A _____ Is Any Stimulus That Increases the Probability That a Preceding Behavior Will Occur Again

Basic Principles of Operant Conditioning: Thorndike's Law of Effect

Thorndike's law of upshot states that behaviors are modified past their positive or negative consequences.

Learning Objectives

Relate Thorndike's law of effect to the principles of operant conditioning

Primal Takeaways

Key Points

• The law of result states that responses that produce a satisfying effect in a particular state of affairs get more likely to occur over again, while responses that produce a discomforting effect are less likely to be repeated.
• Edward 50. Thorndike first studied the constabulary of upshot past placing hungry cats inside puzzle boxes and observing their actions. He rapidly realized that cats could acquire the efficacy of sure behaviors and would repeat those behaviors that allowed them to escape faster.
• The law of effect is at work in every homo behavior as well. From a young age, nosotros learn which deportment are beneficial and which are detrimental through a like trial and error process.
• While the law of result explains behavior from an external, observable signal of view, it does not business relationship for internal, unobservable processes that likewise affect the behavior patterns of human beings.

Primal Terms

• Law of Effect: A law adult by Edward L. Thorndike that states, "responses that produce a satisfying effect in a particular situation get more likely to occur once again in that situation, and responses that produce a discomforting effect become less likely to occur over again in that situation."
• beliefs modification: The human action of altering deportment and reactions to stimuli through positive and negative reinforcement or punishment.
• trial and mistake: The procedure of finding a solution to a problem by trying many possible solutions and learning from mistakes until a way is found.

Operant conditioning is a theory of learning that focuses on changes in an individual'southward observable behaviors. In operant conditioning, new or continued behaviors are impacted by new or connected consequences. Research regarding this principle of learning first began in the late 19th century with Edward 50. Thorndike, who established the constabulary of effect.

Thorndike's Experiments

Thorndike'south most famous work involved cats trying to navigate through diverse puzzle boxes. In this experiment, he placed hungry cats into homemade boxes and recorded the fourth dimension it took for them to perform the necessary deportment to escape and receive their nutrient advantage. Thorndike discovered that with successive trials, cats would learn from previous beliefs, limit ineffective actions, and escape from the box more than chop-chop. He observed that the cats seemed to learn, from an intricate trial and error process, which actions should be connected and which deportment should exist abandoned; a well-practiced true cat could quickly remember and reuse actions that were successful in escaping to the food reward.

Thorndike'southward puzzle box: This image shows an example of Thorndike's puzzle box aslope a graph demonstrating the learning of a cat inside the box. Every bit the number of trials increased, the cats were able to escape more rapidly past learning.

The Law of Upshot

Thorndike realized not just that stimuli and responses were associated, merely also that behavior could be modified past consequences. He used these findings to publish his now famous "law of upshot" theory. According to the law of effect, behaviors that are followed by consequences that are satisfying to the organism are more than likely to be repeated, and behaviors that are followed by unpleasant consequences are less likely to be repeated. Substantially, if an organism does something that brings about a desired result, the organism is more likely to do it again. If an organism does something that does not bring about a desired result, the organism is less likely to exercise it again.

Constabulary of effect: Initially, cats displayed a diversity of behaviors inside the box. Over successive trials, deportment that were helpful in escaping the box and receiving the nutrient reward were replicated and repeated at a higher charge per unit.

Thorndike'due south law of issue now informs much of what nosotros know nigh operant conditioning and behaviorism. According to this law, behaviors are modified past their consequences, and this basic stimulus-response human relationship can be learned by the operant person or animal. Once the association between behavior and consequences is established, the response is reinforced, and the association holds the sole responsibility for the occurrence of that behavior. Thorndike posited that learning was simply a change in behavior as a result of a result, and that if an action brought a reward, it was stamped into the mind and bachelor for recall afterward.

From a young age, nosotros learn which deportment are benign and which are detrimental through a trial and fault procedure. For case, a young child is playing with her friend on the playground and playfully pushes her friend off the swingset. Her friend falls to the ground and begins to cry, and and then refuses to play with her for the rest of the day. The child's actions (pushing her friend) are informed by their consequences (her friend refusing to play with her), and she learns non to repeat that action if she wants to go on playing with her friend.

