Transcript Operant Conditioning

Operant Conditioning
What is it?
Learning from the consequences of
behavior
Depending on the consequences the learner
will learn to repeat or eliminate the
behavior
B.F. Skinner
 Behaviorism - our
environment
determines who we
are
 Law of Effect:
Rewarded behavior is
likely to recur.
Reinforcement
Stimulus/event that affects the likelihood
that a preceding behavior will be repeated
Primary reinforcer: something that
satisfies/reduces a basic need (food - think
dolphin shows)
Secondary reinforcer: neutral stimulus
normally - but with conditioning gains value
- can lead to a primary reinforcer (money)
Dolphins working for the
military?
Positive v. Negative
Reinforcement
 Adding something good
as a consequence
 Examples: chimps and
food; person working
hard for a bonus
 Removing something
negative
 Examples: students
who complain about
grades receive higher
grade; daydreaming
during a boring lecture
 2 types (escaping
something bad, or
avoiding it)
Other Principles
Feedback:
Essential to learning is that you need to
find out the response/results to your action
Reinforcement is a type of feedback from
your actions
Extinction:
Forget the learning if there is no longer a
response
Reinforcement Schedules
 Continuous Reinforcement desired response is reinforced
everytime it occurs.
 Partial (intermittent)
Reinforcement
 Fixed Ratio/Interval - reinforce
after a set number of
responses/set amount of time.
 Variable Ratio/Interval reinforcement at unpredictable
response numbers/unpredictable
amount of time
Punishment
 Adding something negative
 Where reinforcement
increases behavior,
punishment will decrease a
behavior.
 Examples: detention,
grounding
 Problems: can lead to other
negative consequences rage, aggression, fear; or
avoidance of punishers;
suppress behaviors instead
of eliminating discrimination.
So why does any of this
matter?
 Animal training
 Child raising
 Reinforce good
behavior.
 Ignore whining.
 No harsh punishment,
explain misbehavior.
 Or YOU…. (token
economies)
LEARNED HELPLESSNESS
What if you keep trying to do something
and just can’t get it?
What if the reinforcement just doesn’t
matter that much to you?
Would you just give up?