EDF5684 Concepts and Principles of Learning
The Complete Study & Assessment Guide · S2 2026EDF5684 Overview
- Monash University
- S2 2026
- 12 chapters
- Education
Concepts and Principles of Learning develops the functional vocabulary used to analyse how behaviour changes through interaction with the environment. The opening chapters separate respondent behaviour, which is elicited through stimulus relations, from operant behaviour, which is emitted and selected by consequences.
- Assessed by 1 - Quiz / Test 40% · 2 - Artefact 60% · Hurdle Requirement — Hurdle Requirement is a hurdle
- Key terms Respondent Conditioning, Operant Conditioning, Positive Reinforcement, Negative Reinforcement
- Assessment move Use retrieval and contrast rather than rereading.
- Most asked What should I do about the hurdle requirement?
What you get in the full EDF5684 Study & Assessment Guide
- 12 chapters, 54 pages — every assessed topic, week by week
- 33 original practice questions, each with a model answer
- 12 worked examples, solved the way EDF5684 marks
- 15 computed figures, redrawn from the course’s own numbers
- Before-you-submit checklist for the 2 - Artefact (60%) — what markers reward, what costs marks
Free on this page: assessment table, chapter map, one worked example, key terms, FAQ. The rest is in the full study & assessment guide.
How EDF5684 is assessed
| Component | Weight | Format |
|---|---|---|
| 1 - Quiz / Test | 40% | Two online multiple-choice tests worth 20% each. Each test has 20 questions, one attempt and a 60-minute limit. Test 1 covers Weeks 1 to 6; Test 2 covers Weeks 7 to 12. |
| 2 - Artefact | 60% | Conditional Discrimination Training Project presented as a lesson plan and corresponding data sheet, including tests of emergent stimulus relations. |
| Hurdle Requirement · hurdle | Moodle labels a Week 13 hurdle due 13 November 2026. The captured activity does not state the completion condition, so consult the current Moodle activity. |
What other students are asking about EDF5684
- Where can I find lecture notes or study guides for EDF5684 at Monash?
- The EDF5684 study guide in AskSia Library covers Concepts and Principles of Learning in 12 chapters, with the assessment table, a chapter-by-chapter topic map, key terms and a worked example, free to read on this page.
- Is there a final exam in EDF5684?
- No final exam is listed in the offering this AskSia Library guide is built from; EDF5684 is assessed by 1 - Quiz / Test 40%, 2 - Artefact 60%.
- What does EDF5684 cover on operant conditioning?
- In AskSia Library's EDF5684 guide, the Operant Conditioning chapter explains week 2: selection by consequences, reinforcement, punishment, learning history and rule-governed behaviour.
- What does EDF5684 cover on positive reinforcement?
- In AskSia Library's EDF5684 guide, the Positive Reinforcement chapter explains week 3: functional verification, sources of reinforcement, learned reinforcers, Premack and response deprivation.
- What does EDF5684 cover on negative reinforcement?
- In AskSia Library's EDF5684 guide, the Negative Reinforcement chapter explains week 4: escape, avoidance, stimulus removal and the boundary with punishment.
Current EDF5684 dates
| Date | Item | Control |
|---|---|---|
| 11 September 2026 at 11:55 PM | Multi-Choice Test 1 closes | 20% test covering Weeks 1 to 6. |
| 30 October 2026 at 11:55 PM | Multi-Choice Test 2 closes | 20% test covering Weeks 7 to 12. |
| 30 October 2026 at 11:55 PM | Teaching project due | 60% conditional discrimination artefact. |
| 13 November 2026 | Overall hurdle due | Consult the live Week 13 activity for the completion condition. |
Dates come from the Semester 2 2026 Moodle assessment and Week 13 activity pages. Confirm exact deadlines and submission settings in the live LMS.
What EDF5684 covers
Follow the unit from respondent and operant learning through consequence principles, motivation, stimulus control and derived relations, then connect those ideas in an original teaching plan.
Respondent Conditioning
Week 1: behavioural events, reflexes, stimulus pairing, discrimination, generalisation, blocking and overshadowing.Respondent conditioning explains how a previously neutral stimulus can acquire the ability to elicit a reflexive response through repeated pairing with an unconditioned stimulus.
