PSYC10003 Lecture Notes - Lecture 25: Edward Thorndike, Sprained Ankle, Operant Conditioning
12 Jun 2018
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Lecture 25, Wednesday, 4 May 2016
PSYC10003 - MIND, BRAIN & BEHAVIOUR 1
LECTURE 25
OPERANT CONDITIONING
OPERANT CONDITIONING
•Operant conditioning is when the consequences of an action determines the likelihood that it will
be performed again in the future.
-Used for behaviours that are non reflexive, that won’t occur naturally.
-We often repeat behaviours followed by a desirable consequence and avoid behaviours
followed by an undesired consequence.
-An operant is a response which acts on the environment to produce a consequence and the
environment is the stimulus which provokes the operant.
→ Edward Thorndike
•His experiments, conducted at the turn of the 20th century, paved the way for a behaviourist
account of voluntary behaviour.
•He worked with different animals, including chicks, cats and dogs.
•He wanted to find out whether animals use reasoning to solve problems.
•Thorndike’s law of effect states that behaviours followed by a positive consequence are likely to
be repeated, while behaviours followed by a negative consequence are likely to be avoided.
•Thorndike’s ‘puzzle box’ was an experiment/test in which the hungry cat is inside a box, and
there is visible food outside the box. It is designed to test if the cat can work out the mechanism to
open the door. The cats learned by trial and error (and successes); the first attempts were random,
then they stumbled across the correct solution. The cats became faster on subsequent trials in the
same puzzle box; they learn to associate response with rewarding consequence.
•The conclusion is that cats learn simple stimulus-response (S-R) associations rather than
complex reasoning processes.
•This becomes the main principle of operant conditioning; consequences shape behaviour, and
unsuccessful responses are gradually eliminated.
THREE PHASE MODEL OF OPERANT CONDITIONING
→ B.F Skinner (1904-1990)
•Skinner was influenced by Thorndike’s work describing voluntary human behaviour using basic
S-R associations and without resorting to mentalistic concepts.
•‘Behaviour operates on the environment to generate consequences’.
•Organisms learn which behaviours are emitted to earn rewards or avoid punishments.
•An operant describes any active (voluntary) behaviour that is produced in order to generate
consequences, or is instrumental in generating consequences
•Everyone is trying to gain something desired or avoid something unpleasant
•Skinner assessed behaviour in terms of the relationship between behaviour, antecedents and
consequences.
•The three parts of the model are:
‣The discriminative stimulus (occurs before a particular response), the response (occurs due to
the discriminative stimulus) and the consequence (to the response)
‣SAC = study = good marks
‣Sprained ankle = ice it = reduces swelling
‣Hungry = eat = satisfaction
•The discriminative stimulus (DS) or is a stimulus that precedes a particular response, signals the
probable consequence for the response and therefore influences the occurrence of the response.
•The response or operant is the voluntary behaviour that occurs in the presence of the DS.
‣It may be one action or a sequence.
Lecture 25, Wednesday, 4 May 2016
PSYC10003 - MIND, BRAIN & BEHAVIOUR 1
•The consequence is an environmental event that occurs immediately after the response and
determines whether or not the response will occur again in the future.
SKINER’S EXP. WITH RATS
•Used a Skinner Box (chamber where organisms learn to make responses and where consequences
are controlled), which had a lever to deliver water and food, electric shock capabilities, lights and
buzzers. There was a hungry rat in the box who accidentally pressed the lever and food was
dispensed. He accidentally did it again and got food again. Therefore, random movements
disappeared and purposeful lever pushing followed due to the positive consequence of food.
ELEMENTS OF OPERANT CONDITIONING
REINFORCEMENT
•Positive reinforcement is the application of desired consequence/s to increase likelihood of the
behaviour occurring again. (working to get money)
‣Giving good
•Negative reinforcement is the removal of an undesired stimulus/consequence to increase the
likelihood of the behaviour occurring again. (cleaning room to avoid trouble)
‣Removing/avoiding bad
PUNISHMENT
•Punishment is the use of aversive consequences to reduce undesirable behaviour, in which any
event which decreases the likelihood of an ongoing behaviour recurring is either added or
removed from the situation as a punishment.
‣Punishment has to be consistent and it is more effective when it is swift.
‣Generally it is more effective to build a desired behaviour rather than crush an undesired
behaviour, as it produces negative feelings and does not promote new learning, and could
actually teach the recipient to use punishment towards others.
‣It is also thought that punishment does not really cause the learner/s to learn a new behavior,
it causes them to suppress a behaviour; it generally doesn’t cause long term behaviour change.
‣However it is useful if behaviour is dangerous and must be changed/suppressed quickly.
‣It is ineffective because when the threat of punishment is removed, the behaviour could return
‣(Eg. Slowing down when coming up to a speed camera and then speeding again once past
the camera).
•Positive punishment is the introduction of an undesired consequence to decrease the likelihood of
the behaviour occurring again. (yuck nail polish to stop biting nails)
‣Giving bad
•Negative punishment is the removal of a desired stimulus to decrease the likelihood of behaviour
occurring again. (losing your phone for going over your bill)
‣Removing good
•Response cost is the removal of any valued stimulus, whether or not it causes the behaviour, as a
punishment.
ORDER & TIMING OF PRESENTATION
•Presentation must always be immediately AFTER the response, which enables association between
action and consequence. The greater the delay, the slower/weaker the learning, and it’s possibly
more important for animals (humans know some consequences will be delayed)
NATURE OF PRESENTATION
•Reinforcement must have a pleasing or satisfying consequence for the individual and punishment
must have an unpleasant consequence for the individual.
SCHEDULES OF REINFORCEMENT
•Continuous reinforcement occurs when every response is reinforced.
•Partial/intermittent reinforcement occurs when only some responses are reinforced.
Document Summary
Operant conditioning: operant conditioning is when the consequences of an action determines the likelihood that it will be performed again in the future. Used for behaviours that are non reflexive, that won"t occur naturally. We often repeat behaviours followed by a desirable consequence and avoid behaviours followed by an undesired consequence. An operant is a response which acts on the environment to produce a consequence and the environment is the stimulus which provokes the operant. It is designed to test if the cat can work out the mechanism to open the door. The cats learned by trial and error (and successes); the first attempts were random, then they stumbled across the correct solution. B. f skinner (1904-1990: skinner was influenced by thorndike"s work describing voluntary human behaviour using basic. Psyc10003 - mind, brain & behaviour 1: the consequence is an environmental event that occurs immediately after the response and determines whether or not the response will occur again in the future.
