Reinforcement Increases the Likelihood a Behavior Will Occur Again Health

Basic Principles of Operant Workout: Thorndike'southward Law of Effect

Thorndike'southward law of effect states that behaviors are modified by their positive or negative consequences.

Learning Objectives

Chronicle Thorndike's law of effect to the principles of operant conditioning

Key Takeaways

Primal Points

• The law of issue states that responses that produce a satisfying effect in a particular situation become more than likely to occur over again, while responses that produce a discomforting effect are less likely to be repeated.
• Edward Fifty. Thorndike first studied the law of effect past placing hungry cats inside puzzle boxes and observing their actions. He rapidly realized that cats could learn the efficacy of sure behaviors and would repeat those behaviors that allowed them to escape faster.
• The law of effect is at work in every human behavior as well. From a young age, nosotros learn which actions are beneficial and which are detrimental through a similar trial and mistake procedure.
• While the law of result explains behavior from an external, appreciable signal of view, it does not account for internal, unobservable processes that also affect the beliefs patterns of human beings.

Key Terms

• Law of Effect: A law developed by Edward L. Thorndike that states, "responses that produce a satisfying consequence in a particular situation become more than probable to occur again in that situation, and responses that produce a discomforting consequence become less likely to occur once again in that situation."
• behavior modification: The human activity of altering actions and reactions to stimuli through positive and negative reinforcement or punishment.
• trial and error: The process of finding a solution to a problem by trying many possible solutions and learning from mistakes until a way is found.

Operant conditioning is a theory of learning that focuses on changes in an private'southward appreciable behaviors. In operant workout, new or continued behaviors are impacted by new or continued consequences. Research regarding this principle of learning first began in the tardily 19th century with Edward L. Thorndike, who established the law of effect.

Thorndike's Experiments

Thorndike'due south most famous piece of work involved cats trying to navigate through various puzzle boxes. In this experiment, he placed hungry cats into homemade boxes and recorded the fourth dimension it took for them to perform the necessary actions to escape and receive their food reward. Thorndike discovered that with successive trials, cats would acquire from previous behavior, limit ineffective actions, and escape from the box more chop-chop. He observed that the cats seemed to learn, from an intricate trial and error process, which deportment should be continued and which actions should be abandoned; a well-practiced cat could quickly remember and reuse actions that were successful in escaping to the nutrient advantage.

Thorndike's puzzle box: This image shows an instance of Thorndike's puzzle box alongside a graph demonstrating the learning of a cat inside the box. As the number of trials increased, the cats were able to escape more quickly past learning.

The Constabulary of Upshot

Thorndike realized not but that stimuli and responses were associated, merely also that behavior could be modified by consequences. He used these findings to publish his now famous "law of effect" theory. Co-ordinate to the law of effect, behaviors that are followed by consequences that are satisfying to the organism are more likely to be repeated, and behaviors that are followed past unpleasant consequences are less probable to be repeated. Substantially, if an organism does something that brings nearly a desired result, the organism is more than probable to do it over again. If an organism does something that does not bring near a desired result, the organism is less likely to practise it again.

Law of effect: Initially, cats displayed a variety of behaviors inside the box. Over successive trials, deportment that were helpful in escaping the box and receiving the food reward were replicated and repeated at a college rate.

Thorndike'southward police of upshot at present informs much of what nosotros know nigh operant conditioning and behaviorism. According to this law, behaviors are modified by their consequences, and this basic stimulus-response human relationship tin can be learned by the operant person or animal. Once the association between behavior and consequences is established, the response is reinforced, and the association holds the sole responsibility for the occurrence of that beliefs. Thorndike posited that learning was only a change in behavior as a result of a consequence, and that if an action brought a reward, it was stamped into the heed and bachelor for retrieve later.

From a immature age, we learn which actions are beneficial and which are detrimental through a trial and mistake process. For example, a immature child is playing with her friend on the playground and playfully pushes her friend off the swingset. Her friend falls to the footing and begins to weep, and then refuses to play with her for the residue of the day. The child'south actions (pushing her friend) are informed by their consequences (her friend refusing to play with her), and she learns not to repeat that activeness if she wants to continue playing with her friend.

