PSYCH101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Devaluation, Nucleus Accumbens, B. F. Skinner

• School: University of Waterloo
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYCH101
• Professor: Paul Wehr

Document Summary

Process of operant conditioning: contingency: that a consequence depends on the action. Reinforcement and punishment: reinforcement: is a process in which an event or reward that follows a response increases the likelihood of that response occurring again, thorndike (1905, measured time it took for cat to get out of box. In operant chambers there may be equipped with grid metal floor which delivers mild shock responses that remove avoidance and escape learning. Including structure called nucleus accumbens activated whenever encounters reinforcers or reward. Individuals prone to risky behaviour are more likely to have inherited particular copies of genes that code for dopamine. In this case, a pigeon who learned to peck a key after hearing a 1000-hz tone may attempt to peck the key whenever any tone is presented. In classical conditioning discrimination and generalization were due to the strengthening of the synapses as a result of simultaneous firing. In operant condition mechanism seems to be dopamine-secreting neurons.