222@23 Contingencies of Skinnerian Learning

http://us.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=4472301&o=00

Contingency. In operant conditioning, we look for relationships between behavior and the environment in which certain environmental changes reliably follow certain operant performances. This is a pretty formal way of saying that, what's important in operant conditioning is that important changes in the environment follow, or are contingent upon, some behavior. In all of the cases we look at in this unit, we look for some behavior, the environmental event that followed, and how that changed the probability of that behavior in the future.

http://students.ed.uiuc.edu/catey/punishment.html

Something Good can start or be presented;
Something Good can end or be taken away;
Something Bad can start or be presented;
Something Bad can end or be taken away.

Applying these terms to the Four Possible Consequences, you get:

Something Good can start or be presented, so behavior increases = Positive Reinforcement (R+)

Something Good can end or be taken away, so behaviorr decreases = Negative Punishment (P-)

Something Bad can start or be presented, so behavior decreases = Positive Punishment (P+)

Something Bad can end or be taken away, so behavior increases = Negative Reinforcement (R-)

Positive Reinforcement

(onset)

Negative

Reinforcement

(escape and avoidance)

Positive Punishment

Corporal

Negative

Punishment

Relief

Primary rfts

Secondary rfts

Learning: Operant Conditioning

Reinforcement Vs. Punishment

Side Effects of Punishment:

1) modeling

2) fear conditioning

3) suppress not extinguish

3) Two kinds of reinforcement and two kinds of punishment

a. Code: reinforcement = good and pleasurable effects:

b. punishment = aversive, undesirable

c. Code: Positive=application (added)whereas Negative=connotes withdrawal or subtraction.

Provide examples for all!

Positive Reinforcement. The individual's behavior adds something desirable to the environment, thereby increasing the probability, under similar circumstances, of that behavior occurring again in the future. Positive reinforcement is what most people think of first when they think of operant conditioning, and it is what most applications of operant conditioning attempt to promote. In everyday terms, positive reinforcement means that behavior will be rewarded. For example, a student studies hard because she wants to get a good grade, or, more precisely, in scientific terms, in the past, studying has produced high grades

Some examples of positive reinforcement submitted by students in previous semesters.

Examples:

If you stroke a cat's fur in a manner that is pleasing to the cat it will purr. The cat's purring may act as a positive reinforcer, causing you to stroke the cat's furin the same manner.

Positive Punishment. The individual's behavior adds something undesirable to the environment, thereby decreasing the probability, under similar circumstances, of that behavior occurring again in the future. Sometimes we do things that cause us to experience pain, reducing the probability of us doing that again. You put your hand on a hot stove, and you get burned. You are less likely to put your hand near the stove again. As I related in class, when I was in sixth grade, we were learning about electricity, and Mr. Carlson, my sixth grade teacher, had set up a phonograph such that the phonograph would play when a circuit was completed by touching the bare ends of an insulated wire to two exposed poles. I picked up two bolts, one in each hand, and touched the two poles of the phonograph, completing the electrical circuit. The phonograph started to play (I remember quite vividly that it was a 78 rpm record of Ricky Nelson singing Be Bop Baby). Unfortunately, my body was acting as the "wire." (Duh!) The violent electric shock I received was very painful, and I never did that again (One trial learning!)

Some examples of positive punishment submitted by students in previous semesters.

Negative Punishment. The individual's behavior removes something desirable from the environment, thereby decreasing the probability, under similar circumstances, of that behavior occurring again in the future. Not all of what we do that is punished is physically painful. Often, the consequences of our behavior are that we loose something of value to us. This type of punishment is especially common when we look at the sanctions that society places on our behavior that it deems inappropriate. For example, the wise and all-knowing city fathers of St. Joseph, MN, have decreed that, in their infinite wisdom, it is a Sin to make a U-turn in their fair city, a Sin that is punishable by the Sinner being fined $49.00 (or at least that's what it was when I was caught Sinning). Notice that nothing physically painful happened to me, but this bright boy will probably not make a U-turn in St. Joseph again. Also note that one of the points that B.F. Skinner makes about the effects of punishment is that not only is the punished behavior suppressed, but the organism tends to keep away from anything associated with the punishment. I tend to stay away from (not avoid!) St. Joe as much as possible. To think about: Why didn't I want to say that I avoid St. Joe?

Another point to keep in mind about punished behavior is that it occurs because, presumably, at some time in the past it was reinforced. I made a U-turn because I wanted to go the other way. Making U-turns, at least in cities with less anal retentive city councilpersons, had been reinforced in the past by my getting to where I wanted to go more quickly. I still make U-turns if I can get away with it--I'm just be more vigilant where and when. So, sometimes the outcome of punishment is a more discriminating organism, at least in terms of when the punished behavior will be emitted.

Some examples of negative punishment submitted by students in previous semesters.6

Negative Reinforcement. The individual's behavior removes something undesirable from the environment, thereby increasing the probability, under similar circumstances, of that behavior occurring again in the future. This contingency differs from the other three in that it is usually further divided into two components, escape and avoidance.

Escape has occurred when behavior has led to a reduction of the aversiveness of the present environment. In other words, something unpleasant is currently going on, and the organism does something to terminate or lessen it.
Avoidance has occurred when behavior has prevented the onset of an impending increase in the aversiveness of the environment. They have in common that both are instances of behavior leading to an improvement in the environment (hence reinforcement) by removing some amount of the aversiveness of the environment (therefore negative). As is always the case with reinforcement, life is better for the behavior having occurred, therefore increasing the probability of the behavior in the future under similar circumstances.

The difference between the two is which of these two states is in effect-- did the behavior lessen the existing aversiveness (escape), or did it prevent the impending onset of aversiveness (avoidance)? Since escape involves an observable change in the environment, it is usually easier to see by casual observation. Avoidance, however, since it typically involves no change in the environment (an impending increase can not be seen), is more problematic. Avoidance, however, is the proverbial exception that proves the rule-since it involves behavior but no resulting change in the environment, yet is highly resistant to extinction, the only way to understand it is to look at the past history of the organism, where we will no doubt find a history of lack of responding being associated with increased aversiveness and responding associated with no corresponding increase in aversiveness.

See some examples of negative reinforcement, and decide which of these is escape, and which avoidance!

http://cayo.net/psy/samples.op.rat.html