6.3-6.4

• Operant conditioning


  Organisms learn to associate a behavior and its consequence
• Reinforcement


  A pleasant consequence that makes a behavior more likely to be repeated in the future
• Punishment


  An unpleasant consequence that makes a behavior less likely to be repeated in the future
• Types of reinforcement and punishment

  • Positive reinforcement
  • Negative reinforcement
  • Positive punishment
  • Negative punishment
• Positive reinforcement


  Adding a desirable stimulus to increase a behavior
• Negative reinforcement


  Removing an undesirable stimulus to increase a behavior
• Positive punishment


  Adding an undesirable stimulus to decrease a behavior
• Negative punishment


  Removing a pleasant stimulus to decrease a behavior
• Punishment may teach fear and cause children to become more aggressive and prone to antisocial behavior and delinquency
• In the past, children were often subject to physical punishment, such as spanking
• Drawbacks of using physical punishment on children

  • It may teach fear
  • It may cause children to become more aggressive and prone to antisocial behavior and delinquency
• Most schools in the United States have banned corporal punishment
• Positive punishment


  Can be effective in some cases, but the use of punishment should be weighed against the possible negative effects
• Reinforcement


  Recommended over punishment - catch your child doing something good and reward them for it
• Shaping


  1. Reinforce any response that resembles the desired behavior

  2. Reinforce the response that more closely resembles the desired behavior

  3. Reinforce closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior

  4. Finally, only reinforce the desired behavior
• Shaping is often used in teaching a complex behavior or chain of behaviors
• Shaping involves stimulus discrimination - discriminating the desired behavior from similar but undesired behaviors
• Primary reinforcers


  Reinforcers that have innate reinforcing qualities, not learned (e.g. food, water, sleep, sex)
• Secondary reinforcers


  Reinforcers that have no inherent value and only have reinforcing qualities when linked with a primary reinforcer (e.g. praise, money)
• Token economies, using tokens as secondary reinforcers, have been found to be very effective at modifying behavior in a variety of settings
• Behavior modification


  Uses the principles of operant conditioning to accomplish behavior change so that undesirable behaviors are switched for more socially acceptable ones
• Behavior modification techniques


  • Sticker charts
  • Time-out
• Continuous reinforcement


  Reinforcer is given each time the desired behavior is displayed - quickest way to teach a new behavior
• Observational learning


  Learning by watching others and then imitating, or modeling, what they do or say
• Modeling process


  1. Observe model

  2. Choose whether or not to imitate model

  3. Learn a general rule to apply to other situations
• Models


  • Live model - demonstrates a behavior in person
  • Verbal instructional model - explains or describes the behavior
  • Symbolic model - fictional characters or real people who demonstrate behaviors in media
• Partial/Intermittent reinforcement


  Desired behavior is not reinforced every time it is displayed
• Observational learning


  Involves more than just imitation
• Observational learning can lead to both prosocial and antisocial effects
• Types of partial/intermittent reinforcement schedules

  • Fixed interval
  • Variable interval
  • Fixed ratio
  • Variable ratio
• Research suggests observational learning involves mirror neurons
• Examples of reinforcement schedules


  • Fixed interval: Hospital patient using patient-controlled pain relief
  • Variable interval: Checking social media
  • Fixed ratio: Piecework factory worker
  • Variable ratio: Gambling
• Observational learning in chimpanzees

  • Chimpanzees learned to suck juice directly through a straw by observing other chimpanzees doing it
  • Chimpanzees switched from dipping the straw into the juice and then sucking, to the more efficient method of sucking directly through the straw
• Observational learning in humans


  • Claire's daughter imitating her mother's use of a belt to discipline her teddy bear
• Bandura's social learning theory proposed that learning can occur without external reinforcement, involving cognitive processes
• Bandura identified three kinds of models: live, verbal, and symbolic
• Fixed ratio reinforcement schedule

  A set number of responses must occur before the behavior is rewarded
• Variable ratio reinforcement schedule

  The number of responses needed for a reward varies
• Yoga students learn by observation


  • Yoga instructor demonstrates the correct stance and movement (live model)
  • Child learns a behavior by watching someone demonstrate it on television (symbolic modeling)
• Variable ratio reinforcement schedule is the most powerful partial reinforcement schedule