01:830:101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Operant Conditioning Chamber, Operant Conditioning, Reinforcement

• School: Rutgers University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: 01:830:101
• Professor: graybrill

Document Summary

Thorndike & law of effect: e. l. thorndike (1898) studied cats in puzzle boxes, which led to the law of effect, escape for cat is reinforcement. Operant conditioning: the organism operates" on the environment, a. k. a. instrumental conditioning - acquiring behaviors as a result of the outcome or consequence of those behaviors, f. skinner and reinforcement. Skinner developed a highly efficient conditioning chamber (skinner box) that allows for conditioning and automated behavior measurement. Shaping reinforcement for behaviors that approach the target activity until animal fully performs the behavior: chaining is where behaviors are reinforced by opportunities to engage in the next behavior. Increasing and decreasing the frequency of responses: a reinforcement is an event that increases the probability that a response will be repeated, a punishment is an event that decreases the probability of a response. It tells the organism what not to do, rather than what to do: creates anxiety that can interfere with future learning, encourages subversive behavior (sneakiness)