PSYC 356 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5-7: Animal Cognition, Reinforcement, Boogie 2Nite
Chapter 5: Instrumental Conditioning: Foundations
●Analysis of learning situations in which the stimuli an organism encounters
are a result (consequence) of its behavior
○Goal- directed
or instrumental
■Responding is necessary to produce a desired
environmental outcome
●Classical conditioning reflects how organisms adjust to events in their
environment that they do not directly control
●Instrumental behavior: behavior that occurs because it was previously
effective in producing certain consequences
●Investigating instrumental behavior:
○Need experimental manipulations of the relation between a
behavior and its consequences to decide what’s causing the
behavior
Early Investigations of Instrumental Conditioning
●E.L. Thorndike
○Initially wanted to study animal intelligence
■Puzzle box with hungry animal
●Different responses needed for different boxes
○Strict avoidance of anthropomorphic interpretations of behavior
○Results did not point to animal intelligence
■Interpreted results of his studies as reflecting the learning
of a new S-R association
●The stimuli of being in the puzzle box (S); the
effective escape response (R)
○As the S-R connection (association between box cues and
successful response) became stronger, the animal made the
response more quickly
■→the consequence of a successful escape response
strengthened the association between the box stimuli and
that response
●Formulated the Law of Effect:
○If a response R in the presence of stimulus S is followed by a
satisfying event
, the association between the stimulus S and the
response R becomes strengthened
○If the response is followed by an annoying event
, the S-R association
is weakened
○**what is learned is an association between the response and the
stimuli present at the time of the response
■The consequence of the response is not one of the
elements in the association
■→ consequence (satisfying or annoying) either
strengthens/ weakens the association between the stimulus
and response
○S-R learning
●An organism is compelled to make response R whenever stimulus S is
occurs
○Explains compulsive habits that are difficult to break (ie. biting
nails, snacking, smoking cigarettes)
○Once learned, habitual responses occur because they are triggered
by an antecedent stimulus and not because they result in a desired
consequence
Box 5.1:
●First used chicks as a graduate student at Harvard
●Lectured as William James (whose work initially inspired him) expert
Modern Approaches to the Study of Instrumental Conditioning
Discrete- Trial Procedures:
●Modern days → involve a type of maze
○W.S. small: take advantage of rats’ “propensity for small, winding
passages”
●Two types of mazes
1. Runway (straight- alley) Maze
a. Contains a start box at one end and a goal box at the other
i. Barrier between start box and main section
b. Raise the barrier, rat makes it way to goal box
i. contains a reinforcer (ie. food or water)
c. Behavior can be quantified by calculating running speed
i. How fast animal gets from start box to end box
1. Typically increases with repeated trials
d. Can also calculate latency
i. The time it takes the animal to leave the start box
and begin running down the alley
1. Typically latencies become shorter as
training progresses
2. T Maze
a. Start box and alleys arranged as a ‘T’
i. Goal box on each end of the arm
b. Can be used to study more complex questions
c. ie. Panagiotaropoulos: baby rats could learn where mother
was located
i. Mother in one goal box (right), virgin female rat in
other (left)
ii. Results: baby rats learned to turn right
1. Results persisted even after goal rats
removed
●Limited number of opportunities to respond, and those opportunities are
scheduled
Free Operant Procedures:
●Allow the animal to repeat the instrumental response without constraint
over and over again without being taken out of the apparatus until the end
of the experimental session
●Invented by B.F. Skinner
○Wanted to study behavior in a more continuous manner than
mazes allow possible
●Must define a measurable unit before a behavior can be experimentally
analyzed
○Casual behavior: ongoing behavior is continuous; one activity leads
to another
■Behavior does not fall into units
●→operant
○Divides behavior into meaningful
measureable units
Document Summary
Analysis of learning situations in which the stimuli an organism encounters are a result (consequence) of its behavior. Responding is necessary to produce a desired. Classical conditioning reflects how organisms adjust to events in their environmental outcome environment that they do not directly control. Instrumental behavior : behavior that occurs because it was previously. Investigating instrumental behavior: effective in producing certain consequences. Need experimental manipulations of the relation between a behavior and its consequences to decide what(cid:480)s causing the behavior. Strict avoidance of anthropomorphic interpretations of behavior. Results did not point to animal intelligence. Interpreted results of his studies as reflecting the learning of a new s-r association. The stimuli of being in the puzzle box (s); the effective escape response (r) As the s-r connection (association between box cues and successful response) became stronger, the animal made the response more quickly. The consequence of a successful escape response strengthened the association between the box stimuli and that response.
