Learning Classcial Operant Conditioning

Learning
Learning is relatively permanent change in

behavioral tendency and is the result of
reinforced practice.”
Kimble & Garmezy, 1963
General Psychology / Learning / Ganesh Amgain

Learning
Permanent
Reinforced
Learning change in
practice
behavior

Characteristics of Learning
Universal and continuous.
Permanent change in behavior.
Purposeful or goal oriented.
 Ranges from simple to complex.
Influenced by learner, learning materials, learning

environment.

Characteristics of Learning
Universal and continuous.
Permanent change in behavior.
Purposeful or goal oriented.
 Ranges from simple to complex.
Result of either practice or experience.
Sort of ability to respond differently to different

situation.
Influenced by learner, learning materials, learning

environment. General Psychology / Learning / Ganesh Amgain
What is not Learning ?
Temporary change in behavior.
Change due to maturation.
Change due to fatigue, drug and maturation.
Change due to illness, injury.
Human instincts (eye blink, breathing, nausea)
For example: shivering due to cold, sweating.

Theories of Learning ?
Stimulus-Response Theory ( Conditioning theories)
(Pavlov‟s classic conditioning, Thorndike‟s trial and
error, Skinner‟s operant conditioning)
Cognitive Theory
(Kohler‟s insight theory, Bandura‟s observational
learning)

Classical conditioning
Ivan Petrovich Pavlov
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine(1904)
General Psychology / Classical conditioning / Ganesh Amgain

Learning
by
Association
Classical
/
Respondent
Conditioning

This is learning by association
Linking of two events that occur together
Usually between a stimulus and a response or between

two stimuli
Major contributor:
A Russian physiologist called Ivan Pavlov in 1927
Research on salivation in dogs.

The Classical Conditioning Procedure
Unconditional stimulus (UCS/US): Food is the

unconditioned stimulus or UCS. By this, Pavlov meant that
the stimulus that elicited the response occurred
naturally.
Unconditional response (UCR/UR): The salivation to the

food is an unconditioned response (UCR) that is a
response which occurs naturally.

Neutral Stimulus (NS): At the beginning of
experiment bell is neutral stimuli because it does not
produce response in organism.
Conditioned Stimulus (CS): The bell is the

conditioned stimulus (CS) because it will only produce
salivation on condition that it is presented with the
food.

Conditioned Response (CR): Salivation to the bell
alone is the conditioned response (CR), a response to
the conditioned stimulus.
Classical condition is considered as basic form of

learning because a new behavior has been acquired
and old behavior can be elicited by new stimulus.

Procedures of Experiment

During conditioning
After conditioning

Conditioning Process: Basic Principles
Acquisition
Extinction
Spontaneous recovery
Generalization
Discrimination

Acquisition
The initial stage of learning when a response is first

established and gradually strengthened.
For example, We are conditioning a dog to salivate in

response to the sound of a bell. We repeatedly pair the
presentation of food with the sound of the bell. We can
say the response has been acquired as soon as the dog
begins to salivate in response to the bell tone. Once the
response has been acquired, we can gradually reinforce
the salivation response to make sure the behavior is well
learned.
It is affected by number of factors as sequence of

NS-UCS presentation, strength of UCS, number of NS-
UCS pairing, time interval, motivation, familiarity, etc.
Extinction
Reduction or disappearance of the occurrences of a

conditioned response which was learnt.
In classical conditioning, this happens when a

conditioned stimulus is no longer paired with an
unconditioned stimulus.
For example, if the smell of food was paired with the

sound of a whistle, it would eventually come to evoke the
conditioned response of hunger.
However, if the unconditioned stimulus were no longer

paired with the conditioned stimulus, eventually the
conditioned response would disappear.
Spontaneous Recovery
The reappearance of the conditioned response

after a rest period or period of lessened response.
If the conditioned stimulus and unconditioned

stimulus are no longer associated, extinction will
occur very rapidly after a spontaneous recovery.

Stimulus Generalization
The tendency for the conditioned stimulus to evoke

similar responses after the response has been
conditioned.
For example, if a child has been conditioned to fear

a stuffed white rabbit, the child will exhibit fear of
objects similar to the conditioned stimulus.

