Answer the following question
Operant & Classical Conditioning 2. Classical conditioning involves respondent behavior that occurs as an automatic response to a certain stimulus. Operant conditioning involves operant behavior , a behavior that operates on the environment, producing rewarding or punishing stimuli. Skinner ’s Experiments Skinner ’s experiments extend Thorndike’s thinking, especially his law of effect. This law states that rewarded behavior is likely to occur again. Yale Univers ity Library Operant Chamber Using Thorndike’s law of effect as a starting point, Skinner developed the Operant chamber, or the Skinner box, to study operant conditioning. W alter Dawn/ Photo Res earchers , Inc. From The Essentials of Conditioning and Learning, 3rd Edition by Michael P. Domjan, 2005. Us ed with permis s ion by Thoms on Learning, W ads worth Divis ion Shaping Shaping is the operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior towards the desired target behavior through successive approximations. A rat shaped to sniff mines. A manatee shaped to discriminate objects of different shapes, colors and sizes. Khamis Ramadhan/ Panapres s / Getty Images Fred Bavendam/ Peter Arnold, Inc. Types of Reinforcers Any event that strengthens the behavior it follows. A heat lamp positively reinforces a meerkat’s behavior in the cold. Reuters / Corbis Reinforcement Schedules 1. Continuous Reinforcement: Reinforces the desired response each time it occurs. 2. Partial Reinforcement: Reinforces a response only part of the time. Though this results in slower acquisition in the beginning, it shows greater resistance to extinction later on. Ratio Schedules 1. Fixed -ratio schedule: Reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses.
e.g., piecework pay. 2. Variable -ratio schedule: Reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses.
This is hard to extinguish because of the unpredictability. (e.g., behaviors like gambling, fishing.) Interval Schedules 1. Fixed – interval schedule: Reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed. (e.g., preparing for an exam only when the exam draws close.) 2. Variable – interval schedule: Reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals, which produces slow, steady responses. (e.g., pop quiz.) Punishment An aversive event that decreases the behavior it follows. Punishment 1. Results in unwanted fears. 2. Conveys no information to the organism. 3. Justifies pain to others. 4. Causes unwanted behaviors to reappear in its absence. 5. Causes aggression towards the agent. 6. Causes one unwanted behavior to appear in place of another.
Although there may be some justification for occasional punishment (Larzelaere & Baumrind, 2002), it usually leads to negative effects.