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92 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Describe Thorndike's puzzle box apparatus and his use of it to study the behavior of cats (and other animals).
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Puzzle box: food in plain view but out of reach. Simple way to escape: pull wire loop or step on treadle. Cat would at first try ineefective escapes (bite bars, scratch walls), eventually learned through trial and error to get out quickly with the escape button. Graphed the time to escape: reduction in time is learning curve. Steep learning curve actually means learning fast. Shallow learning curve shows slower progress.
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Why did he (Thorndike) study animal behavior?
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He believed 'human folk are eager to find intelligence in animals' and that people exhalted the few exeptional feats accomplished by animals. Or in his words: 'I did what the occasion seemed to demand' (140)
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What were (Thorndike’s findings?
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Chick in a maze, eventually walzes out on correct path. Cat eventually opens the box in one try. Graphed these data, created first learning curves.
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What conclusions did he draw from those findings? (Thorndike, about animal behaviour) (pp. 135-137)
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A given behaviour has one of two consequences: annoying or satisfying state of affairs.
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Define Thorndike's law of effect.
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Relationship behaviour and its consequences. The strength (frequency, durability, etc.) of a behavior depends on the consequences the behavior has had in the past. Ie. Behavior is a function of its consequences.
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What did Thorndike speculate about reinforcement's neural affect? What is this view called? (p. 137)
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Reinforcement strengthens bonds/connections between neurons. Called connectionism. Has been vindicated since.
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How does reinforcement of a response give that response momentum?
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The more a behaviour is reinforced, the more likely the behavior is to continue if it is ever not reinforced (ie. If it fails to produce satisfying state of affairs).
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Explain Nevin's use of the metaphor of momentum to describe the effects of reinforcement.
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A large ball rolling down a hill has more momentum, and its course is less likely to be stopped by obstruction. Reinforced behavior is less likely to be obstructed by series of failures.
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Everday examples of momentum in behaviour
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Comment: Everyday observations may help you confirm the usefulness of the metaphor of momentum in describing behavior. For example, children have a hard time tearing themselves away from video games or television to do something else.
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In what way did Thorndike's work depart from previous conceptions of the learning process?
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First to show that behaviour is systematically strengthened or weakened by its consequences. He also shifted our behaviour from inside an organism (learning is based on reasoning) to external environment (learning is based on consequences).
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How did Page and Neuringer show that randomness is a reinforceable property of behavior? (p.137)
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Gave reinforces to pigeons for a series of 8 keypecks, but only when the series was different from the previous 50 sequences. Keypeck patterns became almost truly random.
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Describe the essential components of a Skinner box.
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Food magazine: pellets make noise when they drop in. Box can automatically drop pellets in until rat gets used to the sound. Then, rat learns that pushing lever makes food fall into tray. Rate of lever pressing increased dramatically.
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How did the Skinner box get its name? (p. 138)
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B. F. Skinner was the inventor, and Clark Hull, psychologist at Yale, dubbed chamber the Skinner box, and the term stuck. Skinner prefered 'operant chamber' but 'experimental chamber' is more accurate, because the boxes are so widely used.
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What is operant learning or operant conditioning?
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Procedures where behaviour is strengthened or weakened by its consequences. (Behaviour operates on the environment) Kind of trial and error, but Thorndike preferred trial and success.
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What other name refers to operant conditioning?
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Instrumental learning (behaviour is instrumental in prodcuing consequences).
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How does operant conditioning differ from Pavlovian conditioning? (pp. 138-139)
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Pavlovian: stimulus elicits a reflex response, and is therefore passive. Operant conditioning (learning) response is not reflexive, often complex. Organism acts on environment and changes it, meaning this is active learning.
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Define reinforcement.
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procedure of providing consequences for behaviour that increase or maintain strength of that behaviour.
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Name the three essential features of reinforcement.
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1 behaviour must have a consequence. 2 behavior must increase in strength 3 increase in strength must be the result of the consequence.
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Be able to explain and reproduce the contingency square (Figure 5-5). (pp. 141-142)
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COPY/PASTE AN IMAGE OF THIS INTO THE FLASHCARD
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What are the two basic types of reinforcement?