The police force of effect has been expanded to various forms of behavior modification. Because the constabulary of event is a key component of behaviorism, it does not include any reference to unobservable or internal states; instead, it relies solely on what can be observed in human behavior. While this theory does non account for the entirety of man beliefs, it has been applied to nearly every sector of human life, but particularly in education and psychology.

Basic Principles of Operant Conditioning: Skinner

B. F. Skinner was a behavioral psychologist who expanded the field past defining and elaborating on operant conditioning.

Learning Objectives

Summarize Skinner'south enquiry on operant conditioning

Central Takeaways

Key Points

• B. F. Skinner, a behavioral psychologist and a student of Due east. L. Thorndike, contributed to our view of learning by expanding our understanding of workout to include operant conditioning.
• Skinner theorized that if a behavior is followed past reinforcement, that behavior is more likely to be repeated, but if it is followed by penalization, it is less likely to exist repeated.
• Skinner conducted his enquiry on rats and pigeons past presenting them with positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, or penalisation in diverse schedules that were designed to produce or inhibit specific target behaviors.
• Skinner did non include room in his research for ideas such as free will or individual choice; instead, he posited that all behavior could be explained using  learned, physical aspects of the world, including life history and evolution.

Key Terms

• penalisation: The human action or procedure of imposing and/or applying a sanction for an undesired behavior when conditioning toward a desired behavior.
• aversive: Tending to repel, causing avoidance (of a situation, a behavior, an detail, etc.).
• superstition: A conventionalities, not based on reason or scientific knowledge, that future events may exist influenced by one's behavior in some magical or mystical mode.

Operant conditioning is a theory of behaviorism that focuses on changes in an individual'due south observable behaviors. In operant conditioning, new or connected behaviors are impacted by new or connected consequences. Research regarding this principle of learning was showtime conducted past Edward L. Thorndike in the late 1800s, and so brought to popularity by B. F. Skinner in the mid-1900s. Much of this research informs electric current practices in human being behavior and interaction.

Skinner's Theories of Operant Conditioning

Almost half a century after Thorndike'southward first publication of the principles of operant workout and the police force of effect, Skinner attempted to prove an extension to this theory—that all behaviors are in some way a result of operant conditioning. Skinner theorized that if a behavior is followed past reinforcement, that behavior is more than likely to be repeated, but if it is followed by some sort of aversive stimuli or punishment, it is less probable to be repeated. He also believed that this learned association could end, or become extinct, if the reinforcement or penalisation was removed.

B. F. Skinner: Skinner was responsible for defining the segment of behaviorism known as operant conditioning—a process past which an organism learns from its physical environs.

Skinner'due south Experiments

Skinner'south most famous research studies were uncomplicated reinforcement experiments conducted on lab rats and domestic pigeons, which demonstrated the near basic principles of operant conditioning. He conducted most of his inquiry in a special cumulative recorder, now referred to as a "Skinner box," which was used to analyze the behavioral responses of his test subjects. In these boxes he would nowadays his subjects with positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, or aversive stimuli in various timing intervals (or "schedules") that were designed to produce or inhibit specific target behaviors.

In his first work with rats, Skinner would place the rats in a Skinner box with a lever fastened to a feeding tube. Whenever a rat pressed the lever, food would be released. After the feel of multiple trials, the rats learned the association betwixt the lever and nutrient and began to spend more of their fourth dimension in the box procuring food than performing whatsoever other activity. It was through this early work that Skinner started to sympathise the furnishings of behavioral contingencies on actions. He discovered that the rate of response—likewise as changes in response features—depended on what occurred afterwards the behavior was performed, non before. Skinner named these actions operant behaviors because they operated on the environs to produce an outcome. The procedure by which one could conform the contingencies of reinforcement responsible for producing a certain behavior and so came to be chosen operant workout.

