Compare discrete-trial and free-operant methods
Study Questions
1. Compare discrete-trial and free-operant methods of instrumental conditioning. What are the advantages of each class of procedure? What factors would influence your choice of procedure type if you were to explore instrumental behaviors?
2. Describe how you would go about training a dog to open a refrigerator to fetch a can of soda. Make sure to include the details of the magazine training and shaping.
3. How can one measure instrumental behaviors? What are the indicators that learning is taking place?
4. What are the differences between negative reinforcement and punishment; between escape and avoidance?
5. Compare the evidence for behavioral variability and stereotypy. What evidence is there that variability can be conditioned?
6. What is meant by belongingness in instrumental conditioning? How does belongingness contribute to animal misbehavior.
7. What effects would you likely observe if you varied the quality or quantity of a reinforcer?
8. What is the learned-helplessness effect? Describe two competing explanations of the effect.
9. What was the purpose of Skinners superstition experiment? What were the results, and how have those results been reinterpreted?
10. Compare ratio and interval schedules. What patterns of behavior are generated by fixed and variable schedules? Provide a personal example of each of the simple schedules of reinforcement.
11. What does the matching law allow us to predict? How can the law be used to determine relative reinforcer values?
12. Compare molar and molecular theories of maximization. What evidence supports each class of theory? What is the evidence that does not support each class of theory?
13. How can self-control be conditioned? Provide an example of self-control training from common human experience.