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Positive reinforcement(aka reward training, but people are rewarded, behaviour is reinforced) and negative reinforcement (aka escape training)
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Be able to provide and recognize original examples of each type. (pp. 142-143)
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Positive reinforcement: Behvaiour (be nice to sister) reinforced by adding stimulus (candy). Negative reinforcement: Behaviour (be nice to sister) reinforced by removal of stimulus (getting beaten by a wet noodle)
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What is escape training? (p. 143)
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Negative reinforcement
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Escape v. avoidance
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Comment: The text does not make a clear distinction between escape and avoidance. In escape, an organism's response terminates an aversive stimulus. For example, on a sunny day, putting on a pair of sunglasses (a response) terminates the glare of the sun (an aversive stimulus) that you (the organism) are experiencing. In avoidance, the response prevents or postpones a consequence. For example, suppose you put on your sunglasses while still inside your house. Putting on the sunglasses does not terminate the glaring sun consequence, but it does prevent it from occurring (avoidance). In escape, the response terminates some aversive stimulus. In avoidance, the response produces no immediate consequence. Instead, in avoidance, failing to respond produces a consequence. In our sunglasses example, when you put on the sunglasses while still inside, it has no consequence: it does not produce or remove the sun's glare. However, failure to but the sunglasses (while still inside) will lead to the aversive glare of the sun when you step outside. Another example of an avoidance contingency is the late charge you are assessed on your utility bill. If you pay your bill on time, nothing happens: you do not receive a late charge. However, failure to pay your bill on time produces the aversive late charge. In a conceptual exercise later in this unit, you will practice discriminating between instances of escape and avoidance. (AS SIMPLE AS PREVENTION V. REPAIR)
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Define discrete-trial procedures
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Behaviour of the participant ends the trial. (ie. Cat gets out of the box, rat reaches end of the maze). Thorndike used this method. Dependent variable: usually time taken, sometimes number of errors or number of times performing the behaviour within a certain time.
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Describe free operant procedures.
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Behavior repeated any number of times. E.g. rat can press lever again and again to get food.
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Be able to provide and recognize original examples of each procedure. (discrete-trial and free operant) (pp. 144-147)
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Discrete trial: monkey tested for how fast it can open a door. Free operant: monkey tested for how many times it will give a researcher a high five, (given food with each high five).
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Explain why scientists often simplify problems to study them.
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Usually, the only way we are able to get enough control of the variables to manipulate and analyze them is to simplify them. Need simplicity to identify functional relationships between independent and dependent variables.
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of this approach? (simplifying problems to study them) (pp. 146-147)
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Advantages: allows us to identify relationships between variables, predict/control future experiments, produce hypotheses to how real word problems can be solved. DISADVANTAGES: these are not real life experiments, may forget or ignore important variables.
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Compare and contrast operant and Pavlovian conditioning.
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Pavlovian: US is contingent on another stimulus (CS). Behaviours studied are usually reflexive. Operant learning: stimulus (the consequence) is contingent on a behavior. Behaviour is voluntary. (Voluntary/involuntary problem: sometimes tough to tell which is which) Biological diffs: reflexes (autonomous nervous system/smooth muscles/glands). Voluntary: voluntary nervous system and skeletal muscles. (Limited value in practice)
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Describe the parallel Skinner (nope, only Thorndike did this in the text) drew between natural selection and reinforcement. (pp. 147-149)
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Thorndike: Useful behaviors 'survive,' and others 'die out.' Skinner (after Thorndike) 'made much of the idea that reinforcement selects behavior. :parallel between evolution of species through natural selection and 'evolution' of individual behavior through reinforcement.
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What are primary (unconditioned) reinforcers?
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Naturally or innately reinforcing. More accurate: not dependent on their association with other reinforcers. (e.g. food, water, sex, electrical stim of brain tissues), relief from heat, cold, certain drugs. Powerful, but few in number.
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What are secondary (conditioned) reinforcers (149-151)
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Dependent on association with other reinforcers. (e.g. praise, recognition, smiles, positive feedback. Owe influence directly or indirectly to primary reinforcers.
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Unconditioned reinforcers:
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Comment: It is common to refer to primary reinforcers as unconditioned reinforcers and to secondary reinforcers as conditioned reinforcers. Chance neglects to mention that primary reinforcers are also called unconditioned reinforcers.
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What four advantages do conditioned (secondary) reinforcers have over unconditioned (or primary) reinforcers?
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1 Retain effectiveness better than primary reinforcers (ie. Hunger disappears quickly when one is eating) 2 Often much easier to immediate reinforce behaviour with conditioned reinforcers (e.g. use clicker for horse instead of oats) 3 Less disruptive than primary reinforcers 4 Can be used in many situations (food only works when hungry)
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What key disadvantage do conditioned reinforcers have? (pp. 150-151)
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Effectiveness depends on association with primary reinforcer
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What are generalized reinforcers? (p. 151)
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Secondary reinforcer that has been paired with with many different kinds of reinforcers.
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What is shaping?