- Antecedents, responses and consequences as observable events
- Stimuli, responses and their functional classes
- Unconditioned stimuli and unconditioned responses
- Neutral stimuli becoming conditioned stimuli through pairing
- Conditioned responses and respondent extinction
- Discrimination, generalisation, blocking and overshadowing
Operant Conditioning
Week 2: selection by consequences, reinforcement, punishment, learning history and rule-governed behaviour.Operant conditioning analyses emitted behaviour through the consequences that select it over time.
- Emitted operant behaviour and selection by consequences
- Antecedent, response and consequence in the three-term contingency
- Reinforcement and punishment defined by future behaviour
- Positive and negative as addition and removal
- Phylogeny, ontogeny and individual learning history
- Contingency-shaped and rule-governed behaviour
Positive Reinforcement
Week 3: functional verification, sources of reinforcement, learned reinforcers, Premack and response deprivation.Positive reinforcement occurs when a stimulus is presented after a response and that response becomes more likely in the future.
- Positive reinforcement as stimulus presentation plus response increase
- Automaticity and functional verification of reinforcement
- Automatic and socially mediated reinforcement
- Unconditioned, conditioned and generalised reinforcers
- The Premack principle and high-probability behaviour
- Response deprivation and current access conditions
Negative Reinforcement
Week 4: escape, avoidance, stimulus removal and the boundary with punishment.Negative reinforcement strengthens behaviour because a response removes, reduces, prevents or postpones an aversive event. This chapter separates escape from avoidance and keeps stimulus removal distinct from punishment.
- Negative reinforcement as removal plus future increase
- Escape from an event already present
- Avoidance that prevents or postpones an event
- The boundary between negative reinforcement and punishment
- Observable events instead of inferred relief
- Motivation, stimulus signals and the removal consequence
Schedules of Reinforcement
Week 5: continuous and intermittent reinforcement, ratio and interval schedules, fixed and variable patterns.Schedules of reinforcement specify which responses contact reinforcement.
- Continuous reinforcement during initial acquisition
- Intermittent reinforcement and schedule thinning
- Fixed and variable ratio requirements
- Fixed and variable interval requirements
- Post-reinforcement pauses, steady rates and scallops
- Compound schedules and signalled components
Punishment
Week 6: positive and negative punishment, functional evidence, side effects and alternative skill building.Punishment is defined by a decrease in future behaviour, not by discomfort, anger or corrective intention.
- Punishment as a future decrease in defined behaviour
- Positive punishment through stimulus presentation
- Negative punishment through stimulus removal
- Unconditioned and conditioned punishers
- Function, intention and operational response definitions
- Side effects, safeguards and alternative skill teaching
Motivating Operations
Week 7: value-altering and behaviour-altering effects, establishing and abolishing operations, and stimulus boundaries.Motivating operations change both the current effectiveness of a consequence and behaviour that has previously produced that consequence.
- Motivating operations and their two defining effects
- Establishing and abolishing effects on reinforcer value
- Evocative and abative effects on current behaviour
- Unconditioned and conditioned motivating operations
- Motivating operations versus discriminative stimuli
- Value, availability and delivery within one contingency
Stimulus Control and Discrimination
Week 8: discriminative stimuli, simple and conditional discrimination, prompts, fading and generalisation.Stimulus control is demonstrated when responding changes systematically across antecedent conditions because of a reinforcement history.
- Stimulus control measured through differential responding
- Discriminative stimuli and S-delta conditions
- Simple and conditional discriminations
- Match-to-sample samples and comparison arrays
- Response prompts and stimulus prompts
- Prompt fading, transfer, discrimination and generalisation
Stimulus Equivalence
Week 9: match-to-sample teaching, trained relations, reflexivity, symmetry, transitivity and emergent tests.Stimulus equivalence is demonstrated when trained conditional discriminations support untrained relational responding with reflexive, symmetrical and transitive properties.
