PSY260H1 Lecture 7: Lecture 7
Operant vs. Classical Conditioning:
In operant conditioning: Animal operates on the environment.
In classical conditioning: Environment operates on animal.
In operant conditioning: Stimulus evokes a response to produce an outcome (S -> R -> O)
In classical conditioning: Stimulus evokes Response (S -> R) (also different to the beginning of
operant conditioning because there is no contingency).
In operant conditioning: Animal connects context, behaviour, and outcome.
In classical condition: Animal learns CS predicts US.
Also operant conditioning is more powerful/flexible. You can get them (animals/humans) to do
very complex things in this way.
Shaping:
The skinner video experiment with the bird.
Its when you reinforce an approximation to the desired behaviour at first to get it on the path
towards the desired behaviour.
Shaping and chaining provided incredible power to operant conditioning.
Shaping:
Shaping through successive approximation builds a complex R incrementally.
Initially, contingency is introduced for simple behaviour, R
As rate of R improves, contingency is moved to a a more complex version of R.
So like if you were using the initial lever example:
First you reinforce approach to lever
Then you only reinforce being X away from lever
Then you only reinforce contact with the lever
AND FINALLY
You only reinforce actually pressing the lever
Chaining:
Chaining builds complex R sequences by linking together S-> R -> O
So you might first train an animal for picking up an object
Then you might train an animal to pick it up and throw it
And then to pick it up and through it at the experimenter
So it’s a series of events which you reinforce in parts of S,R, and O
Difference: In chaining its many S,R, and Os linked together where as in shaping its all part of
one individual Response.
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Document Summary
In operant conditioning: animal operates on the environment. In operant conditioning: stimulus evokes a response to produce an outcome (s -> r -> o) In classical conditioning: stimulus evokes response (s -> r) (also different to the beginning of operant conditioning because there is no contingency). In operant conditioning: animal connects context, behaviour, and outcome. In classical condition: animal learns cs predicts us. You can get them (animals/humans) to do very complex things in this way. Its when you reinforce an approximation to the desired behaviour at first to get it on the path towards the desired behaviour. Shaping and chaining provided incredible power to operant conditioning. Shaping through successive approximation builds a complex r incrementally. Initially, contingency is introduced for simple behaviour, r. As rate of r improves, contingency is moved to a a more complex version of r. So like if you were using the initial lever example: Then you only reinforce being x away from lever.
