8-1 Imitation in monkeys and humans involves special neurons known as mirror neu

Question

8-1

Imitation in monkeys and humans involves special neurons known as mirror neurons. Mirror neurons in monkeys show similar patterns of activity when the individual performs an action or watches another individual perform the same action.

Why is research regarding mirror neurons in humans more complicated than research in monkeys? Where does research in humans currently stand?

What purposes might be served by mirror neurons? What role might mirror neurons play in autism research?

8.2-

Psychologists like B. F. Skinner have studied how we can use operant conditioning to change the behavior of people and animals. Drawing on your personal experience, choose a person or animal whose behavior you want to change. (You may select your own behavior for this question if you wish.) How could you use operant conditioning to change the behavior of this person or animal?

In a multi-paragraph essay, describe your plan to change this behavior. Be sure to mention what type of reinforcer and reinforcement schedule you would use and explain why you made those particular choices. Include information from class materials, readings, and research on operant conditioning to support your discussion.

Explanation / Answer

8.1 - Mirror neurons are a type of brain cell that respond equally when we perform an action and when we witness someone else perform the same action. Once the researchers identified mirror neurons in monkeys, the next step was to look for them in humans. But they couldn't record activity from single neurons in humans the way that they could in monkeys, because doing so requires attaching electrodes directly to the brain. The recent research points out or suggests that the neurons are important for understanding intentions as well as actions. It seems clear that mirror neurons are one key to understanding how human beings survive and thrive in a complex social world. This neural mechanism is involuntary and automatic as we don't have to think about what other people are doing or feeling, we simply know.

8.2 - Operant conditioning is based on the idea that we make a conscious linking between our behaviors and rewards and punishments. Unlike classical conditioning in which the learner is passive, in operant conditioning the learner plays an active part in the changes in behavior. When it comes to training animals reinforcement is delivered according to a predefined schedule.

If a stimulus is delivered after a set number of responses, it is considered a fixed ratio schedule. In my example, a pigeon might be given a food reward after every tenth time that it pecks a button. The pigeon would learn that ten button presses are required in order to receive a reward. If the number of responses required to receive a stimulus varies, then you are using a variable ratio schedule.

The best example for this is a slot machine, which has a fixed probability of delivering a reward over time, but a variable number of pulls between rewards. It is no wonder that variable ratio reinforcement schedules are the most effective for quickly establishing and maintaining a desired behavior.

If a stimulus is given after a fixed amount of time, regardless of the number of responses, then you've got a fixed interval schedule. No matter how many times the pigeon pecks the button, it only receives one reward every ten minutes. This is the least effective reinforcement schedule. Finally, if a stimulus is given after a variable amount of time, you've got a variable interval schedule. A stimulus might be applied every week on average, which means sometimes it occurs more often than once per week, and sometimes less often.

Pop quizzes are the best known example of variable interval reinforcement schedules, since the precise time at which they occur is unpredictable. The desired response in this case is studying. In general, ratio schedules are more effective at modifying behavior than interval schedules, and variable schedules are more effective than fixed schedules.

In the pigeon experiment we see that one can develop methods for eliciting more complex behaviors by dividing them into segments, each of which could then be individually conditioned. This is called chaining, and forms the basis for training dogs to drive cars. Another example of training dogs with driving a vehicle, they first need to be trained to operate a lever, then to use a steering wheel to adjust the direction of a moving cart, then to press or depress a pedal to speed up or slow down the cart. As each dog masters each step, an additional segment was added until they learned the entire target behavior. Unlike pigeons, for whom food is the best reward, the domestication process has meant that dogs can be rewarded with verbal praise alone. By using a combination of reinforcement and punishment, we can shape a desired behavior by rewarding successively closer approximations best known as shaping.

We first give the bird food when it turns slightly in the direction of the spot from any part of the cage. This increases the frequency of such behavior. We then withhold reinforcement until a slight movement is made toward the spot. This again alters the general distribution of behavior without producing a new unit. We continue by reinforcing positions successively closer to the spot, then by reinforcing only when the head is moved slightly forward, and finally only when the beak actually makes contact with the spot. The original probability of the response in its final form is very low; in some cases it may even be zero. In this way we can build complicated operants which would never appear in the repertoire of the organism otherwise. By reinforcing a series of successive approximations, we bring a rare response to a very high probability in a short time.

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