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| Sources of behavioral variation generated or induced by the situation. Different situations can generate different behaviors; we attribute variation in behaviors to the variation in the situation |
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| Individuals do not perform the same action exactly the same way each time they do it. The inherit variability in all behavior. Even in an unchanging environment, the individual does not perform a given behavior exactly the same way every time |
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| Time between the behavior and the reinforce |
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| the predictive relationship between the target behavior and the consequence |
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| Obtaining knowledge about events and the relationships between events, and about how to perform actions efficiently through interactions with others |
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| Knowledge and skills passed from one generation to another through learning. Learned knowledge acquired through experience transmitted between members of the same species |
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| Observational Conditioning |
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Definition
| Allows individuals to learn about threatening things from each other. The CS is something to which a conspecific exhibits fearful behavior. The US is observed fearful behavior in the conspecific and the CR is fear of that thing by the observer |
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| Local Enhancement (stimulus enhancement) |
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Definition
| The presence of the demonstrator draws the observer’s attention to a specific location or object and thus increases the probability that the observer will go to that location or contact that object |
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| Learning how to perform an action by observing another individual performing that action |
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| Behavior that is aroused by the mere presence of a conspecific |
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| Reproducing the results obtained by the demonstrator. A form of social learning whereby the observer reproduces the results obtained by the demonstrator, not the behavior of the demonstrator |
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| Two- Action (Bidirectional) Procedure |
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| Requires that there be more than one way an individual can perform an action that leads to the consequence |
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| The transmission of information from one individual to another through directed instruction |
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| The teacher puts the pupil into a situation which is conducive for the pupil to learn |
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| Altering the behavior of the pupil through encouragement or punishment |
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| Actively teaching a skill by performing it in front of another individual |
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| Physical Guidance (putting through) |
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| Physically putting the individual through the motions |
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| Telling someone what to do or how to do it |
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| Informing someone what will happen under certain circumstances. A form of verbal instruction |
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| Telling someone how to do something or where to go to obtain something. A form of verbal instruction |
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| When a person in control of the consequence tells someone what to do to obtain or avoid a consequence. A form of verbal instruction |
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| Statements of the relationships (contingencies) between events. Rules can be provided by others through instruction or it can be self-generated. A rule need not be an accurate reflection of the prevailing contingencies |
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| Behaviors that are guided by rules |
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| Learning based on direct experience with a contingency |
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| Learning based on verbal descriptions of the contingency or instructions about what to do |
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| Skinner reported that pigeons developed idiosyncratic and stereotyped patterns of behavior when they are given repeated presentations of food spaced at short regular intervals and independent of behavior. Labeled as superstition because he believed that it reflected the same causal mechanisms as superstitions in humans, namely the ACCIDENTAL CONJUNCTION OF A BEHAVIOR WITH A REINFORCER. |
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| Learning Food Preferences from Others |
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Definition
| Rats, birds, and humans (and probably other species) can learn to prefer and to avoid certain foods through social learning. Furthermore, social learning can also attenuate food aversions in rats. All of these are examples of the inadvertent transmission of information by observing others. |
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| Demonstrating the Social Learning of Food Preferences |
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Definition
| Rats who smell a distinctive food on the breath of other rats develop a preference for that food. The food preferences of children can be modified by having them eat with a group of other children all of whom choose the same food. |
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| The effects of periodic presentations of small amounts of food on activity in pigeons. Activity was measured by the rate of stepping on different floor panels. Except for the longest interval, the periodic presentation of food was always followed by an increase in activity. ...an increase in activity following the consumption of small amounts of food increases the chances that more will be found. This source of behavioral variation is highly adaptive. |
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| Social transmission of food preferences. One rat is the demonstrator (D), the other is the observer (O). They are housed together in either same or adjoining cages for a few days. Then D is removed to another location and fed a distinctive tasting and smelling food (cocoa or cinnamon). The D is returned to cage and O smells the food. Os whose Ds ate cocoa consumed more of it than did Os whose Ds ate cinnamon. The preference was still evident 48 to 60 hours later. |
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Definition
Social transmission of food preferences. One rat is the demonstrator (D), the other is the observer (O). They are housed together in either same or adjoining cages for a few days. Then D is removed to another location and fed a distinctive tasting and smelling food (cocoa or cinnamon). The D is returned to cage and O smells the food. Os whose Ds ate cocoa consumed more of it than did Os whose Ds ate cinnamon. The preference was still evident 48 to 60 hours later.
