Overview of the Day
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Overview of the Day
Learning - Part 2
Operant conditioning
Observational learning
Operant Conditioning
Why is it called "operant" conditioning?
Operant: an organism learns to operate on the environment
Associating a behavior with a
consequence
A response is followed by a consequence
How does operant conditioning work?
Law of effect: a behavior is likely to be reproduced when it
has positive consequences and vice versa
Key Terms
Reinforcer: any event that increases the
frequency of a preceding response
Primary reinforcer: something that is
innately satisfying (food and sex)
Secondary reinforcer: something we learn
to like (money)
Punishment: any event that decreases
the frequency of a preceding response
Positive and Negative
Reinforcement and Punishment
Positive (reinforcement and
punishment)
present something
Negative (reinforcement and
punishment)
remove something
What works best: Reinforcement
or Punishment?
Punished behavior is suppressed, not forgotten,
may increase aggressiveness (abusive parents
tend to produce abusive children),anger, and
fear of person doing the punishing
However, swift and sure punishment can be
effective.
When should it be used and how?
When it is so sure and effective that it deters
unwanted behavior.
Shaping
A procedure in which reinforcers are used
to gradually guide behavior toward a
desired behavior.
Teach a child to play quietly by presenting her
with an ice cream cone at longer and longer
intervals of quiet play (10, 20, 30 minutes)
Examples of Interval and
Ratio Schedules
Asking women for dates
variable ratio
A house painter being paid by how many
square feet of surface area she paints
fixed ratio
Receiving a paycheck every two weeks
fixed interval
Pop quizzes
variable interval
Observational Learning
Modeling: observing and imitating a
specific behavior
By observing, we learn to anticipate a
behavior’s consequences (on other and
ourselves)
We tend imitate people who are successful
admirable, or similar to ourselves
Summary
Operant conditioning
reinforcer, punishment
positive and negative
Shaping
Schedules of reinforcement
continuous and partial (FR, VR, FI, VI)
Observational learning