CONDITIONING

ESPIRITU, SHANNEN DOROTHY

 CONDITIONING
• Skinner (1953) recognized two
kinds of conditioning, classical
and operant.
• Classical conditioning
(respondent conditioning), a
response is drawn out of the
organism
• Operant conditioning (Skinnerian
conditioning), a behavior is made
more likely to recur
CLASSICAL vs. OPERANT

• In classical conditioning, behavior

is elicited from the organism.
• In operant conditioning, behavior
is emitted.
• Emitted responses do not
previously exist inside the
organism
 CLASSICAL
CONDITIONING
• a neutral (conditioned) stimulus is
paired with an unconditioned
stimulus a number of times until it
is capable of bringing about a
previously unconditioned
response, now called the
conditioned response.
• not limited to simple reflexes
• example of classical
conditioning with humans was
the Little Albert experiment
described by John Watson and
Rosalie Rayner in 1920
• This experiment demonstrated at
least four points.
– infants have few innate fears of animals
– they can learn to fear an animal if it is
presented in association with an
aversive stimulus
– infants can discriminate between a
furry white rat and a hard wooden
block, so that fear of a rat does not
generalize to fear of a block
– fear of a furry white rat can generalize
to other animals as well as to other
white hairy or furry objects.
 OPERANT
CONDITIONING
• organism first does something
and then is reinforced by the
environment
• changes the frequency of a
response or the probability that a
response will occur.
 SHAPING
a procedure in which the experimenter or
the environment first rewards gross
approximations of the behavior, then
closer approximations, and finally the
desired behavior itself.
– Through this process of reinforcing successive
approximations, the experimenter or the environment
gradually shapes the final complex set of behaviors.
Three conditions/essentials of
behavior

– Antecedent (refers to the

environment or setting in which
the behavior takes place)
– Behavior
– Consequence
• OPERANT DISCRIMINATION
– distinguish one stimulus and
similar stimuli

• STIMULUS GENERALIZATION
– unable to distinguish between
the conditioned stimulus and
other similar stimuli
 REINFORCEMENT
• It strengthens the behavior and it
rewards the person
• increases the probability that the
species or the individual will survive
tends to be strengthened
• tends to reduce or avoid detrimental
conditions is likewise reinforced.
• Behavior is reinforced by either
gaining something positive or having
something negative taken away
when the behavior occurs
• POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT -
when added to a situation,
increases the probability that
a given behavior will occur

• NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT -
removal of an aversive
stimulus from a situation
increases the probability that
the preceding behavior will
occur.
 Punishment - the
presentation of an aversive
stimulus or the removal of
a positive one.
EFFECTS OF PUNISHMENT

• Suppress behavior
• Conditioning of a negative feeling
• Spread of its effects
• it offers no positive instruction to
anyone
 PUNISHMENT VS
REINFORCEMENT

• two kinds of reinforcements and

two types of punishment.
• Both can derive either from
natural consequences or from
human imposition.
• means of controlling behavior,
whether the control is by design
or by accident
• Conditioned Reinforcer –
environmental stimuli that are
not by nature satisfying but
become so because they are
associated with such unlearned
or primary reinforcers

• Generalized Reinforcer - is
associated with more than one
primary reinforce
 Generalized Reinforcers that
sustain much of human
behavior:

• attention
• approval
• affection
• submission of others
• tokens (money)
 SCHEDULES OF
REINFORCEMENT
Two main types
• Continuous Schedule - reinforced
for every response.
• Intermittent Schedules - based
on the behavior of the organism
or on elapsed time; can be set at
a fixed rate or can vary
according to a randomized
program.
FOUR BASIC INTERMITTENT
SCHEDULE
• Fixed-ratio – reinforced according to
the number of responses it makes.
• Variable-ratio - the organism is
reinforced after every nth response.
• Fixed-interval - reinforced for the first
response following a designated
period of time.
• Variable-interval - reinforced after the
lapse of random or varied periods of
time; unpredictable
Extinction – gradual weakening
of a conditioned response that
results in the behavior
decreasing or disappearing
 HUMAN ORGANISM
• natural selection - behavior is
shaped by the contingencies of
survival
• cultural practices - societies that
evolved certain cultural practices

• the individual’s history of

reinforcement
 INNER STATES
• Self-awareness - humans not only
have consciousness but are also
aware of their consciousness
• Drives - refer to the effects of
deprivation and satiation
• Emotions - can be accounted for by
the contingencies of survival and
the contingencies of reinforcement
• Purpose and Intention - are not
causes of behavior, although they
are sensations that exist within the
skin.
 COMPLEX BEHAVIOR
Higher Mental Processes
– most difficult of all behaviors to
analyze
– it can be understood
– amenable to the same contingencies
of reinforcement as overt behaviors

• Creativity - result of random or

accidental behaviors that happen to be
rewarded
• Unconscious Behavior - most of our
behavior is unconscious or automatic
and that not thinking about certain
experiences is reinforcing
• Dreams - covert and symbolic
forms of behavior that are subject
to the same contingencies of
reinforcement as any other
behavior
• Social Behavior - Individuals
establish groups because they
have been rewarded for doing so
 CONTROL OF HUMAN
BEHAVIOR
• Social Control - Societies exercise
control over their members
through laws, rules, and customs
that transcend any one person's
means of counter control.
 FOUR BASIC METHODS OF
SOCIAL CONTROL
• Operant conditioning
• Describing contingencies, or
using language
• Deprivation and satiation,
techniques that increase the
likelihood that people will behave
in a certain way
• Physical restraint
• Self – Control – an individual can
manipulate the variables within
their own environment and thus
exercise some measure of self-
control
 TECHNIQUES FOR SELF-
CONTROL
• physical restraint
• physical aids, such as tools
• changing environmental stimuli
• arranging the environment to
allow escape from aversive
stimuli
• drugs
• doing something else.