Escape, Avoidance and Punishment

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Escape, Avoidance and Punishment

• Chapter 9

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Classes of Reinforcing and Punishing Stimuli
Increase Reinforcer Decrease Punisher
Present Positive Positive Reinforcer Positive Punisher
Remove Negative Negative Reinforcer Negative Punisher
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Reinforcement and Punishment

• All things being equal, most people will respond
  better to both immediate reinforcement and
  immediate punishment.
• Most punishments in American society are given
  for behaviors that are immediately reinforcing,
  while the threat of the punishments for these
  deeds is delayed and uncertain.

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Reinforcement and Punishment

• Punishment tends to be ineffective except for
  temporarily suppressing undesirable behavior.
• Mild, logical and consistent punishment can be
  informative and helpful.

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• Four Categories of Operant Conditioning

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Avoidance

• Negative reinforcement
• Escape
• Avoidance

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Two-Process Theory of Avoidance

• Classical Conditioning - fear
• Operant Conditioning - reduction of fear
• Evidence supporting two-factor theory
• Second order conditioning
• Problems with two-factor theory
• Avoidance without fear or fear reduction
• Extinction of Avoidance
• Where is the extinction?

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One-Factor Theory

• Operant Conditioning Only
• Sidman Avoidance
• Free operant avoidance
• Shock-Shock or S-S interval
• Response-Shock or R-S interval

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One-Factor Theory

• Hernstein and Hineline Experiment
• Shock frequency reduction

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Avoidance and Phobias

• Passive avoidance
• Classically conditioned fear response ? phobias
• Avoidance learning ? phobic response
• Phobias
• Avoidance of CS
• Single trial learning

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Avoidance and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders

• OCD- active avoidance
• Exposure and response prevention

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Biological Constraints in Avoidance Learning

• Bolles
• Species-specific defense mechanisms SSDRs
• Freezing, fleeing and fighting
• Difficult for pigeons to learn key peck or rats a
  bar press

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Learned Helplessness

• Seligman
• Repeated exposure to (aversive) events that are
  unpredictable and uncontrollable can have
  debilitating effects.
• Motivational, cognitive, emotional impairment
• depression

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Punishment

• Types of Punishment
• Positive punishment
• Negative punishment
• Time-out
• Response cost removal of specific reinforcer

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Punishment

• Intrinsic punishment punishment inherent in
  aspect of behavior.
• Extrinsic punishment
• Primary
• Secondary
• Generalized secondary punishers

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Punishment

• Is punishment the opposite of reinforcement
• The truncated Law of Effect
• Temporary suppression
• Suppression
• Decrease in behavior that does not depend on the
  relationship between behavior and environmental
  events
• Importance of Contingency

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Shock Maintained Responding

• Is it reinforcement or punishment?

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Disadvantages of Punishment

• General Suppression
• Stimulus Control/ SD for punishment
• Can generate or induce avoidance or escape
• Elicit strong emotional effects
• Elicit aggression
• Requires continual monitoring
• Modeling effects
• Generate abusive behavior

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Effectiveness of Punishment

• Azrin and Holz 1966
• Manner of introduction
• Immediacy of punishment
• Schedule of punishment
• Schedule of reinforcement
• Motivational variables
• Availability of other reinforcers
• Punisher as discriminative stimulus

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Theories of Punishment

• Conditioned Suppression punishment does not
  weaken behavior .. Produces emotional response
  interferes with behavior
• Avoidance theory punishment actually involves a
  type of avoidance conditioning avoidance response
  any other behavior.
• Premack low probability behavior can be used to
  punish high probability behavior.

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Noncontingent Punishment?

• Learned helplessness
• Experimental Neurosis