To prove his idea that behaviorism was responsible for all actions, he later on created a "superstitious pigeon." He fed the pigeon on continuous intervals (every 15 seconds) and observed the pigeon'due south behavior. He found that the dove's deportment would change depending on what it had been doing in the moments earlier the nutrient was dispensed, regardless of the fact that those actions had nothing to exercise with the dispensing of food. In this way, he discerned that the pigeon had fabricated a causal relationship between its deportment and the presentation of advantage. It was this development of "superstition" that led Skinner to believe all beliefs could be explained equally a learned reaction to specific consequences.

In his operant conditioning experiments, Skinner often used an approach chosen shaping. Instead of rewarding only the target, or desired, behavior, the procedure of shaping involves the reinforcement of successive approximations of the target behavior. Behavioral approximations are behaviors that, over time, abound increasingly closer to the actual desired response.

Skinner believed that all beliefs is predetermined past past and present events in the objective world. He did not include room in his inquiry for ideas such every bit free will or individual choice; instead, he posited that all behavior could be explained using learned, physical aspects of the world, including life history and evolution. His work remains extremely influential in the fields of psychology, behaviorism, and pedagogy.

Shaping

Shaping is a method of operant conditioning past which successive approximations of a target behavior are reinforced.

Learning Objectives

Describe how shaping is used to modify behavior

Key Takeaways

Key Points

• B. F. Skinner used shaping —a method of grooming past which successive approximations toward a target behavior are reinforced—to test his theories of behavioral psychology.
• Shaping involves a calculated reinforcement of a "target behavior": it uses operant conditioning principles to train a subject by rewarding proper behavior and discouraging improper beliefs.
• The method requires that the subject perform behaviors that at starting time merely resemble the target beliefs; through reinforcement, these behaviors are gradually changed or "shaped" to encourage the target beliefs itself.
• Skinner's early experiments in operant workout involved the shaping of rats' behavior so they learned to press a lever and receive a food reward.
• Shaping is normally used to railroad train animals, such as dogs, to perform hard tasks; it is besides a useful learning tool for modifying human behavior.

Fundamental Terms

• successive approximation: An increasingly accurate estimate of a response desired past a trainer.
• prototype: An case serving as a model or pattern; a template, every bit for an experiment.
• shaping: A method of positive reinforcement of beliefs patterns in operant conditioning.

In his operant-conditioning experiments, Skinner ofttimes used an approach called shaping. Instead of rewarding merely the target, or desired, behavior, the process of shaping involves the reinforcement of successive approximations of the target behavior. The method requires that the subject perform behaviors that at first merely resemble the target behavior; through reinforcement, these behaviors are gradually changed, or shaped, to encourage the functioning of the target behavior itself. Shaping is useful because information technology is often unlikely that an organism volition display anything but the simplest of behaviors spontaneously. Information technology is a very useful tool for preparation animals, such equally dogs, to perform hard tasks.

Canis familiaris testify: Dog grooming often uses the shaping method of operant conditioning.

How Shaping Works

In shaping, behaviors are broken downwardly into many small, achievable steps. To test this method, B. F. Skinner performed shaping experiments on rats, which he placed in an appliance (known as a Skinner box) that monitored their behaviors. The target behavior for the rat was to printing a lever that would release nutrient. Initially, rewards are given for even crude approximations of the target behavior—in other words, even taking a stride in the right direction. Then, the trainer rewards a behavior that is ane pace closer, or one successive approximation nearer, to the target behavior. For example, Skinner would reward the rat for taking a pace toward the lever, for standing on its hind legs, and for touching the lever—all of which were successive approximations toward the target beliefs of pressing the lever.

As the subject moves through each behavior trial, rewards for old, less judge behaviors are discontinued in order to encourage progress toward the desired beliefs. For example, once the rat had touched the lever, Skinner might stop rewarding it for but taking a step toward the lever. In Skinner'south experiment, each reward led the rat closer to the target beliefs, finally culminating in the rat pressing the lever and receiving food. In this style, shaping uses operant-conditioning principles to train a subject by rewarding proper beliefs and discouraging improper beliefs.