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| Cultural transmission of predator identification in blackbirds. Demonstrates that observational conditioning is the basis for the social transmission of predator recognition in blackbirds. CS=honeyeater, US=mobbing cry, CR=mobbing cries to honeyeater. |
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| Opening of milk bottles by birds. Demonstrates local (stimulus) enhancement as a mechanism for social learning. |
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| Demonstration of imitation in rats. Rats were imitating the behavior of D and not pushing the rod toward a certain location in the chamber. Hungry rats observed from an adjoining cage a trained demonstrator pushing a pole either left or right 50 times to obtain food. All rats pushed the rod in the same direction relative to their own bodies that the demonstrators did, even when the rod was in a different position in the room. Because this and follow-up experiments all used the bidirectional procedure, the results cannot be explained by local enhancement, social facilitation, sign-tracking, or goal emulation. These results appear to be due to imitation. |
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Term
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Definition
Demonstration of imitation in rats. Rats were imitating the behavior of D and not pushing the rod toward a certain location in the chamber. Hungry rats observed from an adjoining cage a trained demonstrator pushing a pole either left or right 50 times to obtain food. All rats pushed the rod in the same direction relative to their own bodies that the demonstrators did, even when the rod was in a different position in the room. Because this and follow-up experiments all used the bidirectional procedure, the results cannot be explained by local enhancement, social facilitation, sign-tracking, or goal emulation. These results appear to be due to imitation.
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Definition
| Typical cumulative records of performance on fixed-interval schedules of reinforcement by nonhumans and humans under the age of 2 years and humans above the age of 4 years given minimal instructions. Pattern A = very high rate of behavior that ignores the temporal aspects of the fixed-interval schedule. Pattern B = an extremely good temporal discrimination with one or two instances of the target behavior occurring near the end of the intervals. Sometimes both will be seen in same person. |
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| Weiner demonstrated that the different patterns described in previous experience. He exposed one group of adults to a fixed-ratio 40 (FR 40) schedule and another to an IRT>20 second schedule before changing the schedule to a fixed interval. The results of this experiment are presented here. While members of other species adjust their behavior to changes in the interval on F1 schedules, humans do not always do so readily. |
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| Sources of Behavior Variation |
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Definition
| In order for operant conditioning to occur, the individual must do something. Therefore, like natural selection, operant conditioning requires sources of variation. Two sources of behavioral variation in operant conditioning are induced variation and behavioral variability. |
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| Importance of Induced Variation and Behavioral Variability in Operant Conditioning |
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Definition
| Operant conditioning affects behaviors after they occur. Many of these behaviors are generated by the situation (induced variation), but through hill-climbing, individuals can become more efficient in their performance. Hill-climbing requires behavioral variability. |
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Term
| Mechanism of Selection in Operant Conditioning |
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Definition
| As is the case with natural selection, there must be a mechanism by which behaviors are maintained and increased by reinforcing events. Hill-climbing is an important aspect of operant conditioning. |
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| Contingency Between Behaviors and Consequences as the Mechanism of Selection in Operant Conditioning |
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Definition
| Although accidental temporal proximity between behaviors and consequences can produce superstitious behavior, there is abundant evidence that individuals are sensitive to the contingency between behaviors and consequences. However, there is also evidence that the mere presence of a contingency does not guarantee that behavior will be selected by that contingency. Thus, the behavior-consequence contingency is also neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for the occurrence of operant conditioning. |
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| Effects of Temporal Proximity and Contingency on the Occurrence of Operant Conditioning |
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Definition
| Both temporal proximity and contingency are involved in selection of operant behaviors. |
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Term
| Does Selection Involve Gradual Molding of Behavior or the Creation of New Behavioral Programs? |
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Definition
| Shaping behavior by the method of successive approximations and the procedure of differentiation suggests that operant conditioning involves the gradual molding of behaviors by their consequences. That is not correct; operant conditioning creates new behavioral programs that involve the rearrangement of existing behavior modules. |
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| Are Selected Behaviors Strengthened or Retained? |
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Definition
| The words we use when we describe operant conditioning suggest that behaviors are strengthened by their consequences, but in natural selection, traits are retained (not strengthened) by selection. We cannot distinguish between these two possibilities with our current level of knowledge. |
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Term
| Social Learning to Avoid Certain Foods |
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Definition
| Although rats appear not to be able to learn to avoid foods th ey smell on sick rats, they can learn to avoid foods they observe a rate who becomes sick eat. Rats who get sick themselves will tend to prefer a food a demonstrator had not eaten. Blackbirds readily learn to avoid foods when they observe another bird eat it and get sick. |
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| Social Learning Can Attenuate Food Aversions |
