Operant Conditioning

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• Operant Conditioning

Reward
Punishment
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Reinforcement/Punishment
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• Four Possible Consequences
• There are four possible consequences to any
  behavior.
• They are
• Something Good can start or be presented PR
  Something Good can end or be taken away NP
  Something Bad can start or be presented PP
  Something Bad can end or be taken away NR.

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• Something Good can start or be presented, so
  behavior increases Positive Reinforcement (R)
• Something Good can end or be taken away, so
  behavior decreases Negative Punishment (P-)
• Something Bad can start or be presented, so
  behavior decreases Positive Punishment (P)
• Something Bad can end or be taken away, so
  behavior increases Negative Reinforcement (R-)

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• Operant Conditioning

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Negative reinforcement Active Avoidance
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Dennis says it all..

• Dennis, if you dont stop bothering Mr. Wilson,
  you cant listen to MTVNP

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HOW COMPLEX BEHAVIORSARE LEARNED

• Successive approximation/shaping reinforcing
  behaviors as they come to approximate the desired
  behavior
• Superstitious Behavior when persistent
  behaviors are reinforced coincidentally rather
  than functionally

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• .5

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• Learned Helplessness

Prevent a dog from escaping electric shocks, and
it will stop trying to get away.
Applications for abused women and children
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Learned Helplessness Paradigm Seligman
Triadic Design
Phase 1 Phase 2
Group A Escapable Shock Group B Yoked
Inescapable Shock Group C Exposure to apparatus
only
Escape/Avoidance training
(For Group A shock can be terminated by rotating
a wheel.)
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Learned Helplessness Seligman, Peterson, et al.

• Dogs exposed to unavoidable shocks
• Following exposure, when placed in a situation
  where they can now jump to avoid the shock, they
  fail to make the escape response.
• Learned helplessness occurs when one perceives
  that ones actions (e.g., working hard) does not
  lead to the expected outcome (e.g., high grade).

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Possible Explanations

• Learned Helplessness Organisms learn that their
  behavior is ineffectual
• Poverty of activity inescapable shock reduces
  the variability in behavior that is so crucial
  for operant conditioning
• Inattention animals stop attending to their own
  behavior

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Battered Spouse Syndrome

• Learned helplessness
• Victim Mentality
• Increased dependency on abuser

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• Psychological Behavioral Results
• Learned Helplessness
• Seligmans experiments with rats and dogs
• Learned helplessness in humans linked with
  attributions of a lack of control after
  experiences of being in an impotent position
  Environment which lacks positive reinforcement gt
  reduction in activities and withdrawal

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Selyes General Adaptation Syndrome (1956, 1976,
1985)

• Resistance
• Arousal high
• as body tries
• defend and
• adapt.

• Exhaustion
• Limited
• physical
• resources
• resistance
• to disease
• collapses
• death

• Alarm
• Reaction
• Fight or
• flight

P
If stress continues .
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• Operant Conditioning

Ratio
Interval
Fixed
Variable