Phase 2, Part 1 ~Collin Brown

Primary Reinforcers- Primary Reinforcers are innately satisfying. They are basically things we need to survive. They can also be described as an unconscious need or relief of something bad. For example, relieving yourself in the bathroom, drinking, sleeping.

Conditioned Reinforcers- Conditioned Reinforcers are learned reinforcers that are associated with primary reinforcers. If getting milk and cookies is usually occurring right before sleep, the person need milk and cookies to go to sleep. The milk and cookies are the conditioned reinforcers.

Immediate Reinforcers- Immediate reinforcers provide the wanted result immediately after the performed action to get the reinforcement. For example, the loss of hunger after eating comes immediately after eating a lot.

Delayed Reinforcers- With Delayed Reinforcers, the wanted result comes later than the performed action. No learning may occur in non-humans because most animals do not have the patience to wait for the next reinforcer. Humans are only sometimes conditioned to delayed reinforcers. For example, a person will wait in a line at the amusement park to ride one ride. Waiting in line takes a long time, but the reinforcement is the ride.

Reinforcement Schedules:
Fixed-Ratio- Steady reinforcers that come after a set number of responses. For example, after hitting a button five times, a rat receives food.
Variable-Ratio- The reinforcers occur randomly after the responses. If Reinforcers go up, the responses go up. For example, entering a raffle is on a variable ratio schedule.
Fixed-interval- Reinforce the response after a set time period. The number of responses greatly increases as the reinforcement time gets close. The pay-stub at the end week makes workers work harder closer to when they are going to receive their pay-stub.
Variable-interval- Are reinforced after a random amount of time. Slow, steady responses occur because reinforcers can occur at any time.

Punishment- is the opposite of reinforcement. It decreases the amount of responses instead of increasing the amount of responses, or wanted behavior. There are drawbacks however, including doing the unwanted behavior where punishment is absent and increased aggressiveness and anger towards the punisher. Punishment includes putting a dog into a cage if he bites someone.

Cognitive Map- A cognitive map is developing and idea or representation of what someone is looking at or exploring. If a new student is in a school and is learning his/her way around, this is building a cognitive map.

Latent Learning- Someone being demonstrated as learning something with evidence only when a reward is present. Boy in a new school is told to find a certain room in order to win a prize. He will automatically recall his cognitive map better because he has a drive.

Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic motivation- Intrinsic motivation is wanting to do something for your own wants, such as pride, while extrinsic motivation is wanting to do something for rewards or to avoid punishment.

How does cognition impact operant conditioning?- The cognitive processes determine what we think, perceive, and expect to happen. This impacts operant conditioning by following the rules of conditioning. If we think something will provide reinforcement, we will do it, if not, we will not do it. The mental processes that determine what we do impact how we respond to conditioning.