Reinforcement learning Subject

One of the most popular tests used to measure anxiety in animals are operant conflict tests. The word operant means that the subject, whether animal or human, must perform some task to bring about a specific result. In this kind of test, something that the animal likes or needs (such as food or water) is used as positive reinforcement to teach the animal to perform a task. For example, a rat might learn that pressing a lever brings the delivery of a food pellet. In this case, pressing the lever is the operant behavior and the food pellet is... 

Special effort has been made to appeal to students natural curiosity and to help them explore the various facets of the exciting subject area of heat transfer. The enthusiastic response we received from the users of prior editions— from small colleges to large universities all over the world—indicates that our objectives have largely been achieved. It is our philosophy that the best way to learn is by practice. Therefore, special effort is made throughout the book to reinforce material that was presented earlier. 

This result illustrates the difference between a learned response and a conscious one. H. M. learned to respond to n-butanol—had I not asked for his judgment after each presentation, he would not have evinced a consistent behavioral pattern. Had I not told him whether he was right or wrong after each time he responded, he would have answered essentially at random, as I discovered in a separate set of trials. The same is true of normosmic subjects, because the odorant is so highly diluted that reinforcement greatly increases their d values. However, H. M. lacks the ability to rec-... 

---