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Buy some carrots and skip the stick if you want your learning to stick - An experimental study on the retention of reward & punishment learning and the effect of context

Olsson, Emil LU and Köhler, Gabriel LU (2019) PSYK11 20191
Department of Psychology
Abstract
Operant conditioning is a psychological theory about learning through positive and negative reinforcement which has been researched for decades. However, some fundamental components of this theory have not yet been thoroughly researched, such as its interaction with long-term retention and context. These components are essential if we want to understand how operant conditioning applies in everyday life outside a human Skinner box. A computerized task was constructed based on reinforcement learning through operant conditioning. Data from 33 subjects were collected from two separate days of testing. During the first day, subjects learned associations between symbols and monetary outcomes under two different contexts. Five days later, memory... (More)
Operant conditioning is a psychological theory about learning through positive and negative reinforcement which has been researched for decades. However, some fundamental components of this theory have not yet been thoroughly researched, such as its interaction with long-term retention and context. These components are essential if we want to understand how operant conditioning applies in everyday life outside a human Skinner box. A computerized task was constructed based on reinforcement learning through operant conditioning. Data from 33 subjects were collected from two separate days of testing. During the first day, subjects learned associations between symbols and monetary outcomes under two different contexts. Five days later, memory retention was measured for these associations. In addition, a context manipulation was executed so that retention was tested in the same or switched context. The study found no significant difference for context the manipulation but a significant interaction between reinforcement type and memory retention. Therefore, our results suggest that context has no general influence on the retrieval of previously established operant responses, but further studies are needed. Long-term retention is proven to be worse after punishment than reward subsequent to reinforcement learning, in favor of the carrot over the stick. However, when measuring long-term retention after five days as in this study, there is a recovery of the negatively reinforced learning after exposure to retrieval cues. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Olsson, Emil LU and Köhler, Gabriel LU
supervisor
organization
course
PSYK11 20191
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
Operant conditioning, instrumental learning, long-term retention, context, reinforcement type, reward prediction error
language
English
id
8985388
date added to LUP
2019-06-19 13:34:21
date last changed
2019-06-19 13:34:21
@misc{8985388,
  abstract     = {{Operant conditioning is a psychological theory about learning through positive and negative reinforcement which has been researched for decades. However, some fundamental components of this theory have not yet been thoroughly researched, such as its interaction with long-term retention and context. These components are essential if we want to understand how operant conditioning applies in everyday life outside a human Skinner box. A computerized task was constructed based on reinforcement learning through operant conditioning. Data from 33 subjects were collected from two separate days of testing. During the first day, subjects learned associations between symbols and monetary outcomes under two different contexts. Five days later, memory retention was measured for these associations. In addition, a context manipulation was executed so that retention was tested in the same or switched context. The study found no significant difference for context the manipulation but a significant interaction between reinforcement type and memory retention. Therefore, our results suggest that context has no general influence on the retrieval of previously established operant responses, but further studies are needed. Long-term retention is proven to be worse after punishment than reward subsequent to reinforcement learning, in favor of the carrot over the stick. However, when measuring long-term retention after five days as in this study, there is a recovery of the negatively reinforced learning after exposure to retrieval cues.}},
  author       = {{Olsson, Emil and Köhler, Gabriel}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Buy some carrots and skip the stick if you want your learning to stick - An experimental study on the retention of reward & punishment learning and the effect of context}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}