Operant Conditioning

•Operant conditioning - the learning of voluntary behavior through the effects of pleasant and unpleasant consequences to responses.

The study of how behavior is affected by its consequences.

•Investigates the learning of voluntary responses.

•Reinforcement - any event or stimulus, that when following a response, increases the probability that the response will occur again.

•Reinforcer – Any object or event that changes the probability that an operant behaviour will occur again.

•Positive reinforcement - the reinforcement of a response by the addition or experiencing of a pleasurable stimulus.

•Negative reinforcement - the reinforcement of a response by the removal, escape from, or avoidance of an unpleasant stimulus.

Example: Taking aspirin for a headache is negatively reinforced – removal of headache!

Schedules of Reinforcement: Refers to the frequency and manner in which a desired response is reinforced.

•Partial reinforcement effect - the tendency for a response that is reinforced after some, but not all, correct responses to be very resistant to extinction.

•Continuous reinforcement - the reinforcement of each and every correct response.

Four Main Schedules of Partial Reinforcement

TERMS YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Fixed: Always the same

Ratio: Number of responses

Interval: Time

Variable: Always different

•Fixed ratio schedule of reinforcement - schedule of reinforcement in which the number of responses required for reinforcement is always the same.

Eg: Getting paid for every 10 strawberries picked.

•Variable ratio schedule of reinforcement - schedule of reinforcement in which the number of responses required for reinforcement is different for each trial or event.

Eg. Poker machines

•Fixed interval schedule - of reinforcement schedule of reinforcement in which the interval of time that must pass before reinforcement becomes possible is always the same.

Eg. Pedestrian crossing

•Variable interval schedule of reinforcement - schedule of reinforcement in which the interval of time that must pass before reinforcement becomes possible is different for each trial or event.

Eg. Fishing

Punishment: is the delivery of an unpleasant stimulus following a response, or the removal of a pleasant stimulus following a response.

When closely associated with a response, punishment weakens the response, or decreases the chance of that response occurring again over time.