Classical Conditioning (Ivan Pavlov)
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING - a type of learning in which a neutral stimulus comes to bring about a
response after it is paired with a stimulus that naturally brings about that response.
Unconditioned stimulus (UCS) - stimulus that naturally brings about a particular response, without having
been learned (meat)
Neutral stimulus - before conditioning, this stimulus does not naturally bring about the response of interest
(bell)
Unconditioned response (UCR) - natural, innate, reflexive response; unlearned (salivation to meat)
Conditioned response (CR) - a response that, after conditioning, follows a previously neutral stimulus
(salivation to the bell)
Association - between the two stimuli is one form of associative learning - a learning in which ideas and
experiences are mentally linked and thereby reinforce each other.
Operant Conditioning (B.F Skinner)
Reinforcement – The process in which a behavior is strengthened and thus more likely to happen again.
Positive Reinforcement – Making a behavior stronger by following the behavior with a pleasant stimulus
Negative Reinforcement – Making a behavior by taking way a negative stimulus
Punishment – The process in which behavior is weakened and thus likely to happen again
Positive Punishment – Reducing a behavior by presenting an unpleasant stimulus
Negative Punishment – Reducing a behavior by removing a pleasant stimulus
SCHEDULES OF REINFORCEMENT
Continuous Reinforcement: Every time the rat does the appropriate behavior, he gets a pellet. Another Ex.
Candy Machine
Fixed ratio schedule: If the rat presses the pedal three times, he gets a pellet…or five times, or twenty
times, or x times. There is a fixed ratio between behaviors and reinforcers.
Fixed interval schedule: If the rat presses the bar at least once during a particular period of time, say 20
seconds, he gets a pellet. But whether he presses the bar once or a hundred times within that 20 seconds, he
only receives one reinforcer.
Variable ratio schedule: You change the x each time. First it takes 3 presses to get a pellet, then 10, then 4,
etc.
Variable interval schedule: You keep changing the time period. First 10 seconds, then 35, then 5, then 40.
SHAPING - Technique of reinforcement used to teach new behaviors. At the beginning, people/animals are
reinforcement for easy tasks, and then increasingly need to perform more difficult tasks in order to
receive reinforcement. Originally the rat is given a food pellet for one lever press, but we gradually increase
the number of times it needs to press to receive food, the rat will increase the number of presses.
EXTINCTION - The elimination of the behavior by stopping reinforcement of the behavior. A rat who
received food when pressing a bar, receives food no longer, will gradually decrease the amount of lever
presses until the rat eventually stops lever pressing.
GENERALIZATION - A behavior may be performed in more than one situation. A rat who receives food
by pressing one lever, may press a second lever in the cage in hopes that it will receive food. It is the
tendency for a stimulus that is similar to the original conditioned stimulus to elicit a response that is similar
to the new stimulus.
Why is it important to the social sciences?
Knowing how people learn behavior is a necessity to our society so that we can control and promote the
good behavior, which will benefit society as a whole.
The theory of operant-conditioning helps us to control the way humans learn behavior and how society
can be a great influence on behavior
Helps us to understand how to improve behaviors (people with problem behaviors and criminal
histories)
