CAS PS 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 24: Operant Conditioning Chamber, Operant Conditioning, Reinforcement

• School: Boston University
• Department: Psychological & Brain Sciences
• Course: CAS PS 101
• Professor: Ben Wormwood

Document Summary

A type of learning in which the consequences of an organism"s behavior determine whether it will be repeated in the future: learning based on consequences. Focused on instrumental behaviors: behaviors that required an organism to do something, solve a problem, or otherwise manipulate elements of its environment, example. Cat experiment: a cat in a box has to press a lever in order to leave the box, there are different levers, the cat makes many mistakes at first, but eventually learns which lever has a positive effect. The law of effect: principle that behaviors that are followed by a satisfying state of affairs tend to be repeated and those that produce an unpleasant state of affairs are less likely to be repeated. Behavior that an organism emits that has some impact on the environment: you are the operant in the experiment.