Discrimination
The ability to differentiate between a conditioned

stimulus and other stimuli that have not been paired
with an unconditioned stimulus.
For example, if a bell tone were the conditioned

stimulus, discrimination would involve being able to
tell the difference between the bell tone and other
similar sounds.

Classical conditioning in Office
During the first few days of office, if employer

meets the employee, he/she greets them individually
with their name with smile, shakes their hand.
The greetings, smiles act as US bringing out

pleasant emotional feeling UR in the employee.
 The office setting which was the neutral stimulus

becomes associated with US and brings out similar
pleasant feeling CR.

Significance of classic conditioning
Controlling behavior -the bed wetting behavior in
children can be corrected
Development of emotions and attitudes are
influenced by classical conditioning procedure
Treat phobias and other unwanted behaviors, such as
alcoholism and addictions.
To treat phobias of specific objects, the therapist
gradually and repeatedly presents the feared object
to the patient while the patient relaxes.

Through extinction, the patient loses his or her
fear of the object.
In one treatment for alcoholism, patients drink an
alcoholic beverage and then ingest a drug that
produces nausea.
Eventually they feel nauseous at the sight or smell
of alcohol and stop drinking it. The effectiveness of
these therapies varies depending on the individual
and on the problem behavior

Thank You.

Operant Conditioning
Instrumental Conditioning
General Psychology / Operant conditioning / Ganesh Amgain

In 1930
 Skinner is regarded as the father of
Operant Conditioning, but his work was
based on Thorndike’s law of effect.

Skinner's theory of operant conditioning was based on
the work ofThorndike (1905).
Edward Thorndike studied learning in animals using a

puzzle box to propose the theory known as the 'Law of
Effect'.
Using Thorndike‟s laws of effect as the starting point,

Skinner developed a “behavioral technique” that enable
him to teach pigeons, animal and human a desired
behavior.
Operant conditioning (also known as instrumental

conditioning) is a process by which humans and animals
learn to behave in such a way as to obtain rewards and
avoid punishments.
Skinner showed how positive reinforcement worked by
placing a hungry rat in his Skinner box.
The box contained a lever in the side and as the rat

moved about the box it would accidentally knock the
lever. Immediately it did so a food pellet would drop into
a container next to the lever.
The rats quickly learned to go straight to the lever

after a few times of being put in the box.
The consequence of receiving food if they pressed the

lever ensured that they would repeat the action again
and again.

Skinner showed how negative reinforcement worked
by placing a rat in his Skinner box and then subjecting
it to an unpleasant electric current which caused it
some discomfort.
As the rat moved about the box it would accidentally
knock the lever. Immediately it did so the electric
current would be switched off.
after a few times of being put in the box.
The consequence of escaping the electric current
ensured that they would repeat the action again and
again.
Skinner even taught the rats to avoid the electric
current by turning on a light just before the electric
current came on. The rats soon learned to press the
lever when the light came on because they knew that
this would stop the electric current being switched on.
Basic Principles
Skinner identified three types of responses or
operant that can follow behavior.
Neutral operant: responses from the environment

that neither increase nor decrease the probability of
a behavior being repeated.
 Reinforcement: Responses from the environment

that increase the probability of a behavior being
repeated. Reinforcement can be either positive or
negative.
Punishment: Response from the environment that

decrease the likelihood of a behavior being repeated.
Punishment weakens behavior.

Skinner‟s operant conditioning involves a cycle of:
S1 (initiating stimulus) S1 is unknown and could be

anything like smell of food
R (response) R is response to the initiating stimulus
S2 (Stimulus) S2 is reinforcing stimulus.
Once learning is done this cycle of S1– R – S2 will

repeat itself.

Major Phenomenon in Operant Conditioning
Extinction
Refers to the reduction of some response that the

organism currently or previously produced.
Results from some response by the organism that is no

longer being reinforced.
The elimination of the behavior by stopping

reinforcement of the behavior.
For example, 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. General Psychology / Operant conditioning / Ganesh Amgain
Spontaneous Recovery
When the animal receives food after returning to the

chamber following the lapse of time, it starts to press
lever to deliver food again.
Discrimination
In its most literal sense, discrimination is the act of

making a distinction between one thing and other.
Learning that a behavior will be rewarded in one

situation, but not another.
For example, the rat does not receive food from the
second lever and realizes that by pressing the first lever
only, he will receive food.
Stimulus Generalization
For instance, when children are taught by a parent

to tie their shoes and get rewarded for doing so
successfully, they are more likely to repeat that
behavior.
They are likely to generalize this behavior.
In generalization, a behavior may be performed in

more than one situation.
For example, the rat who receives food by pressing

one lever, may press a second lever in the cage in
hopes that it will receive food.

