15/02/2019

Operant Conditioning:
Why do people gamble and
how do I win at Fortnite?
Professor Andrew Page

facebook.com/UWAPsychology

Consider this for next week

• https://www.reddit.com/r/philosophy/comments/76c2u4/vie
wing_psychopaths_through_determinism_sam_harris/?st
=J8RFFSHL&sh=fb698009

Fortnite Battle Royale

Fortnite “Addiction”
• Hundred players, (alone, pairs, or squads),
attempting to be the last alive
• Eliminate or evade other players, while staying
within a constantly shrinking safe zone.
• Players scavenge for weapons and armour to
gain the upper hand.

• Be passive (sniper) or aggressive (soldier)?

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Fortnite Battle Royale

• Hundred players, (alone, pairs, or squads), Fortnite “Addiction”
attempting to be the last alive
• Eliminate or evade other players, while staying
within a constantly shrinking safe zone.
• Players scavenge for weapons and armour to
gain the upper hand.

• Be passive (sniper) or aggressive?

Problem Gambling
• Many Australians enjoy an occasional flutter. However for
some, gambling can be highly destructive – ruining lives
and destroying families. The biggest cause?
• The Pokies?

Why do people keep gambling?

healthdirect.gov.au/gambling-addiction
• Sometimes people find that other issues they are
experiencing in their lives are the tipping point and they
turn to gambling to escape.
• Society condones gambling, and sees it as a part of
normal life. That makes it very hard for people with a
problem to keep away from it.
• Another is that there may be chemical changes in the
brain, similar to those seen in people addicted to alcohol
or drugs.

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Cause?
• Machine? • Gambler?

Today…

• Operant conditioning
– Compared to classical conditioning
• Reinforcement and Punishment
– Types
– Schedules
• Shaping

Operant (Instrumental) Conditioning

• In classical conditioning - behaviour is

controlled by associations
– We learn about how things in the environment occur
together, predict each other

• In operant conditioning - behaviour is

controlled by consequences
– We learn about how our behaviour effects the
environment…
– …or perhaps - how the environment affects our behaviour.

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Operant (Instrumental) Conditioning

• Edward Thorndike (1874-1949)

– Local cats and puzzle boxes

– Law of Effect
• “If a response in a particular situation is followed by a
satisfying or pleasant consequence, it will be
strengthened.” (Nairne, 2003, p. 248)

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Video

Operant (Instrumental) Conditioning

• Burrhus F Skinner (1904-1990)

– Took it from there…

– Extended the work on behaviour and
consequences
– Made the relationship much clearer
and more detailed

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Types of consequence…

• Think of the ‘strength’ of a behaviour as the likelihood

that it will re-occur
• The strength of a potential behaviour may be
increased by one class of consequence
(reinforcement)…
• …or it may be weakened by a different class of
consequence (punishment)

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Categories of Responses

BEHAVIOUR

Increases Decreases

EVENT Onset Positive Punishment

Reinforcement
Offset Negative Response Cost
Reinforcement

An Operant Chamber or ‘Skinner Box’

Speaker

Ad-lib Water
Source
Light

Grid Floor
Food lever

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Forming and Strengthening

Operant Behavior

• Shaping
– Successive approximations
of the target behavior

• Reinforcement
– Primary reinforcers
• Food
• Water
– Secondary reinforcers
(Conditioned reinforcers)
• Money
• Praise

Delay and Size of Reinforcement

• Timing
– Reinforcement strongest when following response

• Size of reinforcer
– Bigger is better

• Reinforcement schedules
– Continuous
– Partial (intermittent)

Continuous Reinforcement

• Continuous
– Reinforce every correct response
– Very fast learning
– Very fast extinction

“Oh, not bad. The light comes on, I press the bar, they
write me a cheque. How about you?”

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Partial Reinforcement
Schedules
• Fixed Ratio
– Reinforce fixed number of correct responses

• Fixed Interval
– Reinforce at fixed time intervals

• Variable Ratio
– Reinforce unpredictable, changing number of correct responses

• Variable Interval
– Reinforce at unpredictable, changing time intervals

Schedules and Extinction

• Partial reinforcement
extinction effect
– Partial reinforcement makes behaviors
resistant to extinction
• Superstitious behavior
• Gambling

• Choose reinforcement
schedule based on
– Time behavior needs to last
– Time available for training

Why do people play/gamble?

• Fortnite/Candy Crush – “Lose by a little, win by a lot”

• Variable ratios schedules of reinforcement?

• Partial reinforcement extinction effect?
• Individual differences?

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Fortnite Tactics: Sniper or Soldier?

• “Passive” play (sniper) –
– Variable schedule of reinforcement: occasional Royale
– Causes fixed behavior, but little learning

• “Active” play (soldier) –

– Shaping: More deaths, but behavior shaped through
experience
– Flexible behavior and greater learning

reddit.com/r/FortNiteBR/comments/99uqs1/some_fortnite_psychology_why_some_will_always/

Positive reinforcement
Punishment

Summary?…
• Operant conditioning
– Compared to classical conditioning
• Reinforcement and Punishment
– Types and Schedules
• Shaping

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Next Lecture: Genes, Environment and Behaviour

– Question: What should we do with serial killers?

– See http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-31714853

Remember:
Feel free to ask questions
now by coming to the
– The End front!

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