Operant Conditioning
Question Description
Operant Conditioning (Worth 30 Points)The purpose of this writing assignment is to apply critical thinking skills to conduct a real-life application of operant conditioning.
Learning Objectives 3c and 5c
Select a target behavior that you would like to strengthen in a person or animal in which you have daily contact. For example, you may choose to have your child pick up his/her toys more often; try to get more hugs from your significant other; train a dog to sit on command, etc. Try to avoid selecting a target behavior you would like to weaken, which would require the use of positive punishment (punishment by application) or negative punishment (punishment by removal).
Step 1 Written Portion: State your target behavior. If you choose a target behavior in an animal, include the animal’s name, age, gender, and breed. If you choose a target behavior in a person, include his or her first name, age, and relationship to you (such as a friend, co-worker, child, or significant other).
Once you have decided on a target behavior, collect data over the next day to find out how often the target behavior occurs without your guidance or reinforcement. In other words, just observe and count the times the target behavior occurs on its own. For example, if you choose the following target behavior: Teaching your dog how to roll over on command, then you would give the roll over command and count the times the dog rolls over (without your interference or guidance). This data is called the baseline frequency.
Step 2 Written Portion: State your baseline frequency data. Describe your data collection, including the number of hours observed, where you observed the target behavior, and any other relevant information. Also, report any biases that may be introduced in your baseline frequency data collection. For instance, if you are doing your baseline frequency count on the number of times your dog sits on command, and you observe your pet during an obedience class, a bias will be introduced.
*Please note*: A baseline frequency of one day will implement a bias in your study. Report the bias, stating that a baseline frequency observed and recorded over several days may produce a more valid and reliable record of the target behavior.
On the next day, begin the process of operant conditioning. The first time the target behavior occurs; reinforce it with a behavior that you believe has meaning to the person/animal. Think through your operant conditioning terms. For instance, if the target behavior occurs, and you respond with “Great Job,” your compliment is positive reinforcement with a secondary/conditioned reinforcer, which increases the likelihood the target behavior will occur again.
If the baseline frequency is 0, in other words, if the target behavior does not occur on its own, then you will need to employ the technique of shaping.
Step 3 Written Portion: Write a paragraph reporting the number of times the target behavior occurred during the operant conditioning phase. Explain why you think the target behavior increased, decreased, or stayed the same. Use your operant conditioning terms to describe what you did, including your use of primary or secondary/conditioned reinforcers of positive reinforcement. Also, explain if and how you used escape or avoidance conditioning of negative reinforcement. In addition, identify if you stayed with one type of effective reinforcer or if you used many. Also, if you used shaping because the target behavior did not occur on its own, discuss how you applied shaping. Lastly, describe what you may have done differently, and report any conclusions you may have about your operant conditioning efforts.
Step 4: Review the grading rubric(webpage, opens in new tab), which explains the expectations for your writing assignment.
chp 1
Learning
Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior due to experience. In psychology, learning is associated with the behavioral theories of Ivan Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning and B. F. Skinner’s Operant Conditioning. Also, Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory identifies a cognitive pathway in which we learn by observing others.
Classical Conditioning
In the early part of the 20th century, Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936) studied the digestive system of dogs when he noticed an interesting behavioral phenomenon: The dogs began to salivate when the lab technicians (who normally fed them) entered the room, even though the dogs had not yet received any food. Pavlov realized the dogs were salivating because they associated the arrival of the technicians with the food that soon followed their appearance in the room.
Ivan Pavlov
Ivan Pavlov’s research made substantial contributions to our understanding of learning.
LIFE Photo Archive – Wikimedia Commons – public domain.
With his team of researchers, Pavlov began studying this process in more detail. He conducted a series of experiments in which, over a number of trials, dogs were exposed to a tone immediately before receiving food. He systematically controlled the onset of the tone and the timing of the delivery of the food, and he recorded the amount of the dogs’ salivation. In other words, Pavlov sounded the tone and then gave the dogs food, and the food automatically (without learning) made the dogs salivate. Initially the dogs salivated only when they saw or smelled the food, but after several pairings of the tone and the food, the dogs began to salivate as soon as they heard the sound. The dogs learned to associate the sound of the tone with the food that followed.
Pavlov identified a fundamental associative learning process called classical conditioning. Classical conditioning refers to learning that occurs when a neutral stimulus (a tone) becomes associated with a stimulus (food) that naturally produces a behavior (salivation). After the association is learned, the previously neutral stimulus (the tone) is sufficient to produce the behavior (salivation).