In summary, the process of shaping includes the post-obit steps:

• Reinforce any response that resembles the target behavior.
• And so reinforce the response that more closely resembles the target behavior. Yous volition no longer reinforce the previously reinforced response.
• Next, begin to reinforce the response that even more than closely resembles the target behavior. Continue to reinforce closer and closer approximations of the target behavior.
• Finally, merely reinforce the target behavior.

Applications of Shaping

This process has been replicated with other animals—including humans—and is now mutual practice in many training and teaching methods. It is ordinarily used to railroad train dogs to follow exact commands or become house-broken: while puppies can rarely perform the target behavior automatically, they can exist shaped toward this behavior by successively rewarding behaviors that come shut.

Shaping is also a useful technique in human learning. For example, if a father wants his daughter to learn to clean her room, he can apply shaping to aid her master steps toward the goal. Showtime, she cleans upwardly ane toy and is rewarded. Second, she cleans upwards v toys; so chooses whether to pick upward ten toys or put her books and clothes away; then cleans up everything except two toys. Through a series of rewards, she finally learns to clean her entire room.

Reinforcement and Penalisation

Reinforcement and punishment are principles of operant conditioning that increase or decrease the likelihood of a behavior.

Learning Objectives

Differentiate among chief, secondary, conditioned, and unconditioned reinforcers

Key Takeaways

Cardinal Points

• " Reinforcement " refers to any event that increases the likelihood of a particular behavioral response; " punishment " refers to a outcome that decreases the likelihood of this response.
• Both reinforcement and penalty can be positive or negative. In operant conditioning, positive means you are calculation something and negative means you are taking something away.
• Reinforcers tin can be either principal (linked unconditionally to a behavior) or secondary (requiring deliberate or conditioned linkage to a specific behavior).
• Master—or unconditioned—reinforcers, such as h2o, food, sleep, shelter, sexual practice, impact, and pleasure, accept innate reinforcing qualities.
• Secondary—or conditioned—reinforcers (such as money) accept no inherent value until they are linked or paired with a primary reinforcer.

Key Terms

• latency: The delay between a stimulus and the response it triggers in an organism.

Reinforcement and punishment are principles that are used in operant conditioning. Reinforcement means you are increasing a behavior: it is any upshot or effect that increases the likelihood of a item behavioral response (and that therefore reinforces the beliefs). The strengthening effect on the beliefs tin manifest in multiple ways, including college frequency, longer duration, greater magnitude, and brusk latency of response. Penalization ways you are decreasing a beliefs: information technology is whatsoever consequence or outcome that decreases the likelihood of a behavioral response.

Extinction , in operant workout, refers to when a reinforced behavior is extinguished entirely. This occurs at some point after reinforcement stops; the speed at which this happens depends on the reinforcement schedule, which is discussed in more detail in another section.

Positive and Negative Reinforcement and Punishment

Both reinforcement and penalty can be positive or negative. In operant conditioning, positive and negative do not mean good and bad. Instead, positive means you are calculation something and negative means y'all are taking something away. All of these methods can manipulate the beliefs of a subject, but each works in a unique way.

Operant conditioning: In the context of operant conditioning, whether you are reinforcing or punishing a behavior, "positive" always means yous are adding a stimulus (not necessarily a good one), and "negative" e'er means y'all are removing a stimulus (not necessarily a bad ane. See the bluish text and yellow text to a higher place, which represent positive and negative, respectively. Similarly, reinforcement always means y'all are increasing (or maintaining) the level of a behavior, and penalty always means you are decreasing the level of a behavior. Run across the green and crimson backgrounds above, which represent reinforcement and punishment, respectively.

• Positive reinforcers add a wanted or pleasant stimulus to increase or maintain the frequency of a behavior. For example, a child cleans her room and is rewarded with a cookie.
• Negative reinforcers remove an aversive or unpleasant stimulus to increment or maintain the frequency of a behavior. For example, a child cleans her room and is rewarded by non having to wash the dishes that nighttime.
• Positive punishments add an aversive stimulus to decrease a behavior or response. For example, a child refuses to make clean her room and so her parents make her wash the dishes for a calendar week.
• Negative punishments remove a pleasant stimulus to decrease a beliefs or response. For example, a child refuses to make clean her room and then her parents turn down to let her play with her friend that afternoon.

