opperant conditioning

Question 1

what is the basic idea of operant conditiong?

Answer 1

• when people behave in a certain way and are rewarded for it the behaviour is likely to continue and when a behaviour is punished the behaviour is likely to stop

Question 2

what is meant by positive reinforcement?

Answer 2

• something good is given because of the behaviour which causes the behaviour to be repeated
• e.g. giving someone a hug for doing well in an exam

Question 3

what is meant by negative reinforcement?

Answer 3

• something bad is taken away due to a behaviour which makes the behaviour continue.
• e.g. someone stops eating unhealthy food, and begins to loose weight and therefore the behaviour is repeated. - weight is being taken away and encourgaging the behaviour to be repeated.

Question 4

what is meant by punishment?

Answer 4

• something bad being given due to a behaviour which makes the behaviour stop.
• e.g. taking away someones phone because they have broken the rules

Question 5

what is primary reinforcers?

Answer 5

• the reward is a basic need like food, warmth and sex

Question 6

what is secondary reinforcement?

Answer 6

• the reward is something you can use to by things for example tokens or money.

Question 7

contingency

Answer 7

there must not be a time lapse between the reward/punishment and the behaviour. too long a period in between can cause the behaviour to not occur.

Question 8

contiguity

Answer 8

it must be clear that the behaviour and the reward/punishment depend on each other

Question 9

what is meant by the word “shaping”?`

Answer 9

• a way of behaviour modification

- where you reinforce small behaviours at first which are brought together to one big behaviour

Question 10

what did Thorndike find (1911)?

Answer 10

• cat put in a cage with a latch on the door and a piece of salmon outside the cage.
• at first the cats scratched at the cage and tried to reach through to get the salmon
• they then hit the lever by accident
• this is known as trail and error the cat got quicker each time - the first trail took 5 mins and after 10 trials it took 5 secs
• the reinforcement of the food encouraged the cat to repeat the behaviour getting better each time.

Question 11

what did skinner find?

Answer 11

• conducted a experiment he designed a box where animals such as rats and pigeons could learn behaviours.
• the box punished the animals through electric shocks and rewarded them with food (food was given when the lever was pressed)
• this cause the frequency of behaviour to increase which is reinforcement

Question 12

what is the point of investigating schedules of reinforcement?

Answer 12

• to see if animals or people learn better if they are rewarded every time they perform a desired behaviour or if the presentation of the reward is varied.

Question 13

continuous reinforcement ?

Answer 13

• reward is given every time a behaviour is formed a reward is given = slow but steady results

Question 14

fixed schedule reinforcement?

Answer 14

• related to how many times a behaviour is wanted to be repeated
• reward behaviour every 5 times for example
• slow but effective