Psychologists use specific terms to identify the stimuli and the responses in classical conditioning. The unconditioned stimulus (UCS) is something (such as food) that triggers a natural occurring response, and the unconditioned response (UCR) is the naturally occurring response (such as salivation) that follows the unconditioned stimulus. The conditioned stimulus (CS) is a neutral stimulus which, after being repeatedly presented prior to the unconditioned stimulus, evokes a similar response as the unconditioned stimulus. In Pavlov’s experiment, the sound of the tone served as the conditioned stimulus which, after learning, produced the conditioned response (CR), which is the acquired response to the formerly neutral stimulus. Note that the UCR and the CR are the same behavior (in this case salivation), but they are given different names because they are produced by different stimuli (the UCS and the CS, respectively).
Image of Whistle and Dog
Top left: Before conditioning, the unconditioned stimulus (UCS), which in the image above is the food, naturally produces in the dog the unconditioned response (UCR), the salivation. Top right: Before conditioning, the neutral stimulus (the whistle) does not produce the salivation response in the dog. Bottom left: The unconditioned stimulus (UCS), in this case the food, is repeatedly presented immediately after the neutral stimulus (the whistle) is presented to the dog. Bottom right: After the dog experiences the classical conditioning association, the neutral stimulus (now known as the conditioned stimulus or CS), which is the whistle, is sufficient to produce the conditioned response (CR), which is the dog’s salivation.
This type of conditioning can be beneficial. Imagine, for instance, that an animal first smells a new food, eats it, and then gets sick. If the animal learns to associate the particular smell of that food with the sickness, then the animal, based on the smell alone, will avoid that particular food next time.
Application
Classical Conditioning Application
Imagine you live in an apartment complex. You were heading home in the middle of an intense thunderstorm, and no close parking spots were available. You had to park far away from your apartment. You started to run for your apartment, and while running, you wondered if you left your cell phone in your car. You decided to stop under the large oak tree that was halfway between your car and your apartment to make sure you had your phone.
While under the large oak tree, a loud thunder boomed, and you jumped and flinched. Then, you immediately ran the rest of the way to your apartment.
The next day, you parked in a parking spot near where you parked during the thunderstorm. When you walked under the oak tree, you noticed that you felt jumpy and flinched. You wondered what was wrong, and then you walked the rest of the way to your apartment.
According to classical conditioning theory, what might have made you feel jumpy and flinch when you were under the tree the day after the thunderstorm?
To apply classical conditioning, begin with the reflex by identifying the UCS and UCR.
- What is the UCS?
- What is the UCR?
If you identified the UCS as the loud sound of the thunder, and if you identified the jumpiness and flinching as the UCR, you are correct!
The second step is to identify the process of learning by associating a neutral with a reflex.
- What is the neutral that was paired with the reflex (the UCS and UCR)?
If you identified the neutral as the tree, which was paired with the UCS (the loud sound of the thunder) and the UCR (the jumpiness and flinching), you are correct!
The third step is to identify when learning has occurred. In other words, the neutral becomes the conditioned stimulus (CS) because it produces the response, even when the UCS is not present. When this occurs, the neutral becomes the CS, and its learned response becomes the CR.
- What is the CS?
- What is the CR?
If you identified the CS as the tree, you are correct! If you identified the CR as the jumpiness and flinching to the tree (even when the loud sound of the thunder is not present), you are correct!
The Persistence and Extension of Conditioning
After Pavlov demonstrated that learning could occur through association, he studied the variables that influenced the strength and the persistence of conditioning. In some studies, after the conditioning had taken place, Pavlov presented the sound repeatedly but without presenting the food afterward. The image titled “Acquisition, Extinction, and Spontaneous Recovery” shows what happened. After the initial acquisition (learning) phase in which the conditioning occurred, when the CS was then presented alone, the behavior rapidly decreased. In other words, the dogs salivated less and less to the sound, and eventually the sound did not elicit salivation at all. Extinction refers to the reduction in responding that occurs when the conditioned stimulus is presented repeatedly without the unconditioned stimulus.
Acquisition, Extinction, and Spontaneous Recovery
Acquisition: The CS and the UCS are repeatedly paired together and behavior increases. Extinction: The CS is repeatedly presented alone, and the behavior slowly decreases. Spontaneous recovery: After a pause, when the CS is again presented alone, the behavior may again occur and then again show extinction.
Although at the end of the first extinction period, the CS was no longer producing salivation, the effects of conditioning had not entirely disappeared. Pavlov found that, after a pause, sounding the tone again elicited salivation, although to a lesser extent than before extinction took place. The increase in responding to the CS following a pause after extinction is known as spontaneous recovery. When Pavlov again presented the CS alone, the behavior again showed extinction until it disappeared again.