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Definition
| An ill rat will start to consume a diet it smells on a well demonstrator. Food aversions are also less likely to occur when the demonstrator did not get sick by eating a certain food. |
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Term
| Learning What to Fear Through Observational Conditioning |
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Definition
| Observing a member of your own species being afraid of something will lead to the social transmission of fear of that thing. This is a form of Pavlovian conditioning in which the US is fearful behavior in another individual and the CS is the thing that made the other individual fearful. |
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Term
| Social Transmission of Fear of Snakes in Monkeys |
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Definition
| Fear of snakes in monkeys and recognition of predators in birds are not innate. Both are readily learned through observational conditioning. However, instinctive knowledge affects how likely an individual will learn these. |
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| Social Transmission of Predator Recognition in Birds |
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Definition
| Recognition of who is a predator can be transmitted throughout a population of blackbirds by observational conditioning. |
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Term
| Learning What to Do by Observing Others |
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Definition
| Members of some species can learn to perform actions through initiation by observing others perform those actions. However, there are a number of instances of what looks like imitation that on closer inspection can be explained by other mechanisms. Among these are social (local) enhancement, social facilitation, goal emulation and even Pavlovian conditioning. |
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| Local (Stimulus) Enhancement |
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Definition
| Sometimes the mere presence of another individual can promote learning that appears to be due to imitation but is not. The presence of another individual can draw observers' attention to a particular location or to a particular object. This can increase the probability that observes will contact that object or go to that location. Once there, the observers may perform similar actions, but these are not necessarily imitated. |
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| When individuals use a tool in a functional manner and do not just copy the behavior they observe, we classify this as goal emulation not imitation. |
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Term
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Definition
| In order to demonstrate that an individual learns to perform an action by imitation, one has to demonstrate that the observer's performance is not due to any of the mechanisms described. This can be achieved when there is more than one way to perform the task, the demonstrator performs it in one of the possible ways, and the behavior of the observer matches the behavior of the demonstrator, even if that is not the most efficient way to perform the action. This test is called the bidirectional control or two-action procedure. |
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Term
| Transmission of Information About What to Do Through Directed Instruction |
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Definition
| In all of the examples of social learning we have encourtered thus far with the exception of the dance in bees, the behavior of the demonstrator is not affected by the presence of an observer; that is, the demonstrator wou ld have performed the same actions if the observer were not present. We referred to this type of communication or social transmission as inadvertent or unintentional. In the case of instruction, the transmission of information from demonstrator to observer is intentional. We refer to this as directed instruction or teaching. |
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Term
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Definition
| Teaching and instruction refer to the behavior of the teacher. Although our interest here is in the behavior of the pupil, it is important to not that instruction (teaching) can take various forms, many of which have been observed in nonhuman species, including opportunity teaching, coaching, demonstration, physical guidance, and verbal instruction. |
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| The Effects of Verbal Instructions on Human Behavior |
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Definition
| We humans are different from other species in two important ways: we have greater reasoning abilities, and we have the ability to convey to each other what we know through speech and the written word. Although many other species also have methods to communicate among themselves, that ability is most highly evolved in humans. As a result, human behavior is strongly influenced by what we are told (that is, verbally-mediated knowledge) as well as by what we directly experience when we encouter Pavlovian conditioning and operant conditioning procedures (that is, contingency-mediated knowledge). |
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| The Effects of Verbal Instruction on Pavlovian Conditioning |
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Definition
| Human Pavlovian conditioning is very susceptible to verbal instructions when the CS and US bear no natural relationship to each other. When the CS and US have a natural relationship, Pavlovian conditioning is not easily influenced by instructions. |
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| The Effects of Verbal Instructions on Operant Conditioning |
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Definition
| Because we adult humans have a long history of being rewarded for following instructions, our operant behavior is easily influenced by instructions. On the one hand, verbal instructions lead to rapid learning, but on the other hand, this can make us insensitive to changes in the prevailing contingencies and thus inefficient in our performance of these verbally-mediated behaviros. |
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| The Importance of the Distinction Between Verbally-Mediated and Contingency-Mediated Behaviors |
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Definition
| Contingency-mediated and verbally-mediated behaviors may appear similar, but because they are acquired in different ways, there are some important differences between how individuals perform them. |
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