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The reinforcement of successive approximations of a desired behavior.
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Provide and recognize original examples of shaping. (pp. 151-156)
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Monkey giving a high five: first, whenever the monkey comes cloer to the trainer, reinforce with food. Then, when monkey lifts his hand, reinforce with food. Then, when gives high five, reinforce with food.
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My addition: applications
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Skinners daughter: waving hand to turn on a light. Teacher: praise crude alphabet drawings, then progressively 'up the ante' and demand a little mor each time to produce the praise. Therapist: praise small successes, then gradually require more.
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What five factors are responsible for the effective use of shaping? (pp. 154-155)
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1 Reinforce small steps. 2 Immediate reinforcement 3 Small reinforcers (a few pellets of food instead of handful, 'well done' instead of toys. 4 reinforce best approximation available. 5 back up when necessary
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Explain how adults often unwittingly shape undesirable behavior in children (pp. 153-155)
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Tired parent yields to childs demands to quiet them down. Later, they resist, and child responds by becoming louder or crying, so parent relents to avoid causing a scene. The parents continues to resist, crying gets louder until they comply. Essentially, the parent is demanding louder and louder crying for the child to get what it wants.
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What is a behavior chain?
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A connected sequence of behavior
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Provide and recognize original examples of behavior chains. (p. 156)
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Jump rope routine, going to work, washing the dishes.
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What is a chaining procedure?
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Training an animal or person to perform a behaviour chain.
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What is the first step? (in a chaining procedure) (pp. 156-157)
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Task analysis: breaking the task down into its component elements
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Name two types of chaining procedures. B
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Forward chaining and backward chaining.
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e able to provide and recognize original examples of forward and backward chaining.
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Forward: start with first link, repeat until task performed without hesitation. Then, required second link as well, etc. Backward: same thing, but start at the last link
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What reinforces each link of a behavior chain? (pp. 157-159).
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The opportunity to perform the next step in the chain. Last link is produces reinforcer that is not part of the chain
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Describe the concept of contingency in reinforcement.
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Degree of correlation between a behavior and its consequences
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How and why does it (contingency) influence reinforcement? (pp. 159-160)
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The more contingency, the stronger the reinforcement. Numerous small reinforcers are generally more effective than a few large ones
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My insertion: interesting student projectt
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test how long it takes someone to learn to type if the button does not always produce the right letter on the screen
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Describe the concept of contiguity in reinforcement.
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The gap between a behavior and its reinforcing consequence
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How and why does (contiguity) influence reinforcement? (pp. 160-163)
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In general, shorter the interval, the faster learning occurs. This is true even if number of reinforcements is held constant. WHY? Delay allows time for other behavior to occur. Delay can be offset using a signal at beginning of delay (called the marking hypothesis (eg sounding a tone at the beginning of the delay).
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More on contiguity
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Comment: The author often discusses contiguity in terms of delay of reinforcement. The general principle of contiguity is that immediate reinforcement is more effective than delayed reinforcement.
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How do the following conditions affect the effectiveness of a reinforcer?:
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Size, task characteristics, deprivation level, previous learning history, and competing contingencies (5 items)
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How does this affect the effectiveness of a reinforcer: (a) size of the reinforcer,
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Other things being equal this does matter. Think of $1 laying on the street as motivation to keep looking down compared to $100. Also called magnitude. Not a linear relationship between effect/size. In general, large the reinforcer, the less you gain from increasing it. Type important: food preferences important
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How does this affect the effectiveness of a reinforcer:(b) task characteristics,
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Learning to walk balance beam easier than walk tightrope. Learning to lower voice easier than lower blood pressure
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How does this affect the effectiveness of a reinforcer:(c) deprivation level,
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Generally: greater the deprivation level, the more effective the reinforcer. Not often the case with secondary reinforcers (ie. Money is not always a stronger reinforcer for people with less money)
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How does this affect the effectiveness of a reinforcer:(d) previous learning history, and
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Much of the difference between fast/slow learning children in school disappeares when both have similar learning histories.
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How does this affect the effectiveness of a reinforcer:(e) competing contingencies. (pp. 163-167)
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Effects very different if the behavior also produces punishing consequenes or if reinforcers are simultaneous ly available for other kinds of behavior.
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Provide and recognize examples of each source of influence:(a) size of the reinforcer,
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$1 bill v. $100 dollar bill. Lots of food v. not much.
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Provide and recognize examples of each source of influence:(b) task characteristics,
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Balance beam v. tight rope, lower voice v. lower heart rate. Swim v. run.
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Provide and recognize examples of each source of influence:(c) deprivation level,
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Starving? No money? Tired?
