Operant conditioning
Other learning depends on consequences: behaviour followed by good outcomes tends to be repeated.
Thorndike and Skinner
Edward Thorndike's law of effect states that behaviours followed by satisfying consequences become more likely. B. F. Skinner studied this in controlled chambers, showing how rats and pigeons learned to press levers or peck keys for food. Shaping rewards successive approximations of a desired behaviour.
Reinforcement and punishment
Reinforcement increases a behaviour; punishment decreases it. 'Positive' means adding something and 'negative' means removing something. Positive reinforcement adds a reward (praise for homework). Negative reinforcement removes something unpleasant (the seatbelt beeping stops when you buckle up). Positive punishment adds something unpleasant; negative punishment removes something desirable, like losing phone time.
Schedules of reinforcement
Continuous reinforcement rewards every response and leads to fast learning but quick extinction. Partial schedules reward only some responses. Fixed-ratio schedules reward after a set number of responses, variable-ratio after an unpredictable number (like slot machines, which produce very persistent behaviour), fixed-interval after a set time, and variable-interval after unpredictable times.
Flashcard
Behaviours with good consequences are repeated
Check your understanding
A driver buckles their seatbelt to stop an annoying beeping sound, and buckles up faster in the future. This is: