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Chapter 6: Conditioning and Learning Section 6.3: Operant Conditioning Learning Outcomes: After reading this section you should be able to:  Explain how operant conditioning works, including how positive and negative reinforcement and punishment will impact the likelihood that a behavior will be repeated  Distinguish between generalization and discrimination in operant conditioning  Explain how shaping works  Name three factors that impact the effectiveness of reinforcement and punishment  Differentiate between continuous and partial schedules of reinforcement and name the four types of partial reinforcement schedules  Contrast primary and secondary reinforcers  Name two instances of operant conditioning in everyday life Making Connections: In Section 6.1 we introduced the concept of learning and in Section 6.2 we looked more closely at one form of associative learning called classical conditioning (CC). In this section, we examine another form of associative learning called operant (or instrumental) conditioning (OC). A good place to begin your reading is with Table 6.2, which provides a brief overview of the differences between CC and OC. Notes: If you take a look at the learning outcomes and the Big Picture diagram for this section, you’ll see that the first part of this section is all about understanding how operant conditioning works (see the upper dark blue box in the Big Picture diagram). If you look at the light blue boxes associated with this part of Section 6.3, you’ll see that key concepts are reinforcement and punishment , and that after discussing them we’ll go on to look at their boundaries and three factors that influence their effectiveness. We finish this section with a discussion of examples of operant conditioning in everyday life (see the second dark blue box). Key to this section is the idea that, unlike CC, OC is not passive – it requires that the learner actually engage in a voluntary behavior (that is, ‘operate on’ the environment) that will generate consequences. Put another way, OC can't start until the learner voluntarily emits, or produces, some kind of behavior or response. The consequences that follow that voluntary behavior are thought to have an important impact on the likelihood of it happening again, a situation that is described in Thorndike’s Law of Effect . How Operant Conditioning Works: We’ve said that OC is all about the consequences of behavior, and how they influence the likelihood that the behavior will recur. In this chapter, we concern ourselves with two main types of consequences: reinforcement and punishment . Each one can be either negative or positive. Use the table below to outline the key features of each one. Positive Negative Reinforcement Occurs when a reward or positive event follows a response, increasing the likelihood of the behavior happening again Occurs when making a response leads to the removal of something unpleasant, increasing the probability of the response Do you have feedback about how these guided notes are working for you? Contact the author at tmartini@brocku.ca

Chapter 6: Conditioning and Learning Section 6.3: Operant Conditioning What questions do you have about this section that need to be addressed? Punishment Involves initiating discomfort or adding negative consequences to decrease the likelihood of a behavior Involves removing something pleasant, leading to a decrease in the likelihood of the behavior Table 6.3 provides a good overview of the possible consequences that can follow a voluntary behavior, and how each one is likely to affect the chances that the behavior will be repeated. From that table, we can see that reinforcement (positive or negative) always leads to a(n) _________ in behavior, while punishment (positive or negative) always leads to a(n) __________ in behavior. Nonreinforcement (no consequences of the behavior) leads to a(n) ____________ in behavior. Distinguish between a reinforcer and a reward . While all positive reinforcers are rewarding, not all rewards serve as a positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement specifically increases the likelihood of the behavior happening again. - Reinforcer is any event following a response that increases its probability - Reward is not always positively reinforcing; not all rewards increase responding Explain what is meant by the term extinction , as it relates to OC. - Extinction in operant conditioning (OC) refers to the weakening of learned response that are not reinforced over time - Just as acquiring an operant response takes time, operant extinction is a gradual process Your Turn: Imagine that you are trying to teach a child to treat a sibling more kindly using operant conditioning. Under what circumstances during the training might you use positive and negative reinforcement, and positive and negative punishment? Write your examples in the table below. Make sure that, in each case, you specify the operant behavior that the child put forth and your response. Positive Negative Reinforcement Praise and compliments for treating simbling kindly Ignoring or withdrawing attention when unkind behavior occurs Punishment Timeout or loss of Verbal reprimand or Do you have feedback about how these guided notes are working for you? Contact the author at tmartini@brocku.ca

Chapter 6: Conditioning and Learning Section 6.3: Operant Conditioning privileges for unkind behavior restriction of privileges Having explained how OC works, the text moves on to talk about its boundaries (that is, how much the antecedent behavior can vary before the consequences change). Three key concepts here are generalization and discrimination. Discrimination, in turn, is key to a process called shaping (see the grey boxes in the Big Picture diagram). Use the table below to summarize, in your own words, the role of generalization and discrimination in OC. Remember, the best way to ensure you can explain something in your own words is to do the textbook reading and then, once you feel that you understand, close the book and write down what you know. Once you’re done, go back to the text and make sure you haven’t missed anything important. Summary/Description: Generalization - Operant stimulus generalization occurs when a behavior that has been reinforced in a particular situation starts happening in similar, though not identical, situations - If a dog is positively reinforced for jumping up at the kitchen table, it might generalize this behavior to other tables, like the dining room table, assuming the tables are similar Discrimination - Operant stimulus discrimination happens when an organism learns to differentiate antecedent stimuli, responding to some but not others based on past reinforcement - If a dog is only reinforced for jumping up at the kitchen table and not at the dining room table, it will learn to discriminate between the two tables, and the bheavior will extinguish in non- reinfornced situation Shaping is a process by which complex chains of behavior can be learned using OC principles. In your own words, explain how discrimination (described above) is important to this process. Shaping is the reinforcement of behaviors that are increasingly close approximations to a desired response. It involves breaking down a complex or rare behavior into smaller steps, reinforcing each step until the desired behavior is achieved. Do you have feedback about how these guided notes are working for you? Contact the author at tmartini@brocku.ca

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