PSY 011 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: B. F. Skinner, Reinforcement

• School: Hofstra University
• Department: Psychology (PSY)
• Course: PSY 011
• Professor: Pineno

Document Summary

First introduced when edward thorndyke preformed experiments with cats and puzzle boxes . Bf skinner is mainly known for the types of reinforcement due to his work with lab animals, mainly rats and pigeons. Behavior is always followed by a consequence, and consequences help to determine whether a behavior is more likely to occur again. Premack principle: a reinforcer may be the opportunity to engage in another behavior that the person nds pleasant. (i. e. if a child does half an hour of homework, they can play outside for half an hour) A common misconception: both types of reinforcement, both positive and negative. The word negative leads many to believe that a behavior is not strengthened and is actually lessoned. Situations that lesson behavior will be discussed later; these are called punishments. The two main types of reinforcement: postive reinforcement: after a behavior occurs, the consequence is the addition of a pleasant (appetitive) stimulus.