Lesson 8

Operant Conditioning: Escape, Avoidance and

Punishment

Dr. Javier Bandrés

PRINCIPLES OF AVERSIVE CONDITIONING

 We usually respond to aversive events by

either
– 1) making a response the will let us escape
from the aversive situation, or
– 2) making a response that will let us avoid
the aversive situation

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 Escape response: a behavioral response
to an aversive event that is reinforced by
the termination of the aversive event

 Avoidance response: a behavioral

response that prevents an aversive event

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The shuttlebox—an apparatus used in studies of escape and avoidance learning in rats
 Escape from Aversive Events
 Several factors play a role in determining
whether an organism learns to escape
aversive events
– Intensity of the aversive stimulus
– Degree of decrease of the aversive stimulus
– Impact of delayed reinforcement
 There are also many factors that affect
the efficiency of the escape response
 The Impact of Delayed
Reinforcement
 The longer reinforcement is delayed after
an escape response,
– the slower the acquisition of the escape
behavior and
– the lower the final level of escape
performance
– In some studies, a delay of even three
seconds eliminated escape conditioning
 Avoidance

 Definition—A type of negative

reinforcement in which performing a
response prevents an aversive stimulus
from occurring.
 One-Way Avoidance Behavior
 In this situation, the animal is shocked in
one chamber and can avoid shock by
running to the other chamber
 Two-Way Active Avoidance Behavior

 The organism is placed in one chamber

(A) and exposed to a cue before it is
shocked
 To avoid the shock, it must run to the
other side (B) before the shock is
presented
 After this, the animal remains in side B for
a short intertrial interval (ITI)
 The stimulus is then presented again and
the animal must run back to side A
 Thus, the animal avoids the shock by
running back to the place it was
previously shocked
 This model requires the animal to ignore
situational and contextual cues and pay
attention to only one cue (the signal)
How Readily is Avoidance Behavior Learned?

 There are two variables that appear to

influence on avoidance learning

– 1) severity of the aversive event

– 2) delay interval between CS and UCS
 The Severity of the Aversive Event

 In most cases, the greater the severity of

the aversive event, the more readily the
subject will learn the avoidance response

– The final level of performance is also higher

in most cases
 In the two-way avoidance model, learning
is inversely related to severity of shock

– That is, the more severe the shock, the

slower the learning of the response
– This may be due to the fact that the animal
experiences conflict about going back into the
place it was previously shocked (The greater
the shock, the greater the conflict)
The Delay Between the CS and the UCS

 The longer the CS-UCS interval, the

slower the acquisition of the avoidance
behavior
 Theories of Avoidance
 Two-Factor Theory—This states that both
classical and operant conditioning are
required for avoidance responding.
THE NATURE OF AVOIDANCE BEHAVIOR

 Two factor theory of avoidance learning :

– Mowrer’s view that in the first stage, fear is

conditioned through the classical conditioning
process, and in the second stage, an
instrumental or operant response is acquired
that terminates the feared stimulus
Two-Factor Theory of Avoidance Learning

 Mowrer proposed that we learn to avoid

aversive events in two stages
– First, fear is conditioned to the environmental
conditions that precede an aversive event
– Second, we learn an instrumental or operant
behavior that successfully terminates the
feared stimulus
 Although it appears that we are avoiding
painful events, we are actually escaping a
feared stimulus
 Criticisms of Two-Factor Theory
 Several problems exist with the two-factor
theory:
 First, although exposure to the conditioned
stimulus without the unconditioned stimulus
should eliminate avoidance behavior, avoidance
behavior is often extremely resistant to
extinction
– If fear is acquired through classical conditioning and
is responsible for motivating the avoidance behavior,
then the presentation of the CS during extinction
should cause reduction in fear and the avoidance
behavior should cease
 Second, there is an apparent absence of
fear in a well-established avoidance
response

– Strong fear is not necessary to motivate a

habitual avoidance response
 Third, the results of an experiment by Kamin did
not match the predictions of the two factor
theory

– This study clearly demonstrated that two factors –

termination of the CS and avoidance of the UCS –
play an important role in avoidance learning
 Learned Helplessness

 Deficit that occurs after a subject has

been exposed to inescapable aversive
stimuli. Definition—The impaired ability to
learn an avoidance response
Learned helplessness effect
 Three Dimensions of
Helplessness

 COGNITIVE
 MOTIVATIONAL
 EMOTIONAL
 Punishment
 Punishment: use of an aversive event
contingent on the occurrence of an
inappropriate behavior
 The intent of punishment is to suppress
an undesired behavior
 If punishment is effective the frequency,
intensity, or both will decline
 Punishment appears to suppress
unwanted behaviors
– However, the suppression is often temporary
 In some cases, however, punishment
permanently suppresses unwanted
behaviors
 Skinner (1938) experiment (slapping rat’s
paw when lever was pressed)
 Findings: Mild punishment reduced the
number of responses; punishment
produces temporary suppression of
behavior.
 Skinner (1938) experiment (slapping rat’s paw when lever was pressed)

 Findings: Mild punishment reduced the number of responses; punishment produces

temporary suppression of behavior .

When is Punishment Effective?
 The magnitude of the aversive Stimulus

– The more severe the punishment, the more

likely it is to suppress unwanted behavior
– If mild punishment does lead to behavior
suppression, it is usually short lived
When is Punishment Effective?

 Delay of punishment

– Punishment must be immediate to suppress

behavior
 When is Punishment Effective?
 Manner of introduction

Initial exposure to mild aversive stimulation

that does not disrupt behavior reduces
the effects of later intense punishment
After initial exposure to intense punishment
mild punishment should be more effective
 When is Punishment Effective?

Schedules of Punishment

-The degree of response supression

produced by punishment depends on the
proportion of responses that are punished
 When is Punishment Effective?

Type of reward for the target behavior

- The effects of punishment depend a great

deal on the reinforcer that maintains the
target response
 When is Punishment Effective?

Availability of Alternate Sources of

Reinforcement

- Punishment is more effective if an

alternative source of reinforcement is
provided along with punishment
 When is Punishment Effective?

Discriminative Punishment

If responding is punished in the presence of

a discriminative stimulus but is not
punished when the stimulus is absent, the
suppression of responding will be limited
to the presence of the discriminative S
 When is Punishment Effective?

Punishment as a Signal of Positive

Reinforcement

- If punishment becomes a discriminative

stimulus of reward, punishment will
increase rather than decrease responding
 Disadvantages of Using
Punishment
 Punishment can elicit several emotional effects
(e.g., fear and anger); these emotions can
hamper learning.
 Punishment can lead to general suppression of
all behaviors.
 The use of punishment demands the continual
monitoring of an individual’s behavior.
 Punishment can sometimes lead to aggression
against either the punisher or whomever
happens to be around.
The Negative Consequences of
Punishment
 Pain induced aggression
– Punishment often inflicts pain, which leads to
aggressive behavior
 The modeling of aggression
– Inflicting punishment often models aggressive
behavior, which children and other recipients
of punishment may later imitate
– There are two sources of evidence that
children who are physically punished model
aggressive behavior
 Physically punished children use the same method
of punishment when trying to control the behavior
of other children
 Correlational studies report a strong relationship
between parental use of punishment and the level
of aggression in the child
 Thank you !