Reinforcement – Increasing the Strength of Response

2012-04-19T21:27:00.000+08:00

A reinforcement is any stimulus that will maintain or increase the strength of a response. The strength of a response is measured or inferred in terms of: (1) probability of occurrence – a strong response is one that is very likely to occur every time the stimulus is presented; (2) number of occurrences during a stated period of time; (3) magnitude of the response; (4) latency or reaction time of the response; and (5) resistance to extinction.

The strength of a response increases with the amount and number of reinforcement to that response. Generally speaking, the smaller the time between the response and the reinforcement, the more effective the reinforcement is in building the strength of the response.

There is a higher order conditioning and secondary reinforcement taking place in the organism as it contends with its environment. There is extinction in responses that are no longer reinforced and tend to disappear from the organism’s repertoire of behavior. But these unreinforced responses, whether based in classical or instrumental conditioning, recover spontaneously. And if a response is stamped into the organism by certain schedules of partial reinforcement, it may persist for a very long periods without any reinforcement whatsoever. Some habits, attitudes and values, once established, may last a lifetime even in the absence of functional rewards. The organism, with practice, learns discrimination that is why its responses fit the functionally adequate stimuli more precisely. They learn to respond in the same way to whole classes of stimuli. There is generalization in accordance with their similarities to familiar ones.

Insightful Learning (Perceptual Learning)

The earliest and best know experiments on insightful learning were done by WOLFGANG Kohler (1925), a Gestalt psychologist. In observing chimpanzees, Kohler saw quick relationships that allowed an animal to solve a problem – to acquire a new response – in one burst of insight. The solution of a problem becomes suddenly clear. This concept of insight, a sudden perception of relationships is also known as “aha” experience.

Sight Learning

Sight learning involves the perception of a stimulus that gives rise to the expectation that if a particular kind of behavior follows the perceived stimulus, another stimulus would appear. It is learning “what it leads to what”.

Edward C. Tolman (1886-1959) believed that much of learning is sign-learning. Sign-learning may be defined as an acquired expectation that one stimulus will be followed by another provided a familiar behavior route is taken. Tolman’s sign-learning experiments emphasized the role of knowledge or understanding. Under some circumstances, the organism learns the location of paths or places rather than movement habits, called spatial orientation.

Learning Psychology

Reinforcement – Increasing the Strength of Response