Instrumental and Operant Conditioning Foundation Introduction o Classical Conditioning stimulus stimulus learning Subjects are using stimuli in environment to predict what will happen next Behavior shows what they re expecting will happen forming expectations No control over the stimuli o Instrumental Conditioning stimulus response learning s r Some element of control of what s going to happen after the behavior Behavior will be whatever was rewarded in the past Rewards and Punishments Skinner thought there was no choice in it Early Investigation of Instrumental Operant Conditioning o Edward Thorndike Instrumental Conditioning Proposed that when we re developing a S R association that behavior occurs for purpose of reaching some sort of goal Response is goal oriented response where subject is behaving a certain way to achieve a goal o EXAMPLE rat running through a maze to get food Famous Experiment Cat in Puzzle Box Built chamber for cat where door was attached to pulley and foot lever Instinct to escape triggered when door closed tried to squeeze through slats to claw and dig stick paw through the slats and grab at anything As trials progressed cat escaped faster and faster from 2 minutes down to 20 seconds Goal direction Any behavior that leads you to some goal o Formulated the law of effect If a response in the presence of a stimulus is followed by a satisfying event the association between stimulus and response is strengthened If idea is not followed by something satisfying then association will be weakened Thorndike focused on satisfaction not a radical behaviorist Try to determine what emotional changes were occurring in nervous system Thought there must be some level of satisfaction helps to facilitate this association o B F Skinner Operant Conditioning Disagreed with Thorndike s idea of satisfaction wanted to focus on observable behaviors that can be objectively measured Reinforcement Any event that increases the probability that the response will occur again Probability NOT frequency because sometimes there s no opportunity for subject to exhibit learned behavior Operant Response Any behavior that has the same effect on the environment Radial behaviorist so must use observable measurable behavior Instrumental Operant Conditioning o Definitions and Difference Instrumental Conditioning Process in which the environment constrains the opportunity for reward and a specific response will obtain that reward Specific response is the goal directed behavior o EXAMPLE Pressing of the foot pedal Environment sets up contingency where opportunity for reward in constrained o EXAMPLE When parents give rewards for completed homework Once you finish your homework and receive an award you can t do the homework again and get more Some days you aren t assigned homework o Must be some resetting of the environment so behavior can be repeated again Operant Conditioning Process in which the environment does not constrain opportunity for reinforcement and a specific response will obtain that reinforcer No environmental constraints animal can freely engage in behavior and receive unlimited rewards EXAMPLE Riding a Bicycle o Moving your foot and pushing the pedal forward as long as you keep pedaling the bike keeps moving the reinforcer is that you re making progress moving forward o Types of Reinforcers Two types Primary Reinforcers o Innate EXAMPLE food o No prior learning involved o More powerful than secondary reinforcers o Likely going to reinforce behavior from the first experience more powerful Secondary Reinforcers o Have to have developed reinforcing properties o Developed through association with primary reinforcers through classical conditioning EXAMPLE stickers money the grade A praise social acceptance o Learn to find secondary reinforcers not innate o Experimental Approaches instrumental vs operant conditioning Discrete trial method For instrumental conditioning not operant Typically has a discrete starting and stopping point Two kinds of mazes o Alley Mazes Place a rat at start box the opposite end is the goal typically water food is in the goal box A door slat blocks the goal box o T mazes Rat placed at start box two goals on either side at the end Study choice behavior Free operant method Operant chamber For operant conditioning not instrumental Condition where behavior can be freely engaged in over and over again Shaping reinforcing behaviors that are more and more similar to the target behavior o If behavior is not likely to occur on it s own you can get the behavior by shaping Instrumental Operant Conditioning Procedures o Positive Reinforcement Positive Contingency between behavior and consequence If you do the behavior and get something good Positive positive contingency Reinforcement Tells you that it s appetitive anything that will produce the behavior again o Punishment positive punishment o Negative Reinforcement Decrease in the probability that a behavior will be repeated following a consequence Increase in the probability that the behavior will be repeated again Behavior increases BUT negative relationship between behavior and consequence If you do the behavior then the consequence does not happen o Omission negative punishment Negative relationship with an appetitive stimulus When you do the behavior something good does NOT happen OR it is taken away If you don t engage in that behavior then it s available to you Behavior decreases as a result Type of punishment theory Consequence type Pleasant appetitive Unpleasant aversive Type of relationship Positive consequence produced Negative consequence stopped taken away Positive reinforcement Rf Positive Punishment Omission Negative Reinforcement Response Contingencies and Schedules of Reinforcement Rf Introduction o Schedule of Reinforcement Program of rule that determines how and when the occurrence of a behavior or response will be followed by a reinforcer Some schedules are determined by Passage of time Number of behaviors how many responses are necessary to get the reinforcer you want Other stimuli only under certain conditions with certain stimuli will reinforcement begin Occurrence of other responses May need to do a behavior prior to setting up the condition for reinforcement Rate at which you respond how quickly slowly you response after the last time you received reinforcement Continuous Reinforcement Schedule CRF o Category AND a schedule Simplest of all schedules easy to execute as trainer easy for subject to