PSY100H1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 6.2: Operant Conditioning, Edward Thorndike, Reinforcement

• School: UTSG
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY100H1
• Professor: Ashley Waggoner Denton

Document Summary

Reinforcement the general idea that something that gave you a reward will increase the likelihood that you will perform that behaviour again. Studies such as those done by edward thorndike realised that when something gives you satisfaction you are likely to keep doing it. Experiments like these are done in operant chambers which are chambers that contain animals and they force them to do a certain task that gives them a reward to see if they do it again. Reinforcer the object that causes you to want to keep doing something. Alternatively, punishment a process that decreases the future possibility of a response. Punisher the object or event that causes you to not want to do it again (like going to jail) Whenever we think of a reward or consequence, we think of it like adding something to the environment (like rewarding someone by giving them food or hurting someone by giving them an electric shock).