Key Concepts in Instrumental Conditioning
Glossary of Instrumental Conditioning Terms
Drag Instinctive: Gradual deviation of instrumental behavior from required responses. It is influenced by species-specific responses or instinctive reactions to the enhancer and other experimental stimuli.
Punishment: Instrumental conditioning procedure with a positive contingency between the instrumental response and an aversive stimulus. If the response occurs, the aversive stimulus is received; if not, it is avoided.
Instrumental Behavior: Activity performed because it effectively produces a particular consequence or reinforcer.
Superstitious Behavior: Behavior that increases in frequency due to the accidental pairing of a reinforcer with instances of the behavior.
Contiguity: Simultaneous (or near simultaneous) occurrence of two events, such as a response and a reinforcer. Also called temporal contiguity.
Contingency Between Response and Reinforcer: The value of a response with an enhancer, defined by the probability of being strengthened when the response occurs versus the probability in the absence of the response.
Negative Behavioral Contrast: Less favorable responses to a booster following a previous experience with a more desired reinforcer (in the absence of such prior experience).
Positive Behavioral Contrast: Increase in favorable responses to a booster after a previous experience with a less desirable reinforcer (in the absence of such prior experience).
Simultaneous Behavioral Contrast: Effect of having behavior (positive and negative) that produces frequent changes between favorable and unfavorable reward conditions, each associated with a distinctive stimulus.
Learned Helplessness Effect: Interference with learning new instrumental responses due to prior exposure to unavoidable aversive stimulation.
Training Trough: Preliminary stage of instrumental conditioning where the stimulus enhancer is repeatedly paired with the reinforcer, allowing the participant to learn to associate them (e.g., the sound of a food dispenser with food delivery).
Training Default: Instrumental conditioning procedure where the instrumental response prevents the delivery of a reinforcing stimulus.
Escape: Instrumental conditioning procedure where the operant response ends an aversive stimulus.
Appetitive Stimulus: Pleasant or satisfying stimulus that can strengthen an instrumental response.
Aversive Stimulus: Unpleasant or annoying stimulus that can punish an instrumental response.
Avoidance: Instrumental conditioning procedure where the operant response prevents the delivery of an aversive stimulus.
Learned Helplessness Hypothesis: Theoretical idea that during exposure to inescapable aversive stimulation, participants learn that their behavior does not control environmental events.
Latency: The period between the start of a trial (or stimulus) and the instrumental response.
Law of Effect: Thorndike’s rule for instrumental conditioning: if a response in the presence of a stimulus is followed by a satisfying event, the stimulus-response association is strengthened; if followed by an unsatisfying event, the association is weakened.
Discrete Trial Method: Method of instrumental conditioning where the participant can perform the instrumental response only during specified periods.
Free Operant Method: Instrumental conditioning technique allowing repeated execution of instrumental responses without the participant being removed from the experimental chamber.
Shaping: Reinforcing successive approximations to a desired instrumental response.
Membership: Thorndike’s idea that an organism’s evolutionary history makes certain responses more appropriate, or belong, to certain enhancers, facilitating learning.
Marking Procedure: A procedure where the instrumental response is immediately followed by a characteristic event (e.g., a light flash) to make the response more memorable and reduce the negative effects of delayed reinforcement.
DRO: Abbreviation for Differential Reinforcement of Other Behaviors.
Conditioned Reinforcer: Stimulus that becomes an effective enhancer due to its association with a primary (unconditioned) reinforcer. Also known as secondary reinforcer.
Accidental Reinforcement: Coincidental delivery of a reinforcer with a particular response, even if the response is not responsible for the reinforcer’s presentation. Also called adventitious reinforcement.
Differential Reinforcement of Other Behavior (DRO): Instrumental conditioning procedure where a reinforcer is delivered only if the participant ceases to give a particular response.
Negative Reinforcement: Instrumental conditioning procedure with a negative contingency between the instrumental response and an aversive stimulus. If the response occurs, the aversive stimulus is ended or prevented; if not, the stimulus is presented.
Positive Reinforcement: Instrumental conditioning procedure with a positive contingency between the instrumental response and a reinforcing stimulus. If the response occurs, the reinforcing stimulus is received; if not, it is not.
Cumulative Recorder: Device that automatically records the cumulative frequency of a particular response over time.
Interim Response: Response that increases in frequency after reinforcement delivery and then decreases as the time for the next reinforcement approaches.
Response Task: Action defined by its effect on the environment (e.g., pressing a lever to open a door). Any sequence of movements that achieves the effect is an example of the operant.
Terminal Response: Response most likely to occur at the end of the interval between successive presentations of a reinforcer in a fixed-interval schedule.
Running Speed: Speed (e.g., in centimeters per second) at which an animal moves in a corridor.