The law of upshot has been expanded to various forms of beliefs modification. Considering the law of issue is a key component of behaviorism, it does not include any reference to unobservable or internal states; instead, it relies solely on what can be observed in human behavior. While this theory does not business relationship for the entirety of human behavior, information technology has been practical to nearly every sector of human life, but particularly in didactics and psychology.

Basic Principles of Operant Conditioning: Skinner

B. F. Skinner was a behavioral psychologist who expanded the field past defining and elaborating on operant conditioning.

Learning Objectives

Summarize Skinner's research on operant conditioning

Key Takeaways

Key Points

• B. F. Skinner, a behavioral psychologist and a educatee of Eastward. L. Thorndike, contributed to our view of learning by expanding our understanding of conditioning to include operant conditioning.
• Skinner theorized that if a behavior is followed by reinforcement, that behavior is more than likely to be repeated, only if it is followed past penalty, it is less likely to be repeated.
• Skinner conducted his research on rats and pigeons past presenting them with positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, or punishment in various schedules that were designed to produce or inhibit specific target behaviors.
• Skinner did not include room in his research for ideas such as free will or private option; instead, he posited that all behavior could exist explained using  learned, physical aspects of the earth, including life history and evolution.

Key Terms

• punishment: The act or process of imposing and/or applying a sanction for an undesired behavior when conditioning toward a desired behavior.
• aversive: Tending to repel, causing avoidance (of a situation, a behavior, an item, etc.).
• superstition: A belief, not based on reason or scientific knowledge, that future events may be influenced by 1'due south beliefs in some magical or mystical fashion.

Operant conditioning is a theory of behaviorism that focuses on changes in an individual'southward observable behaviors. In operant workout, new or continued behaviors are impacted by new or continued consequences. Inquiry regarding this principle of learning was first conducted past Edward L. Thorndike in the late 1800s, then brought to popularity by B. F. Skinner in the mid-1900s. Much of this enquiry informs electric current practices in human behavior and interaction.

Skinner'south Theories of Operant Workout

Almost half a century later on Thorndike'southward get-go publication of the principles of operant conditioning and the law of outcome, Skinner attempted to bear witness an extension to this theory—that all behaviors are in some way a issue of operant conditioning. Skinner theorized that if a behavior is followed by reinforcement, that behavior is more than probable to be repeated, merely if it is followed past some sort of aversive stimuli or punishment, it is less probable to be repeated. He as well believed that this learned clan could end, or become extinct, if the reinforcement or punishment was removed.

B. F. Skinner: Skinner was responsible for defining the segment of behaviorism known as operant workout—a process past which an organism learns from its physical environs.

Skinner's Experiments

Skinner'due south almost famous research studies were simple reinforcement experiments conducted on lab rats and domestic pigeons, which demonstrated the nigh basic principles of operant conditioning. He conducted most of his research in a special cumulative recorder, at present referred to as a "Skinner box," which was used to analyze the behavioral responses of his test subjects. In these boxes he would present his subjects with positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, or aversive stimuli in various timing intervals (or "schedules") that were designed to produce or inhibit specific target behaviors.

In his showtime work with rats, Skinner would place the rats in a Skinner box with a lever attached to a feeding tube. Whenever a rat pressed the lever, food would be released. After the experience of multiple trials, the rats learned the association betwixt the lever and food and began to spend more of their time in the box procuring food than performing any other action. It was through this early on work that Skinner started to sympathise the effects of behavioral contingencies on actions. He discovered that the rate of response—as well as changes in response features—depended on what occurred subsequently the behavior was performed, not before. Skinner named these deportment operant behaviors because they operated on the environment to produce an result. The process by which one could arrange the contingencies of reinforcement responsible for producing a certain behavior so came to exist called operant conditioning.

