學習筆記，有錯必糾

學習書籍：《Psych 101》-- Paul Kleinman

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Psych 101

The Unfortunate Legacy of the Skinner Box

In 1943，Skinner’s pregnant wife asked him to build a safer baby crib for their child.
Always the inventor, Skinner created a heated crib that was enclosed with a plexiglass window and called it the Baby Tender.
Skinner sent an article to Ladies’Dome Journal, and they printed the story as “Baby in a Box.”
With the legacy of Skinner’s work in operant conditioning, a rumor spread that Skinner had used his experimental operant conditioning chamber on his own daughter and that it eventually drove her crazy to the point of suicide.
These rumors, however, were completely false.

SCHEDULES OF REINFORCEMENT

Another important component of operant conditioning is the notion of schedules of reinforcement.
How often and when a behavior is reinforced can greatly affect the strength of the behavior and the rate of response.
Positive and negative reinforcement can be used, and the goal is always to strengthen behavior and increase the chances of it happening again.
Schedules of reinforcement can be broken down onto two types:

Continuous reinforcement: Every time a behavior occurs, it is reinforced

Partial reinforcement: A behavior is reinforced part of the time.

Interestingly, the response that is the result of partial reinforcement is actually more resistant to extinction because these behaviors are learned over time, and not acquired all at once.
Partial reinforcement can be further broken down into four schedules:

Fixed-ratio schedules: After a specific number of responses, the response is reinforced.
For example, a rat only gets food pellets after pressing the lever every three times.

Variable一ratio schedules: Reinforcement occurs after an unpredictable number of responses.
For example, a rat presses the lever several times, but a pellet of food is administered at random and is not based on any sort of fixed schedule.

Fixed-interval schedules: A response is rewarded after an allotted period of time.
For example, if a rat presses the lever within a time frame of thirty seconds, it will be given one food pellet.
It does not matter how many times the rat presses the lever, because only one pellet will be given during that time frame.

Variable一interval schedules: Reinforcement occurs after an unpredictable amount of time.

For example, the rat may be rewarded a pellet every fifteen seconds, and then every five seconds, and then every forty-five seconds, etc.

Examples of the four different schedules of reinforcement can be found in everyday life，For instance, a fixed–ratio schedule is commonly found in playing videogames (where the player has to collect a certain number of points or coins to obtain a reward);
slot machines exhibit a variable一ratio schedule;
having a weekly or biweekly paycheck is an example of a fixed-interval schedule;
and when one’s boss comes into the office to check on an individual’s progress at random times, it is an example
of a variable-interval schedule.

when learning a behavior that is new, a fixed-ratio schedule is always best, while a variable-interval schedule is extremely resistant to extinction.

Though behaviorism lost its popularity over time, there is no denying the impact of B.F.Skinner.
His operant techniques remain vital to mental health professionals in helping treat clients, and his ideas of reinforcement and punishment are still used in teaching and dog training.

Daily Sentence

How often are we to die before we go quite off the stage? In every friend we lose a part of ourselves, and the best part.

——Alexander Pope, Letter

• 中文解釋

在我們完全離開這個世界以前，我們是怎樣慢慢死去的呢？每次失去一個朋友，我們就有一部分死去了，而且是最好的那一部分。

——亞歷山大·波普

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