Transcript Unit 02 Operant Conditioning

How do you teach a squirrel to water ski?
• Operant Conditioning – complex behavior is broken
down into a series of small steps that are eventually
linked together into one larger behavior
– Twiggy always would ride on his owner’s shoulders while
playing in the pool
– Twiggy learns to balance on little foam blocks
– Twiggy learns to hold onto miniature handle bars
– Twiggy learns to hold on while being pulled
– Put it all together - Twiggy can water ski!
“You really can’t discipline them. It’s
a lot of love and repetition that gets
them to where they are supposed to
know what to do.” –Lou Ann Best
•Operant conditioning = learn to do
certain things because of the results of
what you do
•Learn from the consequences of one’s
actions
•Repeat behavior w/ good consequences
•Stop behavior w/ bad consequences
• CC = organism learns associations b/w events
it DOES NOT control
• OC = organism learns
association b/w its own
behavior and resulting
event
•B.F. Skinner
studied operant
conditioning by
using the “Skinner
box” aka
“Operant
Chamber”
• Shaping = reward responses that get
closer to the desired behavior to
gradually guide the animal to do
what you want
• Positive Reinforcement = apply something
good/ increases the behavior
• Negative Reinforcement = take away
something bad/ increases the behavior
• Punishment = decreases the behavior
• Primary Reinforcers: unlearned (ex. Food
when hungry, painful headache going away)
• Conditioned Reinforcers: learned association
w/ a primary reinforcer (ex. Clicker training for
a dog)
• Immediate vs. Delayed reinforcement
Billy: Could you tie my shoes?
Father: (continues reading the newspaper,
ignoring Billy)
Billy: Dad, I need my shoes tied.
Father: Uh, yea, just a minute.
Billy: DAAAAD!!!!! TIE MY SHOES!!!
Father: How many times have I told you not to
whine? Now, which shoe do we do first?