To prove his idea that behaviorism was responsible for all actions, he later on created a "superstitious pigeon." He fed the pigeon on continuous intervals (every 15 seconds) and observed the pigeon's behavior. He found that the pigeon's actions would change depending on what it had been doing in the moments before the food was dispensed, regardless of the fact that those actions had nothing to exercise with the dispensing of nutrient. In this way, he discerned that the pigeon had fabricated a causal human relationship between its actions and the presentation of reward. It was this evolution of "superstition" that led Skinner to believe all behavior could be explained as a learned reaction to specific consequences.

In his operant conditioning experiments, Skinner often used an approach called shaping. Instead of rewarding simply the target, or desired, behavior, the process of shaping involves the reinforcement of successive approximations of the target behavior. Behavioral approximations are behaviors that, over time, abound increasingly closer to the actual desired response.

Skinner believed that all beliefs is predetermined by past and present events in the objective globe. He did not include room in his research for ideas such equally free will or private pick; instead, he posited that all behavior could be explained using learned, concrete aspects of the world, including life history and evolution. His work remains extremely influential in the fields of psychology, behaviorism, and instruction.

Shaping

Shaping is a method of operant conditioning past which successive approximations of a target behavior are reinforced.

Learning Objectives

Draw how shaping is used to alter beliefs

Key Takeaways

Fundamental Points

• B. F. Skinner used shaping —a method of training by which successive approximations toward a target behavior are reinforced—to test his theories of behavioral psychology.
• Shaping involves a calculated reinforcement of a "target behavior": it uses operant conditioning principles to railroad train a subject field by rewarding proper behavior and discouraging improper behavior.
• The method requires that the subject perform behaviors that at start just resemble the target behavior; through reinforcement, these behaviors are gradually changed or "shaped" to encourage the target behavior itself.
• Skinner's early on experiments in operant conditioning involved the shaping of rats' beliefs and then they learned to press a lever and receive a nutrient reward.
• Shaping is normally used to train animals, such as dogs, to perform difficult tasks; information technology is besides a useful learning tool for modifying human behavior.

Central Terms

• successive approximation: An increasingly accurate guess of a response desired by a trainer.
• paradigm: An case serving every bit a model or blueprint; a template, every bit for an experiment.
• shaping: A method of positive reinforcement of behavior patterns in operant workout.

In his operant-conditioning experiments, Skinner oftentimes used an approach called shaping. Instead of rewarding simply the target, or desired, behavior, the process of shaping involves the reinforcement of successive approximations of the target beliefs. The method requires that the subject perform behaviors that at commencement merely resemble the target behavior; through reinforcement, these behaviors are gradually changed, or shaped, to encourage the performance of the target behavior itself. Shaping is useful because it is often unlikely that an organism will display annihilation but the simplest of behaviors spontaneously. It is a very useful tool for training animals, such as dogs, to perform difficult tasks.

Dog bear witness: Canis familiaris training oftentimes uses the shaping method of operant conditioning.

How Shaping Works

In shaping, behaviors are broken downwards into many small, achievable steps. To test this method, B. F. Skinner performed shaping experiments on rats, which he placed in an apparatus (known as a Skinner box) that monitored their behaviors. The target behavior for the rat was to press a lever that would release nutrient. Initially, rewards are given for fifty-fifty crude approximations of the target behavior—in other words, even taking a step in the correct direction. And then, the trainer rewards a behavior that is one step closer, or one successive approximation nearer, to the target behavior. For example, Skinner would reward the rat for taking a pace toward the lever, for standing on its hind legs, and for touching the lever—all of which were successive approximations toward the target behavior of pressing the lever.

As the subject moves through each behavior trial, rewards for former, less approximate behaviors are discontinued in gild to encourage progress toward the desired behavior. For example, once the rat had touched the lever, Skinner might stop rewarding it for simply taking a stride toward the lever. In Skinner's experiment, each reward led the rat closer to the target behavior, finally culminating in the rat pressing the lever and receiving food. In this way, shaping uses operant-conditioning principles to railroad train a subject by rewarding proper behavior and discouraging improper behavior.

