Resurgence In Psychology

PURPOSE: The purpose of this experiment is to encourage discrimination in rat #4, to measure how the rat distinguishes between pressing the lever when a light is on, and when it is off. Discrimination is the tendency for behavior to occur in situations that are very similar to the one in which the behavior was learned, but not in situations that differ from it. Therefore, as the lamp light was on while the rat was learning to press the lever in previous experiments, the tendency for the rat to discriminate when the light is on, or off, will be measured in this experiment.

Within the concept of operant conditioning, there are various simple schedules of reinforcement that are a part of our daily routine. Operant conditioning is a category of learning that invokes consequences, either negative or positive, as a way to increase or decrease behaviors (Powel, Honey & Symbaluk, 2013, p. 264) Schedules of reinforcement, such as fixed ratio, variable interval, fixed interval and variable ratio, are used as ways to strengthened or weaken those wanted or unwanted behaviors (Powel, Honey & Symbaluk, 2013, pp. 271-279). When applying these fundamental concepts to real world scenarios, it is crucial to first acknowledge which behavior is to be strengthened or weakened and then proceed with the conditioning.

Specifically, how might a reinforcer assessment have been relevant to this? (pg. 8) The reason why the reinforcement procedure did work might have to do with the lack of preference assessment of reinforcer because if a preference assessment was conducted, the frequency of the response will increase. I also think that the reinforcement procedure didn’t work because the organism might be satiated to the reinforcer.

8. Pavlov found that if he allowed his animals to rest for several hours following the extinction of a behavior, the conditioned response would spontaneously appear again upon re-presentation of the conditioned stimulus – although in a somewhat weaker form. This is called:

PURPOSE: The purpose of the extinction experiment is to gradually decline the response rate with which rat number four presses the lever of the Operant Chamber. Extinction is the schedule of no reinforcement. It works by eliminating the reinforcers or dispensation of food when the rat presses the lever, and the rate of response of the animal declines. In addition, after several days, the rat was placed in the Operant Chamber again for a spontaneous recovery experiment. The purpose for the spontaneous recovery experiment consists of the increase in the rate of responding of the previously extinguished behavior (lever pressing for food). This happens because an animal responds more frequently at the begining of a new session than at the end of the old, although no reinforcement is given during the experiment.

Keeping in mind that identifying the variables that maintain problem behavior (reinforcement) is more affective for treatment selection (Mevers, Fisher, Kelley, and Fredrick, 2014), one common treatment for problem behavior is Noncontingent reinforcement. (Carr, Severston, & Lepper, 2009). NCR is used in combination with extinction for problem behavior and involves dense schedules of reinforcement that are decreased gradually (as cited in; Phillips, Iannaccone, Rooker, and Hagopian, 2017). The problem behavior may be replaced by an alternative behavior already existing in the individual repertoire, during NCR (Virues-Ortega, Iwata, Fahmie, and Harper, 2013). The American Psychological Association’s Division 12 criteria for empirically supported treatments established NCR and extinctions as an effective treatment for problem behavior (Chambless & Hollon, 1998). When the schedules of NCR are dense there is a reduction of the Motivating operation (MO) for problem behavior (as cited in; Phillips, Iannaccone, Rooker, and Hagopian, 2017). NCR is more effective when the same reinforcement maintaining the behavior (functional reinforcement) is used in the contingency instead of an alternative reinforcement (as cited in Phillips,iannaccone, Rooker, & Hagopian, 2017). Thus, the same reinforcement responsible for maintaining problem behavior should be used in an NCR contingency (Vollmer et al. 1993). In a study by Phillips, Iannaccone, Rooker, & Hagopian (2017), Non-contingent

Background (key works): Reinforcement theory is rooted in theory of operant conditioning based primarily on the work of the American behavior scientist B.F. Skinner (Borkowski, 2011). In contrast to Ivan Pavlov’ respondent conditioning controlled by

The extinction burst, is noticed as an increase in frequency, duration and intensity of an unreinforced behavior during the extinction process. Once the extinction process is successful. Then the effect of extinction is known as the disappearance of a previously learned behavior when the behavior is not reinforced. However, the term extinction is mainly associated with operant conditioning as well as respondent conditioning which is:

Negative reinforcers- Likely to make people repeat behaviour as well but the behaviour is being repeated to stop something from happening i.e. children who are going down the slide too quickly will learn to use their hands to stop themselves as they are unhappy about the speed.

Reinforcement is the main contributing factor in operant conditioning. There is more than one way to go about establishing reinforcement, if a delay occurs between the response and the reinforcement the response may not become strengthened. It is likely that if the reinforcement occurs immediately after the response that there will be a definite strengthening of the response. Continuous reinforcement is when reinforcement occurs at every instance of the desired response. Intermittent reinforcement occurs when a response is reinforced some of the time. The different schedules of reinforcement influence patterns of response. Intermittent schedules offer greater resistance to extinction than continuous schedules.

Operant behavior may eventually fade off and possibly even stop if reinforcement is discontinued. This is an important concept to the clinical side of behavior because the problem behavior will eventually decrease in frequency, duration, and intensity. It is important for individuals running extinction to know that the process of the extinction of a problem behavior may have side effects which include the response burst, the response variation, aggression, emotional behavior, and spontaneous recovery (Vollmer & Athens, 2011).

The use of reinforces cause the target behavior to occur more with the pass of the time. I would say

One limitation of Classical Conditioning is that when a behaviour stops being performed, it is very easy for these connections to be lost. This is known an extinction. In the example of Pavlov’s dogs, if the conditioned stimulus, the bell, is presented often enough without the unconditioned stimulus, the meat, the

During this phase the Skinner box was turned off so that the lights and the lever presses were not reinforced. In total there are twenty trials each timed at thirty seconds for each trial with the goal of this phase were three consecutive trials with no lever presses. The data that should be observed is the number of lever presses, if any, and signs of extinction bursts. Extinction bursts are sometimes apart of the extinction phase, these bursts are an initial increase in response frequency, magnitude, or intensity in which at times the response has an aggressive component (CLSLM 26). The successful completion of three consecutive trials during this phase showed not only successful completion of extinction itself but marked the end of the completion of the

Not only was this visual element beneficial for presenting the complex relationships between the contingencies of reinforcement and the functional variations of extinction but it was helpful in understanding that incorrect combinations these variations might be ineffective or possibly harmful to the subject.