PSYC 351 Lecture 35: class 35

• School: Concordia University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 351
• Professor: Stephane Gaskin

Document Summary

Fundamentals of learning class 35: ex: if you asked your roommate why she was combing her hair, she would reply that she expected that combing, her hair (r) would improve her appearance (o). This is a description of an r-o association between the instrumental response and the reinforcing outcome (this does not exist in two-process models). The most common technique used to demonstrate the existence of r-o associations involves devaluing the reinforcer after conditioning. Reinforcer devaluation involves making the reinforcer less attractive. If the reinforcer is food, one: can make the food less attractive by conditioning a taste aversion to the food. If the instrumental response occurs because of an r-o association, devaluation of the reinforcer should reduce the rate of instrumental response. If reinforcer devaluation disrupts instrumental behavior, this shows that the memory of the outcome (o) was involved in motivating the instrumental behavior.