On Wed, 17 Nov 1999 10:58:36 -0600 Rick Froman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Jim Dougan writes on 17 Nov 99,:
>
> > Yes - this is the "strong" theory of classical/operant conditioning. But,
> > it does not really hold up. For example, most learning theorists consider
> > autoshaping to be an example of classical conditioning. However,
> > keypecking in pigeons is a pretty clear example of a "voluntary" skeletal
> > response. At the very least, Skinner certainly used keypecking as a
> > classic example of an operant.
> >
> > Of course, autoshaping theory is itself complicated - and there is some
> > reason to believe that there operant components to autoshaping.
>
> Pecking at food is reflexive but pecking at other things like lighted disks
> is not. What appears to be the same behavior can be mediated by
> different systems. I can jerk my knee because you struck my patellar
> tendon or because I am trying to kick a soccer ball. They will look
> similar but one is voluntary and the other is reflexive.
>
> So, Skinner's operant key peck may look like a classically conditioned
> key peck but they can be distinguished by the training paradigm used.
> Just because pecking (UR) is an unlearned reflexive response to food
> (US) does not mean that pecking at a disk is a reflexive response. In
> fact, the idea in autoshaping is that, as you say, the key peck is
> classically conditioned. The key (CS) becomes associated with food
> (US) and then the bird pecks (CR) at the key as they do (UR) at the food
> (US).
>
> Once again, the crucial element here is contingency, or the lack thereof.
> In the autoshaping procedure, the light predicts food delivery and food
> delivery is not contingent on pecking at the light. The food will be
> delivered whether the bird pecks or not. Therefore, it is classical, not
> operant. If the delivery of food is contingent on pecking, it is operant
> and it is not autoshaping.
And so, let's look back at the original story.
> A MIT student went to the Harvard football stadium and blew a whistle then<
> threw birdseed on the stadium floor. Birds came flocking.<
Seems that the birdseed was available whether the birds came flocking or not
(actually seems it was available before the birds came flocking). Birdseed
availability contingent on whistle - not the birds' arrival. Procedurally, this
seems to be classical conditioning. Of course, as Jim &/or Paul pointed out in many
"real life" situations classical and operant contingencies will often interact. In
additional to being a nice example for that concept, it is also could be a good
example of how the "researcher-programmed" contingencies are (a) nto the only
contingencies in effect, (b) may not be the most salient and/or (c) may not be the
ones that ultimately maintain the behavior in question. --SLS
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