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Provide and recognize examples of each source of influence:(d) previous learning history, and
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Previous experience with the subject? Octopus (Charlie) who has been involved in experiments before?
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Provide and recognize examples of each source of influence: (e) competing contingencies. Provide and recognize examples of each source of influence. (pp. 163-167)
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Could the rat get food by doing something else? Has/is the rat sometimes punished for the same behavior?
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What is an operant extinction procedure?
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Witholding the consequences that reinforce the behavior.
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What is the immediate effect of an extinction procedure?
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Abrupt increase in the behavior on extinction.
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What is an extinction burst? (p. 167)
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The abrupt increase in behavior that is being extinguished (when reinforcement for the behavior is removed).
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What effects does operant extinction have on behavioral variability?
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Increases the variability of behavior (can be useful when trying to reinforce a different behavior)
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What effect does operant extinction have On aggression? (pp. 167-168)
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Tends to increase aggression (think: pounding stuck door, slamming unanswered phone). Rats bite the lever that no longer gives food, and other rats, if they are close by.
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How long does it normally take to extinguish a behavior? (pp. 168-169)
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One session inadequate (usually). Rate of previously reinforced behavior declines gradually until reaches pretraining level. Put back into training situation, can return to training level almost instantly (as per spontaneous recovery). The longer the time between two extinction sessions, the greater the recovery. Depends on many factors, including number of times behavior was reinforced beore extinction, effort the behavior requires, size of reinforcer used during training.
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Describe spontaneous recovery with respect to operant extinction.
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Vending machine doesn't work, eventually, person gives up. However, may try again when they pass it later that day. Teacher may extinguish silly comments from class by not responding. However, they may pop up later (and he may reinforce by smiling, being caught off guard)
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What conditions facilitate spontaneous recovery? (p. 169)
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Longer gap between extinction sessions.
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What is resurgence?
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Another kind of reappearance of previosly reinforced behavior.
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Be able to provide and recognize original examples of resurgence.
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Pigeons trained to peck disk, then behavior extinguished. Then, trained to flap wings, and this behavior is extinguished. Wing flapping declines, but pecking also begins to increase.
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How can resurgence help to explain some instances of regression? (pp. 169-170)
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Man who asks nicely and it does work may get angry and throw a tantrum, regressing to the previously reinforced behavior.
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What conditions are responsible for the rate of extinction? (pp. 170-171)
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Number of times behavior was reinforced before extinction, effort the behavior requires, size of reinforcer used during training.
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The author claims that reinforcement and extinction are parallel procedures, but that they do not have equal effects. Explain. (pp. 170-172)
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One non-reinforcement does not cancel out one reinforcement. Behavior usually acquired rapidly, extinguished slowlyl
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Describe Thorndike's work in which he tried to separate the effects of reinforcement from those of practice. (p. 172)
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Tried to draw a 4 inch line with his eyes closed. 3,000 attempts, no improvement (because no feedback). Had students do same thing 400 times w/out looking. Then, allowed them 25 more attempts, checking their work after each line. Marked improvement.
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Practice verses reinforcement.
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Comment: Thorndike showed that simply telling people to draw lines of a specified length, and having them repeatedly practice line drawing did not induce people to draw lines of accurate lengths. The people also needed feedback, that is, information about whether their attempts were correct or incorrect. It is unclear whether Thorndike actually separated the effects of practice and reinforcement. What he appeared to have done is to separate the value of practice without specific feedback from the value of practice with specific feedback. Thorndike's subjects would likely have been more successful at the task if they had been shown a line of the correct length before they began practicing and were instructed to copy it repeatedly. This wouldn't have been extrinsic reinforcement, but it would have been practice with line-length information. To show that the line-length information was a reinforcer, one would have to show the importance of it occurring only as a consequence for responding. This is unlikely, because line-length information would have been a benefit whether it occurred as a consequence for responding (i.e., as feedback) or as a model for responding.
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Describe Hull's drive-reduction theory. (pp. 172-173)
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Drives: motivation states that cause behaviors. Suggests that reinforcers reduce the drives (like hunger). Hull suggested secondary reinforcers were associated with the drives of primary reinforcers.
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Is 'drive' a useful term?
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Comment: A basic problem with Hull's drive reduction theory is the notion of a drive. A drive is a conceptual entity that seems to explain behavior as drive reduction, but does it really explain anything? When we say, for example, that eating reduces a food drive, or that social reinforcement reduces a social drive, we are really saying that food and social reinforcement act as reinforcers, making the concept of a drive an unnecessary explanatory variable. Throughout history, empty explanatory concepts, like drives, have plagued psychology. They seem to provide causes of behavior, but, upon closer examination, explain nothing.
