PSYCH 1F03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Puzzle Box, Reinforcement, Classical Conditioning
28 Sep 2016
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Document Summary
Instrumental conditioning involves explicit training between voluntary behaviours and their consequences. The learning of a contingency between behaviour and consequence: ex. if you touch hot stove, you will get burned, ex. if you behave bad, you get time out. Early theorists trying to understand connection between behaviour and its consequences appealed to mental processes which could not be readily measured. Instead, thorndike found that frequency of random behaviours gradually decreased overtime. This suggested that animals followed stimulus response type process with little credit for consciousness. Stamping in and stamping out , which determined whether behaviour was maintained or eliminated. Behaviours like rope pulling were stamped in because they were followed by consequence of access to food. Random behaviours like turning in circle were stamped out. This general process leads to refinement, cat leans contingency between behaviour of rope pulling and consequence of food reward.
