Generalization, Discrimination, and Stimulus Control
Generalization ANS: The tendency for the effects of a learning experience to spread.
Sometimes called transfer because effects of a learning experience move.
There are four types of generalization:
- Generalization across people (vicarious generalization)
- Generalization across time (response maintenence, opposite of forgetting)
- Generalization across behavior (response generalization)
- Generalization across situations (stimulus generalization)
(Chapter deals primarily with the last one)
Response generalization ANS: The tendency for changes in one behavior to spread to other behaviors.
Ex - a rat realizes it gets food for pressing a lever with its right front foot, so it may press the lever with
its left front foot or its chin.
Semantic generalization ANS: Generalization across semantic characteristics of a stimulus - or the
meaning.
Ex: being conditioned to salivate to the word urn and also salivating to the word vase; as opposed to
being conditioned to salivate to the word urn and also salivating to the word earn.
Stimulus generalization ANS: The tendency for changes in one situation to spread to other situations.
Also, the tendency (in lab settings) to respond to stimuli not present during training.
For example, little Albert (the boy who was afraid of the rat; see earlier lessons) was also afraid of cotton
and Santa.
Generalization gradient ANS: Any graphic representation of generalization data.
Usually, as stimuli get farther from the original stimulus the individual was trained to respond to, the
responses to the stimuli go down. An inverted U-shaped curve.
Generalization and extinction ANS: In a study by Youtz, rats pressed a lever for food and were put on
extinction. There was another lever that was not put on extinction, but the rats showed a reduced
tendency to press that one, too.
Generalization and punishment ANS: In a study by Honig and Slivka, pigeons had access to many
differently colored disks. One color was punished, and pigeons showed reduced tendency for all disks.
Ways to increase generalization ANS: Provide training in a wide variety of settings
Reinforce a wide variety of stimuli
Provide lots of examples
Vary the consequences
Reinforce generalization when it occurs (Generalization therapy)
, Generalization shouldn't be taken for granted - just because we assume people will generalize doesn't
mean they will.
Practical applications of generalization ANS: Education
Work
Parenting
Downside of generalization ANS: People can generalize to inappropriate situations, often making more
problems.
People can also give up: giving a series of unsolvable problems, then a series of solvable problems; the
person will give up because they assume problems are unsolvable.
It can also be dangerous: Inuit dog generalizing and thinking a child was a seal, bear attacking human
near the bush.
Hate crimes
Generalization therapy ANS: Patient has anorexia, refused to eat. Bachrach and colleagues used shaping
to get her to eat, but it was in the hospital. She had to generalize to the setting at home, so they asked
the family to cooperate.
She ate a doughnut and it was awesome.
The moral of the story is generalization is not always easy.
Stimulus discrimination ANS: The tendency for behavior to occur in certain situations but not in others.
Narrowly: Tendency for behavior to occur in the presence of a certain stimulus but not in its absence.
Discrimination training ANS: Any procedure for establishing a discrimination
There are Pavlovian and operant procedures.
Pavlovian discrimination training ANS: CS^+ is a conditioned stimulus regularly paired with US. CS^-
appears alone. The subject will respond to the CS^+ more than the CS^-.
The dog gets food when the buzzer sounds (CS^+) and nothing when the bell rings (CS^-). The dog will
learn to salivate to the buzzer, but not to the bell.
Operant discrimination training ANS: S^+ or S^D indicates that the behavior will have a reinforcing
consequence. S^- or S^∆ indicates that the behavior will not have reinforcing consequences.
Rat receives food every time it presses a lever, but only if a lamp is on. When the lamp is on: S^D. When
lamp is off: S^∆ .
Discriminative stimuli ANS: Stimuli that signal different consequences for a behavior.
S^D and S^∆ are both discriminative stimuli: some people think that only S^∆ is a discriminative
stimulus, but this is incorrect. They both signal different consequences.
Simultaneous discrimination ANS: The discriminative stimuli are presented at the same time.
