In operant learning, you're reacting to your environment. It is an evolved tendency. 

Classical conditioning is:

a procedure for providing consequences for a behavior that increase the strength of that behavior. 

Characteristics:

- A behavior must have a consequence

- The behavior must increase in strength

- The increase in strength is the result of the consequence

- positive and negative do NOT mean "good" and "bad"

- positive is adding something or increasing the behavior

- negative is taking something away or decreasing behavior

- Ex 1) paying a student $50 for All A's is positive reinforcment

- Ex 2) for every A they get, a chore gets taken off their list is negative reinforcement

- Ex 3) having to pay for a speeding ticket is positive punishment

- Ex 4) taking away driving privleges is a negative punishment

a form of negative reinforcement in which the subject first learns to escape, and then void, an aversive stimulus. 

Ex: Playing an instrument badly, eventually you give up. 

a discrete trial occurs when the performance of the behavior defines the end of a trial

Examples: Thorndike's Puzzle Box

                    Treating a speech problem

occurs when a behavior may be repeated any number of times.

Examples: Skinner Box (how many times did the rat press the level?)

Operant

• Typically active process
• if X, then Y (behavior --> consequence)
• voluntary behavior

Pavlovian Learning

• Typically passive process
• If x, then Y (CS --- US)
• Involuntary behavior

Dependent on their associations with other reinforcers: praise, money, awards. They are weaker than primary reinforcers, very durable, and easier to use. 

Example: money is only a reinforcer because it allows you to buy the primary reinforcers like water/food/etc. 

Arranged by someone for the purpose of modifying behavior. 

Examples: Brushing teeth to receive praise from parents. Reading a book to make a good grade. 

Events that follow automatically from the behavior. 

Example: brushing teeth because it makes your wouth feel cleaner. 

reading a book because it makes you laugh. 

the procedure of reinforcing successive approximations of a desired behavior. 

Example: learning to print the alphabet & getting closer each time to the correct letter. 

rewarding rats first when they get close to a lever, then when they touch it, then when they press it. 

you only reward the new steps once they happen & stop rewarding the attempts that are farther from the desired behavior. 

• reinforce small steps
• provide immediate reinforcement
• provide small reinforcers
• reinforces the best approximations available
• back up when necessary

• The extinction burst is a sudden increase in the rate of behavior during the early stages of extinction. 
• Extinction increases the variability of behavior and the frequency of emotional behavior, such as aggression. (vending machine example)
• One extinction session is typically not enough to extinguish behavior
• Resurgence is the reappearance of previously reinfroced behavior during extinction. 

• it does not really explain secondary reinforcers that work. there are reinforcers that don't satisfy a drive. (baby sucking on pacifier was rewarded with a clear TV example)

Problem with secondary reinforcers: Low-probability behavior will reinforce high-probability behavior if the participant has been prevented from performing the low-probability behavior for some time. 

Example: although a rat is more likely to drink water than run on a wheel, when the rats were given all the water they wanted but had the wheel taken away, then had the wheel added back in and made it contingent upon drinking the water, the rats ended up drinking the water in order to have access to the wheel. 

states that a behavior is reinforcing to the extent that the organism has been deprived of performing that behavior. 

you will engage in any activity to get water if you have been deprived of it long enough. 

the vitalism of the reinforcer isn't important as long as the behavior falls below the baseline.

chores vs watching TV example. once the TV time fell below the baseline, the chores were done so they could return to their baseline of how much TV they watched. 

- there's no baseline for positive feedback, so it has a hard time explaining why positive feedback works.

  but this theory does the best at explainign what goes on .

Views avoidance as involving both operant learning and classical conditioning. 

Criticism: avoidance persists even when CS loses its pervasiveness.

(dog in box w/floor that shocks it after the light goes off example. operant learning is occuring first because the dog jumps to the other side because the shock is aversive, then classical conditoning occurs when the dog starts jumping before the light even occurs)

views avoidance as involving only operant learning. 

Explains escape, avoidance, and extinction. 

Every nth performance of a behavior is reinforced. 

(Example: Food delivered after 5 lever presses is an FR5. Continuous reinforcement is FR1)

A postreinforcement pause is a pause responding following reinforcement. (The more work required for the reinforcement, the longer the pause)

The run rate is the rate at which a behavior occurs once it has resumed following reinforcement.

In a variable ratio schedule, the average of every nth performance of a behavior is reinforced. 

Examples:

- animals killin prey

- working on commission

- gambling

Postreinforcement Pauses occur less often and are shorter. Size of the average ratio and the lowest ratio. 

in a FDR, reinforcement is contingent on the continuous performance of a behavior for some period time. 

Example: playin the piano for half an hour a night.

In a VDS, the required period of performance varies around some average. 

Example: Playing the piano for 20 mins one night and 40 the next. 

Differential Reinforcement of Behaviors

DRL refers to when a behavior is reinforced only if it occurs no more than a specified number of times in a given period.

Example:  Food delivered if a pigeon pecks a disk and 5 seconds have elapsed since the last disk peck. 

Low rates of behavior & superstitious behaviors.

DRH refers to when a behavior is reinforced only if it occurs at least a specified number of time in a given period. 

Examples: Food delivered if a pigeon pecks a dish 5 times in a 10s interval. 

this leads to high rates of behavior. you could use this to increase behaviors you wanted and could use DRL to decrease behaviors you didn't. 

Fixed Time Schedules

In a fixed time schedule, a reinforcer is delivered after a given period of time without regard to the behavior.  

Example:  Food delivered after 10s even if the pigeon did not peck the disk

Uncommon outside of a lab setting. 

Unemployment & welfare example.

