Principles of Behavior Sixth Edition Richard W. Malott Western Michigan University Power Point by Nikki Hoffmeister

Unlearned Reinforcers & Unlearned Aversive Stimuli Chapter 9 Unlearned Reinforcers & Unlearned Aversive Stimuli

What is an Unlearned Aversive Condition? A stimulus that is aversive, though not as a result of pairing with other aversive stimuli. Example: Electric shock

What is an Unlearned Reinforcer? A stimulus that is a reinforcer, though not as a result of pairing with another reinforcer. Examples: Food, water, sex

What is Deprivation? Deprivation: Withholding a reinforcer increases relevant learning and performance.

Deprivation Example When Mae worked with Jimmy, she used food as a reinforcer. Food deprivation improved Jimmy’s performance of behavior he had previously learned with food reinforcers. Food deprivation improved Jimmy’s learning of new behaviors with food reinforcers.

Jimmy has not had breakfast. Deprivation Before Jimmy has no cereal. Behavior Jimmy touches his ear. After Jimmy has cereal. Deprivation Jimmy has not had breakfast. Behavior

What are Learning and Performance? By relevant learning and performance, we mean the learning of a response reinforced by that reinforcer and the performance of a response previously reinforced by that reinforcer.

What is Satiation? Satiation: Consuming a substantial amount of a reinforcer temporarily decreases relevant learning and performance.

Satiation Example When Jimmy responded often, he received a lot of cereal. This caused him to become full. Food satiation then involved a decrease in Jimmy’s performance. If Jimmy already had breakfast, satiation affected his learning new skills. Thus, food satiation decreased relevant learning.

Jimmy has had breakfast. Satiation Before Jimmy has no cereal. Behavior Jimmy touches his nose. After Jimmy has cereal. Satiation Jimmy has had breakfast.

Learning Deprivation at the time of reinforcement increases the impact the delivery of a single reinforcer has on the subsequent frequency of the reinforced response.

Performance Deprivation at the time to perform that response increases the frequency of that previously reinforced, and thus previously learned, response.

Example of Satiation After a male and female rabbit have been together for a while, their frequency of having sex will decrease. Before Rabbit has had no sexual stimulation. Behavior Rabbit copulates. After Rabbit has sexual stimulation. Satiation Rabbit has recently had sexual stimulation.

What is this decrease in the frequency of the copulation an example of? Satiation Does this satiation effect show itself in a decrease in learning or performance? Performance

More Examples Before Behavior After Satiation Rudolph has no water. Rudolph presses the lever. After Rudolph has water. Satiation Rudolph has recently had water.

Before Behavior After Deprivation Rudolph has no sexual stimulation. Behavior Rudolph copulates. After Rudolph has sexual stimulation. Deprivation Rudolph has not had sexual stimulation for 72 hours.

What is a Motivating Operation? Motivating Operation (MO): A procedure or condition that affects learning and performance with respect to a particular reinforcer or aversive condition.

Examples of Motivating Operations Deprivation Satiation What are Reflexive MOs? An MO for aversive conditions. In an escape contingency, the MO is the same as the before condition… So we don’t diagram it separately.

Reflexive MO Turning on the shock (shock on). What is the MO in this escape contingency? Before The shock is on. Behavior Rudolph presses the lever. After The shock is off. Turning on the shock (shock on).

The Don’t Say Rule: A Refresher Rudolph will start pressing the lever because he knows he’ll get water…or… Rudolph learned that he would get water.

What should you say? Rudolph will start pressing the lever on Tuesday because lever pressing was reinforced on Monday. And that he was deprived of water on both Monday and Tuesday.

What is the Premack Principle? If one activity occurs more often than another, the opportunity to do the more frequent activity will reinforce the less frequent activity.

Example of the Premack Principle A teacher allowed her 3-year-old students to get up and run around the room for 2 minutes. Then she rang a bell. The kids sat down and listened to her lesson. After a few minutes, another bell rang, and the kids got up and ran around for 2 minutes.

