Hockenbury Discovering Psychology 5th txtbk

Concept Map229Operant ConditioningLearning associations between behaviors and their consequencesProcessDiscriminative stimulussets the occasionOperantis emittedConsequencePrimary reinforcer:Naturally reinforcingConditioned reinforcer:Becomes reinforcing bybeing associated with aprimary reinforcerReinforcement: Increases thelikelihood that a behaviorwill be repeatedTypes of Reinforcement:Positive reinforcement: Addition ofa reinforcing stimulus strengthensan operant responseNegative reinforcement: Removal orsubtraction of an aversive stimulusstrengthens an operant responsePunishment: Decreases thelikelihood that a behaviorwill be repeatedTypes of Punishment:Punishment by application: Additionof a punishing stimulus weakensan operant responsePunishment by removal: Removalof a reinforcing stimulusweakens an operant responseNew behaviors can be acquiredthrough shaping, which involvesreinforcing progressively closerapproximations of a goal behaviorContemporary Views of Operant ConditioningBehaviors on a partial reinforcementschedule are more resistant toextinction.Schedules of reinforcement:• Fixed ratio (FR)• Variable-ratio (VR)• Fixed-interval (FI)• Variable-interval (VI)Role of cognitive factorsRole of evolutionary factorsObservational LearningEdward C. Tolman (1898–1956)Discovery of cognitive maps andlatent learning provided evidencethat learning involves the cognitiverepresentation of the relationshipbetween a behavior and itsconsequenceMartin Seligman (b. 1942)Discovery of learned helplessnessprovided evidence for the role ofcognitive expectations in learningInstinctive drift providedevidence for the importanceof natural behavior patternsin learningAlbert Bandura (b. 1925)Bobo doll experiment demonstratedthat reinforcement is not necessary forlearning to occur; expectation ofreinforcement affects the performanceof what has been learnedLearning that occurs throughobserving the actions of others andthe consequences of those actionsProcesses necessary for imitationto occur:1. Attention: pay attention to themodel's behavior2. Memory: remember the behaviorso that it can be performed later3. Motor skill: ability to transformthe mental representation intoaction4. Motivation: expectation that thebehavior will be reinforced