Primary and Secondary Reinforcers

The stimulus used to reinforce a certain behavior tin be either principal or secondary. A master reinforcer, likewise called an unconditioned reinforcer, is a stimulus that has innate reinforcing qualities. These kinds of reinforcers are not learned. Water, nutrient, sleep, shelter, sex, touch, and pleasure are all examples of primary reinforcers: organisms do not lose their drive for these things. Some primary reinforcers, such as drugs and alcohol, just mimic the effects of other reinforcers. For most people, jumping into a cool lake on a very hot twenty-four hours would be reinforcing and the cool lake would be innately reinforcing—the water would cool the person off (a physical demand), as well as provide pleasure.

A secondary reinforcer, also chosen a conditioned reinforcer, has no inherent value and only has reinforcing qualities when linked or paired with a chief reinforcer. Before pairing, the secondary reinforcer has no meaningful outcome on a bailiwick. Money is i of the all-time examples of a secondary reinforcer: it is only worth something because you can utilise information technology to buy other things—either things that satisfy basic needs (nutrient, water, shelter—all chief reinforcers) or other secondary reinforcers.

Schedules of Reinforcement

Reinforcement schedules make up one's mind how and when a beliefs will be followed by a reinforcer.

Learning Objectives

Compare and contrast different types of reinforcement schedules

Key Takeaways

Key Points

• A reinforcement schedule is a tool in operant workout that allows the trainer to command the timing and frequency of reinforcement in lodge to elicit a target behavior.
• Continuous schedules reward a behavior afterward every performance of the desired behavior; intermittent (or fractional) schedules only reward the beliefs after sure ratios or intervals of responses.
• Intermittent schedules tin can exist either stock-still (where reinforcement occurs after a set corporeality of time or responses) or variable (where reinforcement occurs afterward a varied and unpredictable corporeality of time or responses).
• Intermittent schedules are likewise described equally either interval (based on the time betwixt reinforcements) or ratio (based on the number of responses).
• Different schedules (fixed-interval, variable-interval, stock-still-ratio, and variable-ratio) have dissimilar advantages and respond differently to extinction.
• Compound reinforcement schedules combine ii or more simple schedules, using the same reinforcer and focusing on the aforementioned target beliefs.

Cardinal Terms

• extinction: When a behavior ceases because information technology is no longer reinforced.
• interval: A period of fourth dimension.
• ratio: A number representing a comparing between ii things.

A schedule of reinforcement is a tactic used in operant conditioning that influences how an operant response is learned and maintained. Each type of schedule imposes a rule or program that attempts to determine how and when a desired behavior occurs. Behaviors are encouraged through the employ of reinforcers, discouraged through the use of punishments, and rendered extinct by the complete removal of a stimulus. Schedules vary from elementary ratio- and interval-based schedules to more complicated chemical compound schedules that combine one or more elementary strategies to dispense beliefs.

Continuous vs. Intermittent Schedules

Continuous schedules reward a behavior after every operation of the desired behavior. This reinforcement schedule is the quickest mode to teach someone a behavior, and it is peculiarly effective in didactics a new behavior. Simple intermittent (sometimes referred to equally fractional) schedules, on the other mitt, only advantage the behavior after sure ratios or intervals of responses.

Types of Intermittent Schedules

There are several different types of intermittent reinforcement schedules. These schedules are described as either fixed or variable and as either interval or ratio.

