Behaviorism Notes and other Words
Learning — A relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs through experience.
Classical Conditioning — Responding
Operand Conditioning — Acting
Observational Conditioning — Observing
Classical Conditioning
— A neutral stimulus becomes associated with a meaningful stimulus and acquires the capacity to elicit a similar response.
-The organism as responding to the environment (fails to capture active nature of the organism and its influence on the environment. )
-Explains involuntary responses
- Pavlov
-Reflexes — Automatic stimulus-response connections.
-Unconditional Stimulus (US) — A stimulus that provides a response without prior learning.
-Unconditional Response — (UP) — An unlearned response that is automatically elected by the US
-Conditioned Stimulus (CS) — Previous neutral stimulus that eventually elicits the condition response after being associated with the unconditioned stimulus.
-Conditioned Response (CR) — Learned response to CS that occurs after CS-US paring. (Pavlov, 1927)
-(DeCola & Fanselow, 1995) — The interval between the CS & US is one of the most important aspects of classical conditioning
- Congruity — Degree of association of the stimuli.
-(Kimble, 1961) — Conditioned responses developed when the interval between the CS and US is very short, as in a matter of seconds. In many instances, optimal spacing is a fraction of a second.
-Generalization - The tendency of a new stimulus that is similar to the original stimulus to produce a response that is similar to the conditioned response.
-Discrimination — The process of learning to respond to certain stimuli and not to respond to others.
-Extinction — The weakening of the conditioned response in the absence of the unconditioned stimulus
-Spontaneous Recovery — The process by which a condition response can recur after a time delay without further conditioning.
-Stimulus Substitution — Pavlov’s theory of how classical conditioning works; the nervous system is structured in such a way that the CS and the US bond together and eventually the CS substituted for the US.
-Information Theory — Contemporary explanation of why classical condition works; key to understand classical conditioning focuses on the information an organism gets from the situation.
-(E. C. Tolman, 1932) — The organism used the CS as a sign or expectation that a US will follow.
-Phobias — Irrational fears
-Counterconditioning — A procedure for weakening a CR by associating the fear-provoking stimulus with a new response incompatible with the fear.
- (Mary Cover Jones, 1924) — Eliminated fear in 3 year old.
-Some behaviors associated with health problems or mental disorders can involved classical conditioning.
-Operant Conditioning
-Form of learning in which the consequences of behavior produce changes in the probability of the behavior’s occurrence.
-The behavior operates on the environments, and the environment in turn operates on the behavior.
-Explains voluntary actions
-Stimuli that govern behavior follow the behavior (as oppose to Classical C.)
-E. L. Thorndike
-Experimented with power of consequences in determining voluntary behavior
-Law of Effect — Behaviors followed by positive outcomes are strengthen, whereas behaviors followed by negative outcomes are weakened.
- S-R Theory —Thorndike’s view
- The correct stimulus-response association strengths and the incorrect association weakens because of the consequences of the organism’s actions
- Organism’s behavior is due to a connection between a stimulus and a response.
-B. F. Skinner
- Developed concept of operant conditioning (1938)
-Pigeon-guided missile
- Walden Two (1948)
-Presented idea of scientifically managed society
-Utopian society through behavioral control
-Our behavior is controlled by environmental forces is to ignore science and reality
-Skinner box
-A device in a box would deliver food pellets into a tray at random. After a rate became accustomed to the box, Skinner installed a lever and observed the rat’s behavior. As the hungry rat explored the box, it occasionally pressed the ever and a food pellet would be dispenses.
-Reinforcement (reward) — A consequence that increases the probability that a behavior will occur
-Positive Reinforcement — The frequency of a response increases because it is followed by a stimulus
-Negative Reinforcement — The frequency of a response increases because the response is either removes a stimulus or involves avoiding the stimulus.
-Punishment — A consequence that decreases the probability that a behavior will occur.
-Time Interval
- Learning more efficient when the interval between response and reinforcement is a few seconds rather than minutes or hours.
-(Holland, 1996) — Learning is more efficient under immediate rather than delayed consequences.
-Shaping and Chaining
-Shaping — The process of rewarding approximations of desired behavior.
-Chaining — Technique used to reach a complex sequence, or chain or behaviors. The procedure begins by shaping the final response in the sequence. Then you work backward until a chain of behaviors is learned.
-Primary and Secondary Reinforcement
-Positive reinforcement
-Primary Reinforcement — Involves the use of reinforces that are innately satisfying, that is they do not take any learning on the organism’s part to make them pleasurable.
-Secondary Reinforcement — Acquires its positive value through experience; secondary reinforces are learned or conditioned reinforces.
-Token Rein forcer — Money
-Schedules of Reinforcement
-Partial Reinforcement- Responses are not reinforced each time they occur
-Schedules of reinforcement — "Timetables" that determine when a response will be reinforced.
-Fixed-Ratio Schedule — Reinforces a behavior after a set number of responses.
-Variable-Ratio Schedule — A timetable in which responses are rewarded an average number of time, but on an unpredictable basis.
-Fixed-Interval Schedule — Reinforces the first appropriated response after a fixed amount of time has elapsed.
-Variable-Interval Schedule — A timetable in which a response is reinforced after a variable amount of time has elapsed.
-The closer the schedule is to continuous reinforcement, the faster the individual learns. However, once behavior is learned, the intermittent schedules can be effective n maintaining behavior.
-(Skinner, 961) — Rate of behavior varies from one schedule to the next
-Fixed-ratio schedule produced a high rate of behavior with a pause occurring between the
reinforce and the behavior
-Variable-ration schedule elicits a high rate of behavior when the pause after the reinforcement is eliminated…. This schedule usually elicits the highest response rate of all four schedules.
-Interval schedules produce behavior at a lower rate than ratio schedules
-Extinction — A previously reinforced response is no longer reinforced and there is decreased tendency to perform the response.
-Generalization —Giving the same response to similar stimuli.
-Discrimination — The tendency to respond only to those stimuli that are correlated with reinforcement.
-Discriminative Stimuli — Signal that a response will be reinforced
-Applied behavior analysis (behavior modification) — Application of operant condition principles to change human behavior.
Observational Learning — (aka imitation or modeling) Learning that occurs when a person observes and imitates someone’s behavior.
-(Bandura (1965) — Bobo dolls
Cognitive Factors in Learning
-S-O-R Model — A model of learning that gives some importance to cognitive factors
-S=stimuls
-O=organism, "black box"
-R=response
-Cognitive map — An organism’s mental representation of the structure of physical space.
-Insight learning — A form of problem solving in which the organism develops a sudden insight or understanding of a problem’s solution
-Preparedness — Species-specific biological predisposition to learn in certain way but not in others
-Instinctive Drift — Tendency of animals to revert to instinctive behavior that interferes with learning.
-Taste aversion —if an organism ingests a substance that poisons but does not kill it, the organism often develops considerable distaste for that substance.
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