1. Operant Conditioning

2. Operant Conditioning Billy: “Dad, can you tie my shoes?!”
Dad: (Reads paper)
Billy: “Daaaad! Tie my shooooes!”
Dad: “Just a second!”
Billy: “Daaaaaad! Come on!”
Dad: “I’m almost finished Billy! Hang on!”
Billy: “Daaaad! Tie my shoes!”
Dad: “How many times have I told you not to whine? Now, which shoe should we do first?”

3. Operant Conditioning
What is the basic difference between “classical” & “operant” conditioning?
Basic concept of operant conditioning: responses (behaviors) come to be controlled by their consequences…
Begins with Thorndike, his cats, & his “puzzle boxes”
Difference: in Operant, the “stimulus” (consequence) follows the “response” (behavior); wider variety of behaviors, b/c no necessity for some “natural biological response.”

4. Operant Conditioning
Skinner Box

5. Operant Conditioning

6. Operant Conditioning Elements
Operant Response: behavior we’re interested in
Consequence: what “happens” as a result of the behavior
Types of Consequences
Reinforcers: increase tendency to make a response
Primary
Secondary
Punishers: decrease tendency to make a response

7. Operant Conditioning
Reinforcement: increases likelihood behavior will be repeated
Positive: something rewarding is added
Negative: remove something negative (this is good!)
Study nags, whining, seatbelts
Mowrer’s 2-Process Theory (phobias)
May lead to escape/avoidance learning
Phobia “maintenance”
Learned helplessness
Punishment: decreases likelihood behavior will be repeated
Best if immediate, consistent, not too severe
Possibility of negative consequences
Positive: call parents for money from college & they give it, you’ll call again

8. Operant Conditioning Response Rate Stimulus Increase Decrease Added
This is known as:
________________
Taken Away
Stimulus

10. Operant Conditioning The Steps (which should look familiar…)
Acquisition: may occur through shaping
Discriminative stimuli
Extinction: often preceded by an increase in response/behavior
Some responses have high resistance to extinction
Largely based on schedules of reinforcement
Stimulus Generalization/Discrimination

11. Operant Conditioning Schedules of Reinforcement What does this mean?
When/how often do we reinforce the behavior?
Every time we see it?
After a set or variable period of time?
After a set or variable number of behavioral responses?
How does the timing affect the behavior?

12. Operant Conditioning Schedules of Reinforcement
Schedules can be either:
Fixed or variable
Fixed: always the same
Variable: uh, variable (usually around some “average”)
Interval or ratio
Interval: based on time – reinforcement occurs only after some period of time has elapsed
Ratio: based on number of behavioral responses

13. Operant Conditioning Schedules of Reinforcement
Fixed Interval: based on fixed amount of time
Variable Interval: based on a variable amount of time
Fixed Ratio: based on a fixed number of responses (including continuous reinforcement)
Variable Ratio: based on a variable number of responses
Which types of schedules are most resistant to extinction & why?
Which types of schedules lead to faster response rates & why?
F.I.: paychecks
V.I.: pop quizzes,
F.R.: Subway card, commission pay (around some average, e.g. 1/3)
V.R.: casinos/slot machine (around some average, e.g. 1/3)
Variable schedules are more resistant to extinction (less predictable—”are the rewards gone?”)
Ratio schedules lead to faster responses (“my reward comes sooner if a I press the lever more”)

14. Operant Conditioning

16. Operant Conditioning So let’s talk about whiny kids…
Kids whine, you don’t give in…
Kids whine, you give in all the time…
Kids whine, you give in sometimes…

17. Operant Conditioning Other Concepts Cognition & Operant Conditioning
Evidence of cognitive processing has been seen in maze studies of rats
Rats in a maze with no obvious reward will wander at leisure
They apparently develop a “cognitive map” of the maze, because…
When a reward is present, they will get through the maze quickly, thus they “learned” despite a lack of reward
Latent Learning: learning occurs but no incentive to demonstrate it