Fixed vs. Variable, Ratio vs. Interval

Fixed refers to when the number of responses betwixt reinforcements, or the corporeality of time betwixt reinforcements, is set and unchanging. Variable refers to when the number of responses or amount of time betwixt reinforcements varies or changes. Interval means the schedule is based on the time between reinforcements, and ratio means the schedule is based on the number of responses between reinforcements. Simple intermittent schedules are a combination of these terms, creating the following four types of schedules:

• A stock-still-interval schedule is when beliefs is rewarded after a set amount of time. This type of schedule exists in payment systems when someone is paid hourly: no matter how much work that person does in one hour (beliefs), they will exist paid the same corporeality (reinforcement).
• With a variable-interval schedule, the subject gets the reinforcement based on varying and unpredictable amounts of time. People who like to fish experience this type of reinforcement schedule: on boilerplate, in the same location, yous are likely to catch about the same number of fish in a given time catamenia. However, y'all do non know exactly when those catches will occur (reinforcement) within the time period spent line-fishing (behavior).
• With a stock-still-ratio schedule, there are a set number of responses that must occur before the behavior is rewarded. This can be seen in payment for work such equally fruit picking: pickers are paid a certain amount (reinforcement) based on the amount they pick (beliefs), which encourages them to pick faster in social club to brand more coin. In another example, Carla earns a commission for every pair of spectacles she sells at an eyeglass store. The quality of what Carla sells does non matter considering her committee is non based on quality; it's merely based on the number of pairs sold. This distinction in the quality of operation can help determine which reinforcement method is most advisable for a particular situation: fixed ratios are better suited to optimize the quantity of output, whereas a fixed interval can lead to a higher quality of output.
• In a variable-ratio schedule, the number of responses needed for a reward varies. This is the about powerful type of intermittent reinforcement schedule. In humans, this type of schedule is used past casinos to attract gamblers: a slot machine pays out an average win ratio—say five to ane—but does not guarantee that every fifth bet (behavior) will be rewarded (reinforcement) with a win.

All of these schedules have different advantages. In general, ratio schedules consistently arm-twist higher response rates than interval schedules because of their predictability. For example, if you lot are a mill worker who gets paid per item that y'all industry, you will be motivated to manufacture these items quickly and consistently. Variable schedules are categorically less-anticipated and then they tend to resist extinction and encourage connected behavior. Both gamblers and fishermen alike tin understand the feeling that 1 more pull on the slot-machine lever, or one more hr on the lake, will change their luck and elicit their respective rewards. Thus, they continue to gamble and fish, regardless of previously unsuccessful feedback.

Simple reinforcement-schedule responses: The four reinforcement schedules yield different response patterns. The variable-ratio schedule is unpredictable and yields high and steady response rates, with footling if any interruption later reinforcement (e.thousand., gambling). A fixed-ratio schedule is predictable and produces a loftier response rate, with a short pause after reinforcement (e.g., eyeglass sales). The variable-interval schedule is unpredictable and produces a moderate, steady response charge per unit (e.chiliad., fishing). The fixed-interval schedule yields a scallop-shaped response pattern, reflecting a significant suspension after reinforcement (e.g., hourly employment).

Extinction of a reinforced behavior occurs at some point afterward reinforcement stops, and the speed at which this happens depends on the reinforcement schedule. Among the reinforcement schedules, variable-ratio is the most resistant to extinction, while fixed-interval is the easiest to extinguish.

Simple vs. Compound Schedules

All of the examples described above are referred to as simple schedules. Chemical compound schedules combine at least 2 simple schedules and utilise the aforementioned reinforcer for the aforementioned behavior. Compound schedules are often seen in the workplace: for instance, if you are paid at an hourly charge per unit (fixed-interval) but too take an incentive to receive a small commission for certain sales (fixed-ratio), you are being reinforced by a chemical compound schedule. Additionally, if in that location is an end-of-year bonus given to only three employees based on a lottery organisation, yous'd be motivated past a variable schedule.

There are many possibilities for chemical compound schedules: for example, superimposed schedules employ at least two simple schedules simultaneously. Concurrent schedules, on the other paw, provide two possible simple schedules simultaneously, but allow the participant to respond on either schedule at will. All combinations and kinds of reinforcement schedules are intended to elicit a specific target behavior.

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Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-psychology/chapter/operant-conditioning/

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