In summary, the procedure of shaping includes the following steps:

• Reinforce whatever response that resembles the target behavior.
• So reinforce the response that more closely resembles the target behavior. Y'all will no longer reinforce the previously reinforced response.
• Next, begin to reinforce the response that even more closely resembles the target beliefs. Continue to reinforce closer and closer approximations of the target behavior.
• Finally, only reinforce the target beliefs.

Applications of Shaping

This process has been replicated with other animals—including humans—and is now common exercise in many training and teaching methods. Information technology is unremarkably used to train dogs to follow exact commands or go firm-broken: while puppies tin can rarely perform the target behavior automatically, they tin can be shaped toward this behavior by successively rewarding behaviors that come close.

Shaping is besides a useful technique in homo learning. For example, if a father wants his daughter to learn to clean her room, he tin utilize shaping to help her master steps toward the goal. First, she cleans up one toy and is rewarded. 2d, she cleans up five toys; then chooses whether to option up ten toys or put her books and clothes away; then cleans up everything except two toys. Through a series of rewards, she finally learns to clean her entire room.

Reinforcement and Punishment

Reinforcement and punishment are principles of operant conditioning that increase or decrease the likelihood of a beliefs.

Learning Objectives

Differentiate among primary, secondary, conditioned, and unconditioned reinforcers

Cardinal Takeaways

Key Points

• " Reinforcement " refers to any event that increases the likelihood of a particular behavioral response; " penalization " refers to a event that decreases the likelihood of this response.
• Both reinforcement and penalization can be positive or negative. In operant conditioning, positive ways you lot are adding something and negative means yous are taking something away.
• Reinforcers tin can be either primary (linked unconditionally to a beliefs) or secondary (requiring deliberate or conditioned linkage to a specific behavior).
• Primary—or unconditioned—reinforcers, such as h2o, nutrient, slumber, shelter, sex, impact, and pleasure, have innate reinforcing qualities.
• Secondary—or conditioned—reinforcers (such as money) have no inherent value until they are linked or paired with a primary reinforcer.

Fundamental Terms

• latency: The delay betwixt a stimulus and the response it triggers in an organism.

Reinforcement and punishment are principles that are used in operant conditioning. Reinforcement means you are increasing a behavior: it is any outcome or effect that increases the likelihood of a item behavioral response (and that therefore reinforces the behavior). The strengthening consequence on the behavior can manifest in multiple means, including higher frequency, longer duration, greater magnitude, and short latency of response. Penalisation ways y'all are decreasing a behavior: information technology is whatever consequence or issue that decreases the likelihood of a behavioral response.

Extinction , in operant conditioning, refers to when a reinforced behavior is extinguished entirely. This occurs at some point later reinforcement stops; the speed at which this happens depends on the reinforcement schedule, which is discussed in more than detail in another section.

Positive and Negative Reinforcement and Punishment

Both reinforcement and punishment can be positive or negative. In operant conditioning, positive and negative do not mean good and bad. Instead, positive ways you are calculation something and negative means you are taking something abroad. All of these methods can dispense the behavior of a subject, simply each works in a unique fashion.

Operant workout: In the context of operant conditioning, whether you are reinforcing or punishing a behavior, "positive" always means you are adding a stimulus (not necessarily a skillful i), and "negative" always means you are removing a stimulus (not necessarily a bad 1. See the bluish text and yellow text above, which correspond positive and negative, respectively. Similarly, reinforcement always ways you are increasing (or maintaining) the level of a behavior, and penalty always means you are decreasing the level of a behavior. See the green and red backgrounds above, which represent reinforcement and punishment, respectively.

• Positive reinforcers add a wanted or pleasant stimulus to increase or maintain the frequency of a behavior. For example, a child cleans her room and is rewarded with a cookie.
• Negative reinforcers remove an aversive or unpleasant stimulus to increase or maintain the frequency of a behavior. For case, a child cleans her room and is rewarded by not having to wash the dishes that night.
• Positive punishments add an aversive stimulus to decrease a behavior or response. For example, a child refuses to clean her room and then her parents make her wash the dishes for a week.
• Negative punishments remove a pleasant stimulus to subtract a beliefs or response. For example, a kid refuses to clean her room and so her parents refuse to permit her play with her friend that afternoon.

