarded afterward a prepare corporeality of time

fixed ratio reinforcement schedule set number of responses must occur earlier a behavior is rewarded

latent learning learning that occurs, but it may not be axiomatic until at that place is a reason to demonstrate it

constabulary of result behavior that is followed past consequences satisfying to the organism will be repeated and behaviors that are followed by unpleasant consequences will exist discouraged

negative punishment taking away a pleasant stimulus to subtract or end a beliefs

negative reinforcement taking abroad an undesirable stimulus to increase a behavior

operant workout form of learning in which the stimulus/experience happens after the behavior is demonstrated

partial reinforcement rewarding behavior simply some of the time

positive punishment adding an undesirable stimulus to stop or decrease a behavior

positive reinforcement adding a desirable stimulus to increase a behavior

main reinforcer has innate reinforcing qualities (east.k., food, water, shelter, sex)

punishment implementation of a effect in society to decrease a beliefs

reinforcement implementation of a outcome in social club to increase a behavior

secondary reinforcer has no inherent value unto itself and only has reinforcing qualities when linked with something else (e.grand., money, aureate stars, poker chips)

shaping rewarding successive approximations toward a target behavior

variable interval reinforcement schedule behavior is rewarded after unpredictable amounts of time accept passed

variable ratio reinforcement schedule number of responses differ before a beliefs is rewarded

tannerincentoll.blogspot.com

Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wsu-sandbox/chapter/operant-conditioning/

A Consequence of a Response That Makes the Response More Likely to Occur Again Is Called a N

Learning Objectives

REINFORCEMENT

PUNISHMENT

Shaping

Link to Learning

Principal AND SECONDARY REINFORCERS

REINFORCEMENT SCHEDULES

COGNITION AND LATENT LEARNING

Everyday Connection: This Identify Is Like a Maze

Summary

Self Check Questions

Disquisitional Thinking Questions

Answers

Glossary

0 Response to "A Consequence of a Response That Makes the Response More Likely to Occur Again Is Called a N"

Postar um comentário

Iklan Atas Artikel

Iklan Tengah Artikel 1

Iklan Tengah Artikel 2

Iklan Bawah Artikel