Reinforcement
Reinforcement is a term used in operant

conditioning to refer to anything that increases the
likelihood that a response will occur.
Reinforcement is defined by the effect that it has on

behavior - it increases or strengthens the behavior.
Reinforcement can include anything that strengthens

or increases a behavior, including stimuli, events and
situations.
In a classroom setting, for example, types of

reinforcement might include praise, getting out of
unwanted work, token rewards, candy, extra playtime
and fun activities.
Reinforcement / Punishment
Types

Basic kinds of reinforcement:
Positive and negative reinforcement
Primary and secondary reinforcement
Immediate and delayed reinforcement

Positive and negative reinforcement:
Skinner showed how positive reinforcement worked by

placing a hungry rat in his Skinner box. The box
contained a lever in the side and as the rat moved about
the box it would accidentally knock the lever.
Immediately it did so a food pellet would drop into a

container next to the lever. The rats quickly learned to
go straight to the lever after a few times of being put in
the box.
The consequence of receiving food if they pressed the

lever ensured that they would repeat the action again
and again.

Positive reinforcement strengthens a behavior by
providing a consequence an individual finds rewarding.
A positive reinforcement is an event, or object or

stimulus, that when presented, increases the probability
of that the response will occur again.
For example, if your teacher gives you Rs.50 each time

you complete your homework (i.e. a reward) you are more
likely to repeat this behavior in the future, thus
strengthening the behavior of completing your homework.
There are three important factors related to positive

reinforcement: timing, consistency in providing
reinforcement and how reinforcing is reinforcement.

The removal of an unpleasant reinforcement can
also strengthen behavior.
This is known as negative reinforcement because it

is the removal of an adverse stimulus which is
„rewarding‟ to the animal.
Negative reinforcement strengthens behavior

because it stops or removes an unpleasant
experience.
For example, if you do not complete your homework

you give your teacher Rs.50. You will complete your
homework to avoid paying Rs50, thus strengthening
the behavior of completing your homework.

Types of Negative reinforcement
 Escape conditioning
Avoidance conditioning.

Escape conditioning
Operant conditioning based on the idea that a behavior is

more likely to be repeated if it results in the cessation of a
negative event.
For example, you could get a rat to jump off a platform

into some water by electrifying the top of the platform,
giving the rat a mild shock.
When the rat jumps off, it escapes the shock. If the

platform is not electrified, and is the only place to rest
from swimming, the rat will stay on the platform until it
gets shocked. The jump is an escape behavior. In escape
conditioning the individual escapes from something negative.
Hence, desired behavior gets strengthened.
Avoidance conditioning
 In avoidance conditioning behavior occurs when an

organism learns to prevent an expected event from
happening.
This kind of learning occurs quickly and is very

durable.
 For example, if you sounded a tone before you

electrified the platform, after one or two trials the rat
would respond to the tone by jumping into the water.
It would not wait for the shock.

Skinner showed how negative reinforcement worked
by placing a rat in his Skinner box and then subjecting
it to an unpleasant electric current which caused it
some discomfort.
As the rat moved about the box it would accidentally

knock the lever. Immediately it did so the electric
current would be switched off.

after a few times of being put in the box. The
consequence of escaping the electric current ensured
that they would repeat the action again and again.

In fact Skinner even taught the rats to avoid the
electric current by turning on a light just before the
electric current came on.
The rats soon learned to press the lever when the

light came on because they knew that this would stop
the electric current being switched on.