Main and Secondary Reinforcers

The stimulus used to reinforce a sure beliefs can be either primary or secondary. A main reinforcer, also chosen an unconditioned reinforcer, is a stimulus that has innate reinforcing qualities. These kinds of reinforcers are non learned. Water, food, sleep, shelter, sexual activity, touch, and pleasure are all examples of primary reinforcers: organisms do non lose their drive for these things. Some primary reinforcers, such every bit drugs and booze, just mimic the effects of other reinforcers. For most people, jumping into a cool lake on a very hot twenty-four hour period would be reinforcing and the cool lake would exist innately reinforcing—the h2o would cool the person off (a physical need), equally well every bit provide pleasure.

A secondary reinforcer, also called a conditioned reinforcer, has no inherent value and simply has reinforcing qualities when linked or paired with a primary reinforcer. Earlier pairing, the secondary reinforcer has no meaningful result on a bailiwick. Money is 1 of the all-time examples of a secondary reinforcer: it is just worth something because you can employ it to buy other things—either things that satisfy basic needs (food, water, shelter—all primary reinforcers) or other secondary reinforcers.

Schedules of Reinforcement

Reinforcement schedules determine how and when a behavior will exist followed by a reinforcer.

Learning Objectives

Compare and dissimilarity different types of reinforcement schedules

Key Takeaways

Key Points

• A reinforcement schedule is a tool in operant workout that allows the trainer to command the timing and frequency of reinforcement in order to elicit a target beliefs.
• Continuous schedules reward a behavior after every performance of the desired behavior; intermittent (or partial) schedules only reward the beliefs after certain ratios or intervals of responses.
• Intermittent schedules tin be either fixed (where reinforcement occurs after a set amount of time or responses) or variable (where reinforcement occurs afterward a varied and unpredictable amount of time or responses).
• Intermittent schedules are as well described as either interval (based on the time betwixt reinforcements) or ratio (based on the number of responses).
• Different schedules (fixed-interval, variable-interval, fixed-ratio, and variable-ratio) have different advantages and respond differently to extinction.
• Compound reinforcement schedules combine two or more elementary schedules, using the same reinforcer and focusing on the same target beliefs.

Key Terms

• extinction: When a behavior ceases because it is no longer reinforced.
• interval: A menstruum of time.
• ratio: A number representing a comparison between two things.

A schedule of reinforcement is a tactic used in operant conditioning that influences how an operant response is learned and maintained. Each type of schedule imposes a dominion or program that attempts to make up one's mind how and when a desired behavior occurs. Behaviors are encouraged through the use of reinforcers, discouraged through the use of punishments, and rendered extinct past the complete removal of a stimulus. Schedules vary from simple ratio- and interval-based schedules to more than complicated chemical compound schedules that combine one or more uncomplicated strategies to dispense behavior.

Continuous vs. Intermittent Schedules

Continuous schedules advantage a behavior after every performance of the desired behavior. This reinforcement schedule is the quickest way to teach someone a behavior, and it is especially effective in teaching a new beliefs. Simple intermittent (sometimes referred to as partial) schedules, on the other hand, only advantage the beliefs after certain ratios or intervals of responses.

Types of Intermittent Schedules

In that location are several dissimilar types of intermittent reinforcement schedules. These schedules are described as either fixed or variable and equally either interval or ratio.

