In: Psychology
what role does attention play with operant behavior and discrimination training?
In operant conditioning, attention can be experimentally examined by varying the contingencies of reinforcement for making an operant response in the presence of different discriminative stimuli. Three key attentional effects in operant conditioning are: overshadowing, blocking, and relative validity.
Discrimination training involves reinforcing a behavior (e.g., pecking) in the presence of one stimulus but not others.The discriminative stimulus is the cue (stimulus) that is present when the behavior is reinforced.
Overlearning Reversal Effect (ORE) suggests that attention is an important variable in discrimination learning. A linear model is proposed for such learning in which one of three responses occurs: (a) the subject attends and makes a correct choice; (b) the subject attends and makes an error; or (c) the subject does not attend