Primary and Secondary reinforcement
Primary reinforcement, sometimes referred to as

unconditional reinforcement, occurs naturally and does
not require learning in order to work.
Primary reinforcer often have an evolutionary basis in

that they aid in the survival of the species.
Examples of primary reinforcer include food, air, sleep,

water and sex.
Genetics and experience may also play a role in how

reinforcing such things are. For example, while one person
might find a certain type of food very rewarding, another
person may not like that food at all.
Secondary reinforcement
Secondary reinforcement, also known as conditioned

reinforcement, involves stimuli that have become
rewarding by being paired with another reinforcing
stimulus.
For example, when training a dog, praise and treats

might be used as primary reinforcers.
The sound of a clicker can be associated with the

praise and treats until the sound of the clicker itself
begins to work as a secondary reinforcer.

Immediate and delayed reinforcement
These are concerned with duration or gap between

the desired activity and reinforcement.
In general greater the delay between the response

and the reinforcer, the slower the learning.
This phenomenon is referred to as the principle of

delay of reinforcement.
Sometime, small but immediate reinforcements are

more effective and touching than big delayed rewards.
For example, the word excellent works most of the

time. General Psychology / Operant conditioning / Ganesh Amgain
Punishment
Punishment is defined as the opposite of

reinforcement since it is designed to weaken or
eliminate a response rather than increase it.
Punishment is used in operant conditioning to

change the behavior of humans and other animals - it
applies a consequence in order to reduce a targeted
behavior.
Punishment refers to adding something aversive in

order to decrease a behavior. The most common
example of this is disciplining a child for
misbehaving.

The reason we do this is because the child begins
to associate being punished with the negative
behavior.
The punishment is not liked and therefore to avoid

it, he or she will stop behaving in that manner.
Like reinforcement, punishment can work either by

directly applying an unpleasant stimulus like a shock
after a response or by removing a potentially
rewarding stimulus, for instance, deducting someone‟s
pocket money to punish undesirable behavior.
It is not always easy to distinguish between

punishment and negative reinforcement. Punishment
may be both positive and negative
Positive Punishment
This type of punishment is also known as

"punishment by application.“
Positive punishment involves presenting an aversive

stimulus after a behavior as occurred.
For example, when a student talks out of turn in

the middle of class, the teacher might scold the child
for interrupting her.

Negative Punishment
This type of punishment is also known as

"punishment by removal."
Negative punishment involves taking away a

desirable stimulus after a behavior as occurred.
For example, when the student from the

previous example talks out of turn again, the
teacher promptly tells the child that he will have
to miss recess because of his behavior.

Factors affecting Reinforcement/Punishment
Immediate application after the undesirable

behavior.
Strong enough to make real difference
Uniform application.
Provide alternate desired reinforcement for the

person: the punishment combined with
reinforcement is more effective than punishment
alone

Schedule of Reinforcement
The plan, pattern or the strategy for delivering the

reinforcement is known as schedule of reinforcement.
Schedule of reinforcement are important

determinant of behavior (Shull and Lawrence, 1998).
In operant conditioning, a schedule of reinforcement

dictates how often a behavior is reinforced. Some
schedules of reinforcement depend on how many times
a behavior occurred; others depend on how much time
has passed.

For example, in continuous reinforcement, a behavior
is reinforced each time it occurs (as when a puppy is
always praised for sitting on command).
By contrast, a day worker receives a paycheck only

when the day ends. Schedules of reinforcement
influence the likelihood of when (or if) the targeted
behavior will occur, and psychologists point to such
schedules to explain certain actions.
For instance, behavior that is never positively

reinforced is likely to cease.
Behavior that is reinforced between time periods of

varying length will likely occur steadily.
Basic Schedule of Reinforcement

Basic types of schedules
Continuous reinforcement schedule
Intermittent (partial) reinforcement schedule
Continuous reinforcement schedule
In continuous reinforcement, the desired

behavior is reinforced every single time it occurs.
This schedule is best used during the initial

stages of learning in order to create a strong
association between the behavior and the response.

Under the continuous schedule of reinforcement
learning occurs rapidly.
For continuous reinforcement to work better there

should be requirement of rewards for organism.
If teacher praises the student at each step in solving

the equation then the teacher is applying a continuous
reinforcement schedule.
Once the response if firmly attached, reinforcement

is usually switched to a partial reinforcement schedule.

