Post on 27-Dec-2015
Let’s Review:
Which schedule?
• Door-to-door salespeople• People checking the oven to see if the cookies
are done • Airline frequent-flyer programs that offer a
free flight after every 25,000 miles of travel
Continuous vs. Partial Schedules
• Continuous are excellent for training behavior quickly– Quick results must be reinforced after every
desired behavior occurs– Issue: extinguishes too quickly
• Best way to have desired behavior stick – use a partial schedule– More resistant to extinction
Reinforcement• Positive vs. Negative reinforcement
OC Term Description Examples
Positive Reinforcement Add a desirable stimulus
Getting a hug, receiving a paycheck
Negative Reinforcement
Remove an aversive stimulus
Fastening seatbelt to turn off beeping
Punishment: opposite of reinforcement
• Punisher = any consequence that decreases frequency of behavior
• Positive vs. Negative punishment
Positive vs. Negative Punishment
Type of Punisher Description Possible Examples
Positive punishment Administer an aversive stimulus
Spanking, parking ticket
Negative punishment
Withdraw a desirable stimulus
Time-out from privileges, revoked driver’s license
Controversies and difference in delineation
• Arizona introduces exceptionally harsh sentence for first-time drunk drivers – it did not affect the drunk driving rate
• Kansas City started patrolling a high crime area to increase the sureness and swiftness of punishment– Crime rate dropped dramatically
• What’s the conclusion?
Punishment and Parenting: 4 Drawbacks according to psychologists who agree that physical
punishment is wrong• Punished behavior is suppressed, not forgotten
– Suppression, although temporary, aims to negatively reinforce parents’ behaviors for punishing
• Punishment teaches discrimination– Have you ever been punished for something and learned
just that you had to stop the behavior in a certain environment, but continued it elsewhere?
• Punishment can teach fear– Teacher who punishes often may create avoidance of
students in classroom• Physical punishment may increase aggressiveness by
modeling aggression as a way to cope with problems
Baumrind’s Parenting Research: Punishment may be effective in some cases
• Based on principle that punishment tells you what not to do, reinforcement tells you what to do– A swat is used only as backup to milder
disciplinary tactics, like a time-out, removing them from reinforcing surroundings
– Swatting with a generous dose of reasoning
Conclusion: Change the conversation for punishment that is successful
• Punishment is only effective if paired with reinforcement – doesn’t mean that punishment should be used in every scenario
• Language is as important as intensity of action– “Clean your room or no dinner!” vs. “You’re
welcome to join us for dinner after your room is cleaned.”
Role of Cognition in Operant Models
• Latent Learning – learning occurs, but is not apparent, until incentive is in place– Studying rats in mazes (Tolman and Honzik)– Cognitive map: mental representation of the
layout of one’s environment
Cognition in operant cont’d:
• Insight Learning – Wolfgang K, Mentality of Apes– Sudden awareness of solution
to a problem• Ex: using a short stick to reach a
longer stick to reach some fruit
Biological Predispositions and Operant Conditioning
• Biological constraints predispose organisms to learn associations that are naturally adaptive– Birds can peck to get food and
flap wings to avoid shock, but they can’t flap to gain food or peck to avoid shock as the behaviors aren’t available to a natural tendency
– Instinctive drift: animals revert to their biologically predisposed patterns
In the end, it’s all about motivation…• Intrinsic vs. extrinsic
Observational Learning: Social Learning
Observational learning
• Learning that takes place by watching another individual model the learning task and then imitating the behavior
Albert Bandura • Bobo Doll Experiment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHHdovKHDNU
– Implications for humans• Frustration-aggression principle
– Ex: potential neg. effects of violent TV or pos. effects for children with appropriate role models
How does it work biologically?
• Mirrors in the brain: Emotions are contagious– Mirror neurons: neural basis for observational
learning based in the frontal lobe• Underlies our intensely social nature and need to
affiliate– PET scans show mirror neurons that support
empathy and imitation• Known as Theory of Mind (empathy driven ability to
infer another’s mental state)– ASD individuals have “broken mirrors”
• Prosocial vs antisocial– “do as I say, not as I do” teaches what?
Antisocial Effects• May help explain why abusive parents can
have aggressive children• Effects of television
– Bullying is an effective way to control others– Sex is easy and pleasurable without consequence
TV Stats
• During the late 20th century– Average child viewed 8000 TV murders, 100,000
acts of violence before finishing elementary school (not from cable)
– In 1996-1997, out of 3,000 programs, 6/10 featured violence
• 74% of violence went unpunished• 58% didn’t show victims pain• Nearly half involved “justified violence” of an attractive
perpetrator
Violence Viewing Effect
• Violence-viewing effect: violence viewing leads to violent behavior
– Careful though! Correlation doesn’t prove causation
1. Based in imitation (remember Bobo)2. Prolonged exposure also desensitizes viewers,
they become indifferent• Studies show males who view sexually explicit shows
or movies tend to become progressively less bothered by rape and slashings
• Conclusion: watching cruelty fosters indifference