B. F. Skinner and Reinforcement

B. F. Skinner

1. B. F. Skinner was an American psychologist who considered free will an illusion and human action dependent on consequences of previous actions.
2. Behaviorism is an approach to psychology that emerged in the early twentieth century with the primary tenet that psychology should have only concern itself with observable events.
3. The Skinner box is a laboratory apparatus used to study animal behavior which permits experimenters to study behavior conditioning by teaching a subject animal to perform certain actions (like pressing a lever) in response to specific stimuli, such as a light or sound signal.
4. Operant conditioning is a learning process in which behavior is sensitive to, or controlled by its consequences.






5. Reinforcement is a consequence that will strengthen an organism's future behavior whenever that behavior is preceded by a specific antecedent stimulus. This strengthening effect may be measured as a higher frequency of behavior or shorter latency.
6. Positive reinforcement occurs when a desirable event or stimulus is presented as a consequence of a behavior and the behavior increases.
7. Negative reinforcement occurs when the rate of a behavior increases because an aversive event or stimulus is removed or prevented from happening.
8. Positive punishment occurs when a response produces a stimulus and that responses decreases in probability in the future in similar circumstances.
9. Negative punishment occurs when a response produces the removal of a stimulus and that response decreases in probability in the future in similar circumstances.
10. In operant conditioning, a discriminant stimulus is a stimulus that serves as a signal for the presence of reinforcement.
11. In operant conditioning a schedule of reinforcement specifies the rules that determine how and when a response will be followed by a reinforcer.
12. With a fixed ratio schedule, reinforcement is delivered after every nth response.
13. With a variable ratio schedule, reinforcement is delivered on average every nth response, but not always on the nth response.
14. In token economies, secondary reinforcers are neutral objects that can be traded for primary reinforcers, which are naturally pleasurable.
15. With a continuous reinforcement schedule every occurrence of the instrumental response (desired response) is followed by the reinforcer.
16. With a fixed interval schedule, reinforcement is delivered after n amount of time.
17. With a variable interval schedule, reinforcement is delivered on average after n amount of time, but not always exactly n amount of time.




A chart demonstrating the different response rate of the four simple schedules of reinforcement, each hatch mark designates a reinforcer being given.



18. In escape learning, a behavior terminates an (aversive) stimulus.
19. In avoidance learning, behavior is maintained that prevents a stimulus.
20. Two-process theory seeks to explain discriminated avoidance learning, in which an organism learns to avoid an aversive stimulus by escaping from a signal for that stimulus. Two processes are involved: classical conditioning of the signal followed by operant conditioning of the escape response.