Implication / significance of operant conditioning
Shaping the behavior:
In education
At business
At home
At clinical situation
In rehabilitation
( For explanation consult text book)

Shaping behavior
Technique of reinforcement used to teach new

behaviors.
At the beginning, people/animals are reinforced for

easy tasks, and then increasingly need to perform more
difficult tasks in order to receive reinforcement.
The lever-pressing response by the rat and the

pecking response by the pigeons are very simple
responses that these animals naturally emit.
But how can behaviors (e.g., the monkey riding a

bicycle in the circus), that are not spontaneously
emitted be learned?
General Psychology / Shaping the behavior / Ganesh Amgain
Shaping in Family
When a baby child emits the sound 'Mmmuuhh', the

parents immediately pour out affection on the child.
Initially, the family attends enthusiastically to any

sound that the child makes.
Gradually, they only respond to and reinforce the

child's utterances that closely resemble the actual
words.
Shaping involves constructing a complex behavior by

the method of successive approximations

Shaping is based on the principle that a little learning
can lead to final mastery.
In shaping, each small step that the organism makes

to reach the goal is reinforced, rather than only the
final response.
This is done by the method of successive

approximations. At first, actions that are faintly
similar to the target behavior are reinforced.
The organism learns to show responses that closely

approximate the target behavior.

Shaping and Chaining
 To reach a complex sequence of behaviors, shaping is

combined with chaining.
In chaining, the trainer establishes a chain of

responses, the last of which leads to reward.
After the last response is learned, the next-to-last

one is reinforced and so on.
Shaping and chaining have important implications for

human behavior.
Animal trainers use both shaping and chaining to teach

complex chains of behavior to animals.

Learning Classcial Operant Conditioning

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Learning

Learning is relatively permanent change in

General Psychology / Learning / Ganesh Amgain

General Psychology / Learning / Ganesh Amgain

Permanent change in behavior.

Purposeful or goal oriented.

 Ranges from simple to complex.

Influenced by learner, learning materials, learning

General Psychology / Learning / Ganesh Amgain

Permanent change in behavior.

Purposeful or goal oriented.

 Ranges from simple to complex.

Result of either practice or experience.

Sort of ability to respond differently to different

Influenced by learner, learning materials, learning

Temporary change in behavior.

Change due to maturation.

Change due to fatigue, drug and maturation.

Change due to illness, injury.

Human instincts (eye blink, breathing, nausea)

For example: shivering due to cold, sweating.

General Psychology / Learning / Ganesh Amgain

General Psychology / Learning / Ganesh Amgain

General Psychology / Classical conditioning / Ganesh Amgain

General Psychology / Classical conditioning / Ganesh Amgain

Linking of two events that occur together

Usually between a stimulus and a response or between

General Psychology / Classical conditioning / Ganesh Amgain

Unconditional stimulus (UCS/US): Food is the

Unconditional response (UCR/UR): The salivation to the

General Psychology / Classical conditioning / Ganesh Amgain

Conditioned Stimulus (CS): The bell is the

General Psychology / Classical conditioning / Ganesh Amgain

Classical condition is considered as basic form of

General Psychology / Classical conditioning / Ganesh Amgain

General Psychology / Classical conditioning / Ganesh Amgain

General Psychology / Classical conditioning / Ganesh Amgain

General Psychology / Classical conditioning / Ganesh Amgain

The initial stage of learning when a response is first

For example, We are conditioning a dog to salivate in

It is affected by number of factors as sequence of

Reduction or disappearance of the occurrences of a

In classical conditioning, this happens when a

For example, if the smell of food was paired with the

However, if the unconditioned stimulus were no longer

The reappearance of the conditioned response

If the conditioned stimulus and unconditioned

General Psychology / Classical conditioning / Ganesh Amgain

The tendency for the conditioned stimulus to evoke

For example, if a child has been conditioned to fear

General Psychology / Classical conditioning / Ganesh Amgain

The ability to differentiate between a conditioned

For example, if a bell tone were the conditioned

General Psychology / Classical conditioning / Ganesh Amgain

During the first few days of office, if employer

The greetings, smiles act as US bringing out

 The office setting which was the neutral stimulus

General Psychology / Classical conditioning / Ganesh Amgain

General Psychology / Classical conditioning / Ganesh Amgain

General Psychology / Classical conditioning / Ganesh Amgain

General Psychology / Classical conditioning / Ganesh Amgain

General Psychology / Operant conditioning / Ganesh Amgain