Stock-still vs. Variable, Ratio vs. Interval

Fixed refers to when the number of responses between reinforcements, or the amount of time betwixt reinforcements, is set and unchanging. Variable refers to when the number of responses or amount of time between reinforcements varies or changes. Interval ways the schedule is based on the fourth dimension between reinforcements, and ratio means the schedule is based on the number of responses between reinforcements. Simple intermittent schedules are a combination of these terms, creating the following 4 types of schedules:

• A fixed-interval schedule is when beliefs is rewarded subsequently a set amount of fourth dimension. This type of schedule exists in payment systems when someone is paid hourly: no thing how much work that person does in one hour (behavior), they volition exist paid the same amount (reinforcement).
• With a variable-interval schedule, the subject gets the reinforcement based on varying and unpredictable amounts of fourth dimension. People who similar to fish experience this type of reinforcement schedule: on boilerplate, in the same location, yous are probable to grab well-nigh the same number of fish in a given fourth dimension menses. However, you practise non know exactly when those catches will occur (reinforcement) inside the time catamenia spent fishing (beliefs).
• With a fixed-ratio schedule, at that place are a gear up number of responses that must occur before the behavior is rewarded. This can be seen in payment for work such as fruit picking: pickers are paid a certain amount (reinforcement) based on the amount they option (behavior), which encourages them to pick faster in lodge to make more money. In another instance, Carla earns a commission for every pair of glasses she sells at an eyeglass store. The quality of what Carla sells does not matter considering her commission is non based on quality; it'southward only based on the number of pairs sold. This distinction in the quality of operation can assistance determine which reinforcement method is most advisable for a particular situation: fixed ratios are better suited to optimize the quantity of output, whereas a stock-still interval can lead to a higher quality of output.
• In a variable-ratio schedule, the number of responses needed for a advantage varies. This is the most powerful type of intermittent reinforcement schedule. In humans, this type of schedule is used past casinos to attract gamblers: a slot car pays out an average win ratio—say five to i—but does not guarantee that every fifth bet (behavior) will be rewarded (reinforcement) with a win.

All of these schedules accept unlike advantages. In full general, ratio schedules consistently elicit higher response rates than interval schedules because of their predictability. For example, if yous are a factory worker who gets paid per item that you industry, you will exist motivated to manufacture these items chop-chop and consistently. Variable schedules are categorically less-predictable and so they tend to resist extinction and encourage connected behavior. Both gamblers and fishermen akin tin understand the feeling that ane more than pull on the slot-machine lever, or one more hr on the lake, will change their luck and elicit their respective rewards. Thus, they keep to run a risk and fish, regardless of previously unsuccessful feedback.

Simple reinforcement-schedule responses: The four reinforcement schedules yield dissimilar response patterns. The variable-ratio schedule is unpredictable and yields high and steady response rates, with piffling if whatever intermission afterwards reinforcement (e.thousand., gambling). A fixed-ratio schedule is predictable and produces a high response rate, with a short suspension after reinforcement (e.g., eyeglass sales). The variable-interval schedule is unpredictable and produces a moderate, steady response charge per unit (e.m., fishing). The fixed-interval schedule yields a scallop-shaped response pattern, reflecting a meaning pause afterwards reinforcement (east.g., hourly employment).

Extinction of a reinforced behavior occurs at some point later on reinforcement stops, and the speed at which this happens depends on the reinforcement schedule. Among the reinforcement schedules, variable-ratio is the nigh resistant to extinction, while fixed-interval is the easiest to extinguish.

Elementary vs. Compound Schedules

All of the examples described above are referred to as uncomplicated schedules. Chemical compound schedules combine at least two elementary schedules and use the same reinforcer for the same behavior. Compound schedules are often seen in the workplace: for example, if you are paid at an hourly rate (fixed-interval) but as well have an incentive to receive a small commission for sure sales (fixed-ratio), yous are being reinforced by a compound schedule. Additionally, if at that place is an end-of-year bonus given to simply 3 employees based on a lottery organisation, yous'd be motivated by a variable schedule.

In that location are many possibilities for compound schedules: for example, superimposed schedules use at least two uncomplicated schedules simultaneously. Concurrent schedules, on the other manus, provide 2 possible elementary schedules simultaneously, simply allow the participant to respond on either schedule at volition. All combinations and kinds of reinforcement schedules are intended to elicit a specific target behavior.

wellsarecow1945.blogspot.com

Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-psychology/chapter/operant-conditioning/

Share this post