Psychology writing Assignment ( operant learning)
Please submit this assignment as a PDF of Word Document. Please copy and paste these prompts into your document and then type up your responses right below each prompt.
In a paragraph of 7-10 sentences, describe an example of positive reinforcement from your own life. You can describe how your parents reinforced you for a specific behavior, how you reinforce yourself or others around you, if you are a parent and have used this method on your children, or a pet owner and you have used positive reinforcement to train your animals. Be specific and detailed and use terms from the book.
In a paragraph of 7-10 sentences, describe an example of negative reinforcement from your own life.
In a paragraph of 7-10 sentences, describe an example of positive punishment from your own life. You can describe how your parents punished you for a specific behavior, how you punish yourself or others around you, if you are a parent and have used this method on your children, or a pet owner and you have used punishment to train your animals. Be specific and detailed and use terms from the book.
In a paragraph of 7-10 sentences, describe an example of negative punishment from your own life.
Chapter Preview
Learning helps us adapt to our environment. Pavlov explored classical conditioning, in which we learn to anticipate events, such as being fed or experiencing pain. In his famous studies, Pavlov presented a neutral stimulus just before an unconditioned stimulus, which normally triggered an unconditioned response. After several repetitions, the neutral stimulus alone began triggering a conditioned response resembling the unconditioned response.
While in classical conditioning we learn to associate two stimuli, in operant conditioning we learn to associate a response and its consequence. Skinner showed that rats and pigeons could be shaped through reinforcement to display successively closer approximations of a desired behavior. Researchers have also studied the effects of positive and negative reinforcers, primary and conditioned reinforcers, and immediate and delayed reinforcers. Although Skinner’s emphasis on external control also stimulated much debate regarding human freedom and the ethics of managing people, his operant principles are being applied in schools, the workplace, and homes, and for self-improvement.
The behaviorists’ optimism that learning principles would generalize from one response to another and from one species to another has been tempered. We now know that conditioning principles are biologically and cognitively constrained. Critics point to research on latent learning to support their claim that Skinner underestimated the importance of cognitive constraints.
Another type of learning that is important among higher animals is what Albert Bandura calls observational learning. Children tend to imitate what a model does and says, whether the behavior is prosocial or antisocial. Research suggests that violence on television leads to aggressive behavior by children and teenagers who watch the programs.
Learning Objectives
How Do We Learn?
6-1. Define learning, and identify some basic forms of learning.
Classical Conditioning
6-2. Define classical conditioning, and explain how it demonstrates associative learning.
6-3. Describe the parts played by acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalization, and discrimination in classical conditioning.
6-4. Explain why Pavlov’s work is important, and describe how his work is being applied.
Operant Conditioning
6-5. Define operant conditioning, and describe how operant behavior is reinforced and shaped.
6-6. Discuss the differences between positive and negative reinforcement, and identify the basic types of reinforcers.
6-7. Explain how continuous and partial reinforcement schedules affect behavior.
6-8. Discuss how punishment and negative reinforcement differ, and explain how punishment affects behavior.
6-9. Discuss why Skinner’s ideas were controversial, and describe how his operant conditioning principles might be applied at school, at work, in parenting, and for self-improvement.
6-10. Describe how classical conditioning differs from operant conditioning.
Biology, Cognition, and Learning
6-11. Describe the limits biology places on conditioning.
6-12. Explain how cognitive processes affect classical and operant conditioning.
Learning by Observation
6-13. Discuss how observational learning differs from associative learning, and explain how observational learning may be enabled by mirror neurons.
6-14. Discuss the impact of prosocial modeling and of antisocial modeling.
6-15. Describe the violence-viewing effect.
How Do We Learn?
Learning is the process of acquiring through experience new and relatively enduring information or behaviors. Nature’s most important gift to us may be our adaptability—our capacity to learn new behaviors that enable us to cope with ever-changing experiences.
