PSYC 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Edward Thorndike, Behaviorism, Reinforcement

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 1000
• Professor: Paula Barata

Document Summary

Operant conditioning a type of learning in which behavior is influenced by consequences. The term operant is used because the individual operates on the environment before consequences can occur. Ex: if you try a new food and like it, you will eat that food again. Conversely, if a behavior previously led to a negative outcome, people are less likely to perform that action again. If you try a new food and gag, then you will likely not eat that food again. Contingency a consequence depends upon an action (getting a good grade after studying). Reinforcement a process in which an event or reward that follows a response increases the likelihood of that response occurring again. We can trace the scientific study of reinforcement"s effects on behaviour back to. Edward thorndike, who conducted experiments in which he measured the time it took cats to learn how to escape from puzzle boxes.