Chapter 3 Learning (II)

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Chapter 3 Learning (II)

• Operant (Instrumental) Conditioning

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Definition

• A form of learning in which a behavior becomes
  more or less probable, depending on its
  consequences
• Respondent behavior
• Operant behavior behavior that operates on the
  environment, producing consequences.

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Skinners Experiment

• Law of effect
• Skinner Box
• Comparison of Classical C. Operant C.

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Principles of Reinforcement

• Reinforcer
• Positive reinforcer
• Negative reinforcer
• Escape and Avoidance L.
• Primary and secondary reinforcer (conditioned
  reinforcer)
• Immediate and delayed reinforcer

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• Delayed gratification
• Learned helplessness
• Overjustification
• Functional autonomy

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Why do behaviors have been positively reinforced
not occur continually?

• Behavior is controlled by discriminative stimuli,
  a process that Skinner calls Stimulus control
  (mooncake)
• Because the individual has relative degree of
  satiation in regard to the reinforcer
• response deprivation

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Shaping and Chaining

• Successive approximations
• Shaping a teacher
• Forward chaining
• Backward chaining

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Schedules of Reinforcement

• Continuous Schedulesis subjected to repaid
  extinction when reinforcement stops
• Partial Schedulesbecause they produce
  less-predictable reinforcement, they are more
  resistance to extinction than are

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• Fixed-ratio Schedules (FR)
• Variable-ratio Schedules (VR)
• Fixed-interval Schedules (FI)
• Variable-interval Schedules (VI)

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• Ratio schedules produce faster response rates
  than do interval schedules, because the number of
  responses, not the length of time, determines the
  onset of reinforcement
• Variable schedules produce steadier response
  rates than do fixed schedules, because the
  individual does not know when reinforcement will
  occur

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Punishment

• Two kinds of punishment
• The difference between Punishment and negative
  reinforcement
• The effectiveness of punishment
• Timing, consistency, intensity
• Using punishment wisely
• Side effects of punishment
• pp. 310-311

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Application of Operant Conditioning

• In parenting and education
• In the market
• Behavior modification (flooding, systematic
  desensitization)
• A Clockwork Orange (1971)
• In daily life