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Describe Premack's relative value theory.
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Some activities are more likely to occur than others (they are more valuable to the organism). These relative values determine the reinforcing properties of behavior. Look at amount of time an animal spends engaged in different behaviors. PREMACK'S PRINCIPLE: The more probably response will reinforce the less probable.
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of this approach? (Premack’s relative value theory) (pp. 174-176)
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ADVANTAGES: strictly empirical; no hypothetical concepts. DISADVANTAGES: secondary reinforcer (why is the word 'yes' reinforcing?), low probability behavior will reinforce high probability behavior sometimes.
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Describe Timberlake and Allison's response deprivation theory of reinforcement.
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Also called equilibrium theory or response restriction theory: behaviour becomes reinforcing when the organism is prevented from engaging in it at its normal frequency. Very similar to Premack/relative value. Difference is that relative value is not important, only whether the behavior is below its baseline rate.
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of this theory? (Timberlake and Allison’s response deprivation theory of reinforcement) (pp. 176-177)
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Like Hull/Premack's theories, has trouble explaining reinforcing power of the word 'yes' or 'correct.'
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The author claims that negative reinforcement often starts out as escape responding and ends up as avoidance responding. Provide an original example (pp. 178-179)illustrating this transition.
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Also called escape-avoidance learning. A student gets to class late and the teacher yells at them. The behavior of getting to class on will increase to escape the stimulus of being yelled at (though this could also be cast as the behaviour of arriving late will occur less often to escape the punishment of being yelled at). Snowball fight: one gets hit in the face if they don't duck. The behaviour of ducking will increase to escape the stimulus of being hit in the face.
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Explain why avoidance responding has been considered a puzzling phenomenon. (pp. 178-179)
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Murray Sidman: how could something that did not happen be a reinforcer? (e.g. the shock that a dog escaped by jumping over the hurdle.
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Describe the two-process theory of avoidance and the evidence for and against this theory.
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Says both Pavlovian and operant conditioning are happening. Shock is US for pain/fear. CS is darkness. Dog escapes shock by jumping barrier, and learns to escape the darkness as well (but this is still escape, but not avoidance. EVIDENCE FOR: Neal Miller: put rats in white compartment, shocked them, and they jumped to black compartment. Put them in again, they escaped again, even though no shocks to escape. White compartment was CS, escape from it was reinforcing. EVIDENCE AGAINST: Herrnstein, if CS loses aversiveness, (and they seem to) avoidance behaviour should cease, but it persists. Solomon and Wynne: Dogs no longer bothered by CS after they could avoid it. LEON KAMIN: trained rats to press a lever for food. Then trained them to escape shock (preceded by tone). Put back in original box: those who had escaped tone the most ate the most (were the least fearful of the tone). If CS becomes less frightening, what reinforces the avoidance? Two process theory also predicts deterioration of avoidance (because, if aversive is avoided, it is no longer paired with the CS, and should weaken. But avoidance behaviors are remarkable for their persistence.
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What is a Sidman avoidance procedure? (pp. 179-182)
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Rat placed in chamber and shocked, but pressing lever causes 15 second delay. Two process theory says no signal (CS) then no avoidance, but the rats avoided shocks. Anger said 'time is the CS,' Hernstein and Hineline erased this by using averages: press lever, average time between shocks is 20, do not press lever, average time is 7 seconds. Time was useless as a signal for shock, but rats still learned to press the lever.
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Describe the one-process theory of avoidance and the evidence that supports this approach (pp. 182-183)
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Avoidance involves only operant learning. Escape/avoidance are reinforced by reduction in aversive stimulation. Escape: jumping hurdle is reinforced by termination of shock. Awesome. What about avoidance? Absence of something shouldn't reinforce, right? The something that happens is reduction in exposure to shock, and this is reinforcing. Hernstein and Hineline (press lever makes average time between shocks 20 seconds instead of 7), supports this. Also explains persistence of avoidance behavior. Avoidance continues because the reduction in exposure to shock has continued. To reduce unnecessary avoidance behavior: prevent both behavior and its aversive consequence.
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Personal addition: learned helplessness
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Overmeier and Seligman (1967) put dog in harness, presented a tone, followed by shock. Nothing dog did allowed escape (neither tone or shock was contingent on behavior). Later, put dog in box divided by a barrier and delivered shock, dog made no effort to escape. In terms of operant learning, this is positive punishment: all behavior rewarded by shock. (I suppose, but the shock was still not contigent on behaviour).
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