Generalization ANS: The tendency for the effects of a learning experience to spread.
Sometimes called transfer because effects of a learning experience move.
There are four types of generalization:
- Generalization across people (vicarious generalization)
- Generalization across time (response maintenence, opposite of forgetting)
- Generalization across behavior (response generalization)
- Generalization across situations (stimulus generalization)
(Chapter deals primarily with the last one)
Response generalization ANS: The tendency for changes in one behavior to spread to other behaviors.
Ex - a rat realizes it gets food for pressing a lever with its right front foot, so it may press the lever with
its left front foot or its chin.
Semantic generalization ANS: Generalization across semantic characteristics of a stimulus - or the
meaning.
Ex: being conditioned to salivate to the word urn and also salivating to the word vase; as opposed to
being conditioned to salivate to the word urn and also salivating to the word earn.
Stimulus generalization ANS: The tendency for changes in one situation to spread to other situations.
Also, the tendency (in lab settings) to respond to stimuli not present during training.
For example, little Albert (the boy who was afraid of the rat; see earlier lessons) was also afraid of cotton
and Santa.
Generalization gradient ANS: Any graphic representation of generalization data.
Usually, as stimuli get farther from the original stimulus the individual was trained to respond to, the
responses to the stimuli go down. An inverted U-shaped curve.
Generalization and extinction ANS: In a study by Youtz, rats pressed a lever for food and were put on
extinction. There was another lever that was not put on extinction, but the rats showed a reduced
tendency to press that one, too.
Generalization and punishment ANS: In a study by Honig and Slivka, pigeons had access to many
differently colored disks. One color was punished, and pigeons showed reduced tendency for all disks.
Ways to increase generalization ANS: Provide training in a wide variety of settings
Reinforce a wide variety of stimuli
Provide lots of examples
Vary the consequences
Reinforce generalization when it occurs (Generalization therapy)
, Generalization shouldn't be taken for granted - just because we assume people will generalize doesn't
mean they will.
Practical applications of generalization ANS: Education
Work
Parenting
Downside of generalization ANS: People can generalize to inappropriate situations, often making more
problems.
People can also give up: giving a series of unsolvable problems, then a series of solvable problems; the
person will give up because they assume problems are unsolvable.
It can also be dangerous: Inuit dog generalizing and thinking a child was a seal, bear attacking human
near the bush.
Hate crimes
Generalization therapy ANS: Patient has anorexia, refused to eat. Bachrach and colleagues used shaping
to get her to eat, but it was in the hospital. She had to generalize to the setting at home, so they asked
the family to cooperate.
She ate a doughnut and it was awesome.
The moral of the story is generalization is not always easy.
Stimulus discrimination ANS: The tendency for behavior to occur in certain situations but not in others.
Narrowly: Tendency for behavior to occur in the presence of a certain stimulus but not in its absence.
Discrimination training ANS: Any procedure for establishing a discrimination
There are Pavlovian and operant procedures.
Pavlovian discrimination training ANS: CS^+ is a conditioned stimulus regularly paired with US. CS^-
appears alone. The subject will respond to the CS^+ more than the CS^-.
The dog gets food when the buzzer sounds (CS^+) and nothing when the bell rings (CS^-). The dog will
learn to salivate to the buzzer, but not to the bell.
Operant discrimination training ANS: S^+ or S^D indicates that the behavior will have a reinforcing
consequence. S^- or S^∆ indicates that the behavior will not have reinforcing consequences.
Rat receives food every time it presses a lever, but only if a lamp is on. When the lamp is on: S^D. When
lamp is off: S^∆ .
Discriminative stimuli ANS: Stimuli that signal different consequences for a behavior.
S^D and S^∆ are both discriminative stimuli: some people think that only S^∆ is a discriminative
stimulus, but this is incorrect. They both signal different consequences.
Simultaneous discrimination ANS: The discriminative stimuli are presented at the same time.
