W ARMUP 1. What happens when Pavlov’s dogs have gone through acquisition? 2. How could extinction occur with Pavlov’s dogs? 3. How could spontaneous recovery occur with Dwight in “The Office?” 4. How could generalization occur with the squirt bottle activity? 5. How could discrimination occur with Little Albert?

L EARNING STYLE #2: O PERANT C ONDITIONING

D IFFERENCE BETWEEN CC AND OC In Classical Conditioning, do the organisms have to DO anything to learn a response? No, it’s just automatic In Operant Conditioning, the organisms must “operate” in order to learn. They have to DO something

L AW OF EFFECT Thorndike’s law of effect – Rewarded behavior is likely to occur again Thorndike used a puzzle box Rewarded with a fish if they got out Cats improved on their time 4 Yale University Library

O PERANT C HAMBER B.F. Skinner Developed the Operant chamber, or the Skinner box Used this to teach animals behaviors that were unlike their natural behavior Walter Dawn/ Photo Researchers, Inc. From The Essentials of Conditioning and Learning, 3 rd Edition by Michael P. Domjan, Used with permission by Thomson Learning, Wadsworth Division

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I NEED A VOLUNTEER

S HAPING Reinforcers guide behavior towards the desired target behavior through successive approximations. “Little by little” 8

R EWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS Reinforcement Any event that strengthens the behavior it follows How could I strengthen your studying habits? Punishment Any event that decreases the behavior that it follows What could I do to decrease your talking in class?

D IFFERENT TYPES OF REINFORCERS AND PUNISHMENT Basic thing to know: Positive does not mean GOOD Negative does not mean BAD Positive means to “GIVE” Negative means to “TAKE AWAY” 10

T YPES OF R EINFORCERS 11 Reuters/ Corbis

P UNISHMENT 12

13 Operant Conditioning Positive Reinforcement *“Give something good” Cookies for A’s Positive Punishment *“Give bad” Spanking for lying Negative Reinforcement *“Take away something bad” Take away a lap of running for good practice Negative Punishment *“Take away good” Take away cell phone for F’s

P UNISHMENT PROBLEMS 1. Results in unwanted fears. 2. Conveys no information to the organism. 3. Justifies pain to others. 4. Causes unwanted behaviors to reappear in its absence. 5. Causes aggression towards the agent. 6. Causes one unwanted behavior to appear in place of another. 14 Although there may be some justification for occasional punishment, it usually leads to negative effects.

WARMUP! 1 – Positive Reinforcement 2 – Negative Reinforcement 3 – Positive Punishment 4 – Negative Punishment

P RIMARY & S ECONDARY R EINFORCERS 1. Primary Reinforcer: An innately reinforcing stimulus like food or drink. 2. Conditioned Reinforcer: (Secondary Reinforcer) A learned reinforcer that gets its reinforcing power through association with the primary reinforcer. 16

I MMEDIATE & D ELAYED R EINFORCERS 1. Immediate Reinforcer: A reinforcer that occurs instantly after a behavior. *A rat gets a food pellet for a bar press. 2. Delayed Reinforcer: A reinforcer that is delayed in time for a certain behavior. * A paycheck that comes at the end of a week. 17 We may be inclined to engage in small immediate reinforcers (watching TV) rather than large delayed reinforcers (getting an A in a course) which require consistent study.

R EINFORCEMENT S CHEDULES 1. Continuous Reinforcement: Reinforces the desired response each time it occurs. Learning occurs quickly 2. Partial (Intermittent): Reinforces a response only part of the time. Though this results in slower acquisition in the beginning, it shows greater resistance to extinction later on. 18

P ARTIAL REINFORCEMENT SCHEDULES Fixed-ratio Variable-ratio Fixed-interval Variable-interval

R ATIO S CHEDULES 1. Fixed-ratio schedule: Reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses. (paid on commission) Positive - Will continue working again right when they finish 2. Variable-ratio schedule: Reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses. Positive - This is hard to extinguish because of the unpredictability. 20

I NTERVAL S CHEDULES 1. Fixed-interval schedule: Reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed. Negative: This produces a choppy start-stop pattern 2. Variable-interval schedule: Reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals Positive/Negative: Produces slow, steady responses 21

S CHEDULES OF R EINFORCEMENT 22

W ARMUP 1. Give an example of positive punishment. 2. Give an example of negative reinforcement. 3. What is the difference between fixed and variable? 4. What is the difference between ratio and interval? 5. Give an example of a fixed ratio reinforcement schedule. 6. Give an example of a variable interval reinforcement schedule.

C OGNITION & O PERANT C ONDITIONING Can we learn without rewards? How do we know? Latent learning Cognitive maps 24

M OTIVATION Intrinsic Motivation: The desire to perform a behavior for its own sake. Extrinsic Motivation: The desire to perform a behavior due to promised rewards or threats of punishments. 25

O PERANT CONDITIONING IN OTHER FIELDS

O PERANT VS. C LASSICAL C ONDITIONING 27

L EARNING TO COPE Problem-focused coping Alleviating stress directly – dealing with the problem Emotion-focused coping Alleviating stress by attending to emotional needs

L OCUS OF CONTROL Perception that outside forces control your fate Perception that you control your fate External Locus of ControlInternal Locus of Control “My teacher sucks. I’m gonna fail this class” “I gotta work harder. I didn’t study for that.”

“I CAN ’ T HELP IT ” Is this something that can be learned? Martin Seligman Dogs strapped in harness Given repeated shocks Could not avoid them What did they learn? They are helpless 30

L EARNED H ELPLESSNESS Later, dogs were placed in a situation where they could escape the shocks The dogs cowered and did not escape shocks What does this tell us? 31

L EARNED H ELPLESSNESS The hopelessness and passive resignation learned when unable to avoid repeated aversive events