Analysis The children behaved so well during the teacher’s lesson because the teacher reinforced appropriate school work (less preferred activity), with the ability to run around for 2 minutes (preferred activity).

How can I tell if something will act as a reinforcer before I use it? Measure the frequency of occurrence of the potentially reinforcing activity. Measure the frequency of the response you want to reinforce. If the potentially reinforcing activity occurs more often than the response you want to reinforce, then that potentially reinforcing activity will be an effective reinforcer for that response.

Basic Enrichment You deprived Rudolph of water for 23 hours. He rapidly learned lever pressing, and now presses the lever rapidly. But one day, you forgot to deprive him of water. He has been drinking his fill for the last few days. Now he barely contacts the lever.

This is an example of… Satiation In this case, what did satiation hurt: learning or performance? Performance

Another Example You forgot to remove the water bottle from Rudolph’s cage before the first few lab sessions. How effective would water be as a reinforcer? Not too effective In this case, what did satiation hurt? Learning

Intermediate Enrichment Unlearned Reinforcers with Direct Biological Benefits Food and water provide us with direct biological benefits Unlearned Reinforcers that Don’t Provide Biological Benefits Visual stimulation Pigeons in cages will face out through an opening of the cage door rather than the inside where it’s dark.

Examples Animal has little visual stimulation. Before Animal has little visual stimulation. Behavior Animal turns toward opening. After Animal has more visual stimulation. Before Baby has little visual stimulation. Behavior Baby turns toward TV. After Baby has much visual stimulation.

Monkey can see train running. Another Example A monkey’s lever press opened a window. Then the monkey could see a toy train running around a track. The monkey often pressed the lever. The monkey had no previous experience with the train. Before Monkey can’t see train. Behavior Monkey presses lever. After Monkey can see train running.

Example of Sound as an Unlearned Reinforcer Sound will act as a mild reinforcer for rats It will maintain a low frequency of lever press responses. Before Rat hears no sound. Behavior Rat presses lever. After Rat hears sound.

No-Calorie Sweetners People dump non-nutritive sweeteners in their coffee by the tons. Before Person has no sweet coffee. Behavior Person dumps sweetener in coffee. After Person has sweet coffee. Before Rat has no sweet taste. Behavior Rat drinks saccharine water. After Rat has sweet taste.

How do you know if it was learned or unlearned? The rats were born and raised in the lab, where the experimenters controlled their diet and withheld all sweet tastes.

Indirect Reinforcers Unlearned reinforcers may have indirect biological benefits. Orienting toward sights and sounds helps animals (and us) to avoid injury and death (to survive). Before Animal less likely to survive. Behavior Animal orients toward stimulus. After Animal more likely to survive.

But… This is an ineffective natural contingency… It does not control behavior. So through evolution, nature has added a performance management contingency to control behavior. Before Animal has no audio-visual reinforcer. Behavior Animal orients toward stimulus. After Animal has audio-visual reinforcer.

Unlearned Reinforcers & Aversive Stimuli 2 Types of Unlearned Reinforcers: Directly cause biological benefits Indirectly cause biological benefits 2 Types of Unlearned Aversive Stimuli Directly cause biological harm Indirectly cause biological harm

Unlearned Aversive Stimuli Directly cause biological harm: Predator’s bite Spoiled food Indirectly cause biological harm: Shadow of a hawk A loud noise Taste/smell of spoiled food

Unlearned Reinforcers with No Biological Benefits Sensory Stimulation: Unlearned reinforcer with no known biological benefit (direct or indirect) Example: Hand Flapping

On DickMalott.com Chapter 9 Advanced Enrichment Section Approaching Reinforcers vs. Escaping Aversive Stimuli The Incentive Operation The Motivating and Incentive Operations and Aversive Stimuli The Motivating Operation: Escape vs. Reinforcement The Incentive Operation: Escape vs. Reinforcement The Incentive Operation: Punishment

Join us for Chapter 10: Special Motivating Operations