Although the behavior disappeared, extinction is never complete. If conditioning is again attempted, the animal will learn the new associations much faster than it did the first time. For instance, if a CS and a CR are paired again after extinction, reconditioning can occur. Imagine if you are working with a client that has a snake phobia. As the therapist, you recommend a behavioral treatment, called systematic desensitization, which is based on the principles of classical conditioning. Systematic desensitization involves three phases: The first phase is teaching relaxation skills because the fear response (the CR) and physiological relaxation cannot simultaneously occur. The second phase is to create a fear hierarchy with the client from least feared to most feared as related to the phobic object or situation (breaking down the CS). The third phase involves a combination of exposure to the CS (beginning with the least feared stimulus on the fear hierarchy) while the client masters relaxation in response to the stimulus (replacing the CR of fear with relaxation).
Then, the client progresses to the next fear on the hierarchy. After systematic desensitization is complete and the phobia is extinct, imagine if the client were bitten by a threatening snake. Then, the phobia can be reconditioned. Reconditioning is when the CS is paired again with the CR through exposure. Systematic desensitization may need to be repeated to replace the CR of fear with relaxation.
Pavlov experimented with presenting new stimuli that were similar, but not identical to, the original conditioned stimulus. For instance, if the dog had been conditioned to being scratched before the food arrived, the stimulus would be changed to being rubbed rather than scratched. He found that the dogs also salivated upon experiencing the similar stimulus, a process known as stimulus generalization. Stimulus generalization refers to the tendency to respond to stimuli that resemble the original conditioned stimulus. The ability to generalize has significance. If we eat some red berries and they make us sick, it would be a good idea to think twice before we eat some purple berries. Although the berries are not exactly the same, they nevertheless are similar and may have the same negative properties.
Lewicki (1985) conducted research that demonstrated the influence of stimulus generalization and how quickly and easily it can happen. In his experiment, high school students first had a brief interaction with a female experimenter who had short hair and glasses. The study was set up so that the students had to ask the experimenter a question, and (according to random assignment) the experimenter responded either in a negative way or a neutral way toward the students. Then, the students were told to go into a second room in which two experimenters were present, and to approach either one of them. However, the researchers arranged it so that one of the two experimenters looked a lot like the original experimenter, while the other one did not (she had longer hair and no glasses). The students were significantly more likely to avoid the experimenter who looked like the earlier experimenter when that experimenter had been negative to them than when she had treated them more neutrally. The participants showed stimulus generalization such that the new, similar-looking experimenter created the same negative response in the participants as had the experimenter in the prior session.
The flip side of stimulus generalization is stimulus discrimination, which is the tendency to respond differently to stimuli that are similar but not identical. Pavlov’s dogs quickly learned, for example, to salivate when they heard the specific tone that had preceded food, but not upon hearing similar tones that had never been associated with food.
In some cases, an existing conditioned stimulus can “behave like” an unconditioned stimulus for a pairing with a new conditioned stimulus, a process known as second-order conditioning. In one of Pavlov’s studies, for instance, he first conditioned the dogs to salivate to a sound, and then repeatedly paired a new CS, a black square, with the sound. Eventually he found that the dogs would salivate at the sight of the black square alone, even though it had never been directly associated with the food. Second-order conditioning in everyday life includes our attractions to experiences that stand for or remind us of something else, such as when we feel good on a Friday because it has become associated with the paycheck that we receive on that day, which itself is a conditioned stimulus for the pleasures that the paycheck buys us.
The Role of Nature in Classical Conditioning
Scientists associated with the behaviorist school argued that all learning is driven by experience, and that nature plays little-to-no role. Classical conditioning, which is based on learning through experience, represents an example of the importance of the environment. However, classical conditioning cannot be understood entirely in terms of experience. Nature also plays a part. According to the evolutionary approach, we are biologically prepared to learn some associations more so than others. Biological preparedness is a term associated with the evolutionary approach that explains that through genetic adaptations made over time for survival, we are biologically prepared to fear certain situations, such as drowning or falling, or certain objects, such as spiders or snakes, more so than other situations, such as sitting or walking, or other objects, such as books and desks.
Clinical psychologists make use of classical conditioning to explain the learning of a specific phobia, which is a strong and irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation. For example, driving a car is a neutral event that would not normally elicit a fear response in most people. However, if a person were to experience a panic attack in which he suddenly experienced strong negative emotions while driving, he may learn to associate driving with the panic response. The driving has become the CS that now creates the fear response.
