B.F Skinner was an American Psychologist who invented the operant conditioning chamber. The chamber he set up had rats in it and a lever, once the rats pulled the lever they were given a piece of food. After this happened the rate of bar pressing would increase dramatically and remain high until the rat was no longer hungry. He was a firm believer of the idea that human free will was actually an illusion and any human action was the result of the consequences of that same action. If the consequences were bad, there was a high chance that the action would not be repeated; however if the consequences were good, the actions that lead to it would be reinforced. He called this the principle of reinforcement.…
Skinner believed that all behaviour is taught and shaped, through the use of punishment and rewards. He disagreed that it was useful to create theories about mental states that were unable to be observed and were unscientific. He believed positive reinforcement, for example praise, strengthens behaviour and that negative reinforcement, for example punishment or the removal of something that will cause the bad behaviour to stop, or decrease the possibility of it happening again. Skinner experimented with animals such as rats and pigeons, giving them rewards when they pressed a lever which was the desired behaviour (positive reinforcement) and giving them an electric shock every time they went to an undesired area of the maze, which would cause the animal to avoid that area (negative reinforcement). Positive reinforcement must not be confused with bribery or punishment, for example telling a child they will…
Skinner’s operant conditioning behavioral model is based upon the ideology that learning is a function of change in overt behavior. Additionally, an individual change in behavior is the result of the individual’s response to the events that occur in the environment. In this case the…
2. What are the four schedules of partial reinforcement we discussed? Which produces the highest rate of responding and the most resistance to extinction and why?…
Another form of learning was shown in operant conditioning or reinforcement. This type of leaning was introduced by B.F. Skinner. He was famous for inventing the Skinner box, in which he used rats to show reinforcement, both positive and negative. The Skinner box consisted of a lever and a food dispenser in which if the rat pressed the leaver it received a pellet of food (positive reinforcement), from this behaviour the rat would start to repeatedly press the leaver as it was receiving a reward. Skinner believed this proved that a reward can repeat a behavior. On the other hand Skinner showed that negative reinforcement can occur by taking away the reward and replacing it with a small electric shock, so when the rat pressed the lever they would receive a small shock, from this form of punishment the rat quickly stopped pressing the lever.This showed that an unpleasant reward can stop a behavior from re-occurring. According to psychology.about 'Skinner used the term operant to refer to any…
Skinner thought classical conditioning was too simple to explain something like the human mind. Skinner went to work to expand on the finding of Thorndike and Watson. Skinner worked to expand Thorndike’s Law of Effect. Skinner eventually coined the word “operant conditioning”. Skinner built a device called “Skinner’s box”. The device consists of a lever connected to a food dispenser, only dispensing when the lever is pressed. He found that the rat will reduce “error” between attempts and goes directly to the lever. The device has reinforced the rat’s behavior. From this experiment, Skinner discovered positive and negative reinforcement. A positive reinforcement means giving a stimuli and a negative reinforcement is taking away a stimuli, along with punishment. Punishment weakens the behavior rather than reinforcement which strengthen the behavior. Positive and negative reinforcement works on punishment too. The Skinner Box also showed that the reinforcement had to be scheduled or else the rats will start giving…
The behavioural learning model learning is the result of conditioning. The basis of conditioning is that a reward following a desirable response acts as a reinforcement and increases the likelihood that the desirable response will be repeated. Reinforcement is the core of the behaviourist approach. Continuous reinforcement in every instance of desirable behaviour is useful when a behaviour is being introduced. Once a desired behaviour is established, intermittent reinforcement maintains the behaviour. Behaviourist theory approaches are frequently used in weight loss, smoking cessation, assertiveness training, and anxiety-reduction programs. The importance of regularly and…
The purpose of this experiment was to test whether training a simulated rat under a Partial Reinforcement Schedule took longer to extinguish than being trained in a Continuous Reinforcement Schedule. The subject involved was a computer based rat. The rat was trained in a Skinner box to bar press under each a continuous reinforcement schedule and a partial reinforcement schedule. Extinction of both schedules was done and times were reported. The hypothesis was that a rat under a partial reinforcement schedule would take longer to extinguish its behaviour rather than the continuous reinforcement schedule extinction. Results were analyzed under the complications of the conditioning of the animal under these schedules.…
Another technique used in this book was positive reinforcement. Instead of nagging and showing a negative result of change in behaviors in animals, Sutherland explains how the personal trainers reward the wanted behaviors and completely ignore the unwanted behaviors. One example of positive reinforcement was B.F. Skinner giving a pigeon a seed for every time it pecked on a piano key. This example demonstrates operant conditioning. Positive reinforcement techniques are more effective because it…
Skinner believed that learning is influenced by reward and punishment. Behaviour is affected by positive reinforcement. He believed children will repeat experiences that are enjoyable and stay away from those that are not.…
Skinner believed that behaviours that created a positive response are therefore reinforced and continued, whilst behaviour that creates a negative response would be more likely to be eliminated. His investigation of Operant Conditioning on pigeons and rats uncovered, he believed, that many of the principles of Operant Conditioning could be applied to humans.…
In continuous reinforcement, the desired behavior is reinforced every single time it occurs. Generally, this schedule is best used during the initial stages of learning in order to create a strong association between the behavior and the response…
In 1898, Edward Thorndike accentuated the strengths and weaknesses of stimulus-response connections with the introduction of the theory of learning. The premise of Thorndike’s research implied that rewards and punishment have distinct yet an equal impact on human behaviors. However, one of the more well-known learning theorists in modern times is B.F. Skinner, who shares comparable behavioral observation as Thorndike, in that behaviors are learned as a consequence of actions. Further testing of this theory, Skinner developed the prominently distinguished Skinner box, which observed animal training and behaviors. Initially, the Skinner box was used to detect the behaviors of rats. A metal bar is positioned in an area of the experimental…
3 Describe the possible short-term and long-term effects on an individual who is unable to sleep well…
“Operant conditioning is a theory of learning that generally follows “Thorndyke’s Law of Effect”. This law states that behaviors that are positively reinforced will become more likely to occur and behaviors that are negatively reinforced will become less likely to occur.” (Johnson, D. 1999). Skinner referred to operant conditioning as being the way animals learn. In general there are four things that change behaviors: positive reinforcement, negative punishment, positive punishment and negative reinforcement.…