Variable Time Schedules

In a variable time schedule, reinforcement is delivered periodically at irregular intervals regardless of what behavior occurs.

Example:  Distant relative leaving you money in their will

The procedure of gradually increasing the number of responses required for reinforcement (think shaping for reinforcement schedules)

Ratio strain is the disruption of the pattern of responding due to stretching the ratio of reinforcement too abruptly or too far. 

The partial reinforcement effect is the tendency of a behavior to be more resistant to extinction following partial reinforcement than following continuous reinforcement.

In cooperative schedules, reinforcement is contingent on the behavior of two or more individuals.

Example:  Two pigeons are given food when they have pecked a disk a total of 20 times

Ex: Working on group projects

In concurrent schedules, two or more simple schedules are available at the same time.

Example:  A pigeon may choose between pecking a red disk on a VR 50 schedule or pecking a yellow disk on a VR 20 schedule.

A tandem schedule consists of a series of simple schedules, none of which are associated with different stimuli, with reinforcement delivered only on completion of the last schedule in the series.

The matching law states that, when given the opportunity to respond on two or more reinforcement schedules, the rate of responding on each schedule will match the reinforcement available on each schedule.

a behavior must have a consequence, the behavior must decrease in strength, and the reduction in stregnth must be the result of the consequence. 

Punishers are the consequences involved in punishment. 

- Reprimands (example of positive punishment)

- Spankings (example of positive punishment)

- Time out (almost goes both ways, posi or neg. If you can explain why it constitues either, it counts.)

the greater the degree of contingency between a behavior and a punishing event, the faster behavior changes. 

contingency is the 2 evens occuring together. in plain words: the more the 2 occur together, the more the behavior decreases.

- Boe and Church study: rats & lever pressing.

the longer the delay between the behavior and a punishing consequence, the slower the learning. 

(time out example: "you have time out when we get back". the consequence happens much later than event.)

if you can provde an immediate punsher, that's best. 

the stronger the punisher, the more learning that occurs. 

example: variations in shock intensity. strong the shock, quicker they learned not to touch it.

more learning occurs when an effective level of punishment is used from the beginning.  a punisher must be strong enough to decrease behavior from the beginning. don't move up gradually from a weaker one.it builds a tolerance to punishment.

Problems:

- It is common practice to do the opposite (warning, ticket, license suspended, jail time)

- It's not obvious what level of punishment will be effective beginning

- Legal & ethical constraints 

the effectiveness of punishment depends on the frequency, amount, and quality of reinforcers the behavior producers. 

if the gain made by performing the behavior still outweighs the punishment for the behavior, it will still happen. 

If alternative methods of receving reinforcment are available, punishment is more likely to be successful. 

 - Example: finding different ways to give a child attention. 

Punishment involves both classical conditioning & operant learning. 

Example: A rat received a shock every time it pressd a lever. 

- Clasically Condtioning: The leaver becomes a CS for fear. 

- Operant Learning: Moving away from the lever is reinforced by reduction of fear. 

Punishment involves only operant learning. 

Example:  A rate receives a shock every time it presses a leverl, and the rat decreases the amount of lever presses in order to avoid the shock.

Punishment is not as effective if it can be escaped.

Example: A failing student skips school, my dog ate my homeworks, excuses in general, etc. 

If you're able to escape, it reinforces your behavior.

Aggression is a likely result of punishment, espcially when escpae is impossible. 

Aggression is not always directed at the source of the punishment. 

A child who is bullied in school may vandalize school property. 

A teenage slams the door to her room after being grounded by parents. 

When escape & aggression are not possible, punishment may result in a genral suppression of all behaviors instead of just the behavior being punished. 

Apathy as a result of punishment can be avoided if strong positive einforcers are offered as well. 

Example: A child who often receives bad grades may stop caring about school in general. Extra attention from the teachers can help.

When punishment is out of hand, there is a potential for abuse by the punisher. 

Coroporal punishment & child abuse example.

Those who are punished tend to imitate those who punish them. 

An adult who was heavily punished as a child is more likely to use punsihment on their own children. 

response prevention is the procedure of altering the environment to prevent unwanted behavior from occuring. 

Baby-proofing, locking your cell phone/laptop, keeping junk food out of the house

DRL is when a behavior is reinforced only if it occurs no more than a specified number of times in a given period time. 

A teacher would only praise a child if they spoke out in class 3x week or less.

DRO occurs when reinforcement is contingent on the complete abscence of a behavior for a period of time. 

The behavior does not occur at all THEN you praise

A teacher would praise a child only if he goes a whole day, then eventually week, without speaking out.

1. involved chimpanzees

2. gave chimps tools to get a banana across a fence, they figured out how to put sticks together to reach banana

3. Resulted in Koehler proving insight 

It causes creativity to go down because your reward isn't dependent on your method, just your result. 

College students were asked to say as many words as they could in a given time. The experimenters either reinfroced or punished for plural nouns (by saying "mmhmm" or "nuh uh" after). The people who were reinforced ended up saying more plural nouns.

They also had students comein for 20 mins, half as a 1-on-1 convo w/experiment, then introduced a new topic. Subject was either reinforced by agreeing with or ignored. Those who were ignored changed the subject. 

the procedure of establishing a behavior chain

examples: making a telephone call, eating at a restaurant

Sometimes, each behavior in the chain has to be shaped.

if you have an evolved tendency, it can cause ______.

(If an evovled tendency is so strong you don't have to train it)

autoshaping

Example: Pigeons have an evovled tendency to peck at things beause they eat seeds, however hawks tear things up to eat them. So if you did an experiment where the birds must peck a disk, the pigeons will automatically be better at it.