PSYC 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Stimulus Control, Operant Conditioning

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 102
• Professor: Sherri Atwood

Document Summary

The basic principles of operant conditioning: learning takes place in contexts; behavior is under stimulus control. Three-term contingency: discriminative stimulus, response, reinforcer: schedules of reinforcement: Fixed interval schedule (fi): reinforcements are presented at fixed time periods, provided the appropriate response is made. Variable interval scheduled (vi): behavior is reinforced based on an average time that has expired since the last reinforcement. Fixed ratio schedule (fr): reinforcement is delivered after a specific number of responses have been made. Variable ratio schedule (vr): delivery of reinforcement is based on a particular average number of responses: 1. Reinforce behavior after a set number of responses. After every 10 correct responses get one prize. Produces high rates of responding: 2. Variable-ratio schedules: reinforce behavior after an unpredictable number of responses. Reinforcement based on number of responses but it is unpredictable how many responses are required to get reinforcement. Variable-interval schedules: reinforce the first response after varying time intervals.