Psychologists have also discovered that people do not develop phobias to just anything. Although people may in some cases develop a driving phobia, they are more likely to develop phobias toward objects or situations (such as snakes, spiders, heights, and open spaces) that have been dangerous to people in the past. Currently, it is relatively rare for humans to be bitten by deadly spiders or snakes, to fall from trees or buildings, or to be attacked by a predator in an open area. According to the evolutionary perspective, in the past, the potential of being bitten by snakes or spiders, falling out of a tree, or being trapped in an open space were important concerns that threatened survival. Therefore, humans are still biologically prepared to learn these associations over others (Öhman & Mineka, 2001; LoBue & DeLoache, 2010).
Another type of conditioning is conditioning related to food. In his important research on food conditioning, John Garcia and his colleagues (Garcia, Kimeldorf, & Koelling, 1955; Garcia, Ervin, & Koelling, 1966) attempted to condition rats by presenting either a taste, a sight, or a sound as a neutral stimulus before the rats were given drugs (the UCS) that made them nauseous. Garcia discovered that taste conditioning was extremely powerful. The rat learned to avoid the taste associated with illness, even if the illness occurred several hours later. However, conditioning the behavioral response of nausea to a sight or a sound was much more difficult. These results contradicted the idea that conditioning occurs entirely as a result of environmental events, such that it would occur equally for any kind of unconditioned stimulus that followed any kind of conditioned stimulus. Rather, Garcia’s research showed that genetics matters. Organisms are biologically prepared to learn some associations more easily than others. The ability to associate smells with illness is an important survival mechanism, allowing the organism to quickly learn to avoid foods that are poisonous.
chp.2
The Research of Thorndike and Skinner
Psychologist Edward L. Thorndike (1874–1949) was the first scientist to systematically study operant conditioning. In his research, Thorndike (1898) observed cats who had been placed in a “puzzle box” from which they tried to escape. At first, the cats scratched, bit, and swatted haphazardly. Eventually, and accidentally, they pressed the lever that opened the door and exited to their prize, a scrap of fish. The next time the cat was constrained within the box, the cat attempted fewer of the ineffective responses before carrying out the successful escape. After several trials, the cat learned to almost immediately perform the correct response.
Observing these changes in the cats’ behavior led Thorndike to develop his law of effect, the principle that responses that create a typically pleasant outcome in a particular situation are more likely to occur again in a similar situation, whereas responses that produce a typically unpleasant outcome are less likely to occur again in the situation (Thorndike, 1911). The essence of the law of effect is that successful responses, because they are pleasurable, are “stamped in” by experience and thus occur more frequently. Unsuccessful responses, which produce unpleasant experiences, are “stamped out” and subsequently occur less frequently.
The influential behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner (1904–1990) expanded on Thorndike’s ideas to develop a more complete set of principles to explain operant conditioning. Skinner created specially designed environments known as operant chambers (usually called Skinner boxes) to systemically study learning. A Skinner box, (or operant chamber) is a structure that is big enough to fit a rodent or bird and that contains a bar or key that the organism can press or peck to release food or water. It also contains a device to record the animal’s responses.
The most basic of Skinner’s experiments was quite similar to Thorndike’s research with cats. A rat placed in the chamber reacted as one might expect, scurrying about the box and sniffing and clawing at the floor and walls. Eventually, the rat chanced upon a lever, which it pressed to release pellets of food. The next time around, the rat took a little less time to press the lever, and on successive trials, the time it took to press the lever became shorter and shorter. Eventually, the rat was pressing the lever as fast as it could eat the food that appeared. As predicted by the law of effect, the rat had learned to repeat the action that brought about the food and cease the actions that did not.
Reinforcement and Punishment
Skinner studied, in detail, how animals changed their behavior through reinforcement and punishment, and he developed terms that explained the processes of operant conditioning. Skinner used the term reinforcer to refer to any event that strengthens or increases the likelihood of a behavior, and the term punisher to refer to any event that weakens or decreases the likelihood of a behavior. He used the term positive to refer to “giving or applying” and the term negative to refer to “reducing or removing.” Thus, positive reinforcement strengthens a response by giving or applying something pleasant after the response, and negative reinforcement strengthens a response by reducing or removing something unpleasant. For example, giving a child praise for completing homework represents positive reinforcement, whereas taking aspirin to reduce or remove the pain of a headache represents negative reinforcement. In both cases, the reinforcement makes it more likely that the behavior will occur again in the future.
How Positive Reinforcement, Negative Reinforcement, and Punishment Influence Behavior
| Operant Conditioning Term | Description | Outcome | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Positive Reinforcement | Add or increase a pleasant stimulus | Behavior is strengthened | Giving a student a prize after he gets an ‘A’ on a test |
| Negative Reinforcement | Reduce or remove an unpleasant stimulus | Behavior is strengthened | Taking painkillers that eliminate pain increases the likelihood you will take painkillers again |
| Positive Punishment | Present or add an unpleasant stimulus | Behavior is weakened | Giving
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