We learn by association; our mind naturally connects events that occur in sequence. The events linked in associative learning may be two stimuli (as in classical conditioning, which involves respondent behavior ) or a response and its consequences (as in operant conditioning, which involves operant behavior ). Conditioning is not the only form of learning. Through cognitive learning we acquire mental information that guides our behavior. In observational learning, we learn from viewing others’ experiences.
Classical Conditioning
Ivan Pavlov explored the phenomenon we call classical conditioning, in which organisms learn to associate stimuli and thus anticipate events. Pavlov held a medical degree and spent two decades studying the digestive system. This work earned him Russia’s first Nobel Prize in 1904. But his novel experiments on learning, which consumed the last three decades of his life, earned this feisty scientist his place in history.
Pavlov received a medical degree at age 33 and spent the next two decades studying the digestive system. This work earned him Russia’s first Nobel Prize in 1904. But his novel experiments on learning, which consumed the last three decades of his life, earned this feisty scientist his place in history.
In experiments with dogs, Pavlov would repeatedly present a neutral stimulus ( NS ), such as a tone, just before an unconditioned stimulus ( US ), such as food, which triggered the unconditioned response ( UR ) of salivation. After several repetitions, the tone alone (now the conditioned stimulus [ CS ]) began triggering a conditioned response ( CR ), salivation. Unconditioned means “unlearned”; conditioned means “learned.” Thus, a UR is an event that occurs naturally in response to some stimulus. A US is something that naturally and automatically triggers the unlearned response. A CS is an originally neutral stimulus that, through learning, comes to be associated with some unlearned response. A CR is the learned response to the originally neutral but now conditioned stimulus.
Responses are acquired —that is, initially learned—best when the NS is presented half a second before the US. This finding demonstrates how classical conditioning is biologically adaptive because it helps organisms prepare for good or bad events. In other words, conditioning helps an animal survive and reproduce—by responding to cues that help it gain food, avoid dangers, locate mates, and produce offspring
Extinction refers to the diminishing of a conditioned response when the conditioned stimulus occurs repeatedly without the unconditioned stimulus. Spontaneous recovery is the reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response. Generalization is the tendency to respond to stimuli that are similar to the conditioned stimulus. Discrimination is the learned ability to distinguish between a CS and other irrelevant stimuli.
Generalization can be adaptive because it extends a learned response to other stimuli in a given category, for example, fearing not only moving cars but also moving trucks and motorcycles. Discrimination has adaptive value because it limits our learned responses to appropriate stimuli, for example, fleeing from a pit bull but not from a golden retriever.
Pavlov taught us that principles of learning apply across species and that classical conditioning is one way that virtually all organisms learn to adapt to their environment. Pavlov also demonstrated that significant psychological phenomena can be studied objectively. Finally, Pavlov taught us that conditioning principles have important applications, such as how to treat fear.
Classical conditioning principles provide important insights into drug abuse and how it may be overcome. Classical conditioning works on the body’s disease-fighting immune system. For example, when a particular taste accompanies a drug that influences immune responses, the taste by itself may come to produce those immune responses. Watson’s “Little Albert” study demonstrated how classical conditioning may underlie specific fears. Today, psychologists use extinction procedures or even new conditioning to change our unwanted responses to emotion-arousing stimuli.
Operant Conditioning
Like classical conditioning, operant conditioning is a form of associative learning. Yet it is a very different form of learning. While classical conditioning explores associations between stimuli and involves respondent behavior, operant conditioning associates actions with consequences and thus involves operant behavior.
Skinner’s Experiments
B. F. Skinner was a college English major and aspiring writer, who, seeking a new direction, entered psychology graduate school. He went on to become modern behaviorism’s most influential and controversial figure.
Skinner’s work elaborated Edward Thorndike’s law of effect, which states that rewarded behavior is likely to recur. Using this as his starting point, Skinner developed a behavioral technology that revealed principles of…
