Operant Conditioning

Operant Conditioning

Operant Conditioning • Learning from the consequences of a behavior. (Example: feeding a stray cat/dog) What happens? • B.F. Skinner most associated with this term, he believed that most people’s behavior was influenced by reward and punishment

Skinner’s Box • Experiment where Skinner designed a box where there was a cup and a bar on the wall. Skinner would place a rat in the box and eventually through repeated trials the rat learned that if it touched the bar food would fall into the cup for it to eat. Food in the experiment was a reinforcer or a stimulus that increases the chances that the behavior will be repeated

Reinforcers • Primary reinforcer is one that is naturally rewarding in itself, like food water or sleep • Secondary reinforcer is one that does not have value in itself but when linked with a primary reinforcer through classical conditioning can acquire value (like money)

4 Schedules of reinforcement • 1) Fixed ratio schedule: being paid for every ten pizzas made, being allowed 5 fouls in a basketball game, being allowed 3 strikes in a baseball game • 2) Variable ratio schedule- playing slot machines or being paid on commission or shaking the magic 8 ball

4 Schedules of reinforcement • 3) Fixed interval schedule- getting paid every other Friday, or in my case every 15th of the month • 4) Variable interval schedule- pop quiz in my class…. You never know when it will happen but you know it will and it will vary

Autism • What causes it? • A specific case of autism is not known, however current research links autism to biological and neurological differences in the brain. Some families show a genetic pattern or tendency to have the disorder, and thus some psychologists speculate that it probably involves several genes in combination

Autism • How is it diagnosed? • Children though to have it need to be observed by neurologists, psychologists, speech and language therapists and other professionals. This is needed because the diagnosis is sometimes difficult.

Autism • What is it ? • It is a complex developmental disability that most commonly is found within the first 3 years of a child’s life. • 1 in 500 people have it • 4 times more prevalent in boys than girls • Persons with Autism may exhibit repeated body movements like hand flapping, rocking, etc. • Half a million people in America today have Autism

Autism • Is there a cure? • Dr. Leo Kanner in 1943 first described Autism • Since then much has been learned about the disorder • As of now there is no cure • However some symptoms lessen as the individual ages. • Some individuals with autism may also have other disorders which affect functioning of the brain. They include epilepsy, mental retardation, Down syndrome, Fragile X syndrome, Landau-Kleffner syndrome or Tourette’s Syndrome

Individual Work • Pick up a worksheet over the different types of variable schedules we learned about today and turn it by the end of the day next time we are in class

Operant Conditioning