- Match-to-sample teaching and baseline relations
- Trained relations versus untrained tests
- Reflexivity through identity matching
- Symmetry through reversal of trained relations
- Transitivity through combined trained links
- Neutral tests, rotated positions and trial-level data
Derived Stimulus Relations
Week 10: relational responding, mutual and combinatorial entailment, and transformation of function.Derived stimulus relations extend generative learning beyond sameness. This chapter introduces arbitrary applicable relational responding, mutual entailment, combinatorial entailment and transformation of function.
- Equivalence and non-equivalence relations
- Arbitrary applicable relational responding
- Contextual control of the relevant relation
- Mutual entailment and reciprocal relational terms
- Combinatorial entailment across linked relations
- Transformation of function through relational networks
Extinction
Week 11: functional extinction, maintaining consequences, bursts, recovery, resistance and ethical safeguards.Extinction withholds the specific reinforcer that previously maintained a response.
- Extinction as withholding a maintaining reinforcer
- Procedural ignoring versus functional extinction
- Attention, escape and automatic reinforcement functions
- Extinction bursts and response variability
- Spontaneous recovery and resistance to extinction
- Alternative reinforcement, safeguards and social validity
Differential Reinforcement
Week 12: DRA, DRI, DRO, DRH and DRL selected from replacement, absence and rate goals.Differential reinforcement strengthens a selected response pattern while other responding does not contact reinforcement.
- Differential reinforcement as selective consequence delivery
- DRA for a specified alternative response
- DRI for a physically incompatible response
- DRO for intervals without the target response
- DRH and DRL for higher and lower response rates
- Function-matched alternatives, schedule competition and data
The unit then develops the consequence principles in detail: positive and negative reinforcement, schedules of reinforcement, and positive and negative punishment. Throughout these topics, everyday labels are deliberately replaced with observable relations. A stimulus is not a reinforcer because it looks pleasant, and a consequence is not punishment because someone intended it to be corrective.
The later change in a defined response supplies the functional evidence.
The second half adds the antecedent and relational systems needed for instructional design. Motivating operations change the value of consequences and current related behaviour; discriminative stimuli signal when a response has contacted reinforcement.
Stimulus-control teaching uses prompts and systematic fading to transfer responding to natural cues. Match-to-sample procedures establish conditional discriminations, after which reflexive, symmetrical and transitive relations can be tested. Derived relational responding extends this logic beyond sameness to comparison, opposition, hierarchy and other contextually controlled relations.
Extinction and differential reinforcement then bring the earlier principles together in response-reduction and skill-building decisions.
The published assessment structure rewards both fast classification and connected procedural reasoning. Two online multiple-choice tests cover the two six-week blocks.
The larger artefact asks for an original conditional-discrimination lesson plan, detailed tests of emergent relations and a corresponding data sheet. This guide therefore uses original cases to practise precise boundaries, then carries the same concepts into a complete teaching-plan audit. It does not reproduce question-bank stems or the unit's lesson-plan examples.
Worked example · free
Audit a conditional discrimination teaching trial
- +1List the planned prompt sizes from the printed rule: 30, 25, 20, 15 and 10 mm.
- +1Confirm the decrement at each transition: every step reduces size by exactly 5 mm.
- +1Identify 10 mm as the natural stimulus size, so performance at earlier sizes remains prompted.
- +1Use the mastery check exactly as written: at least 8 correct independent responses across 9 trials before fading again.
- +1Record correct independent, correct prompted, incorrect independent and incorrect prompted responses separately.
- +1Conclude that prompt size, response code and mastery decision must appear consistently in the method and data sheet.
Key terms
- Respondent Conditioning
- A learning process in which a previously neutral stimulus acquires the ability to elicit a reflexive response through stimulus pairing.
- Operant Conditioning
- A learning process in which consequences change the future probability of emitted behaviour under similar conditions.
- Positive Reinforcement
- The presentation of a stimulus after a response that increases the future frequency of that response.
- Negative Reinforcement
- The removal, reduction, prevention or postponement of a stimulus after a response that increases that response.
- Punishment
- A consequence process that decreases the future frequency of a defined response.
- Motivating Operation
- An antecedent condition that alters reinforcer effectiveness and current behaviour that has produced that reinforcer.
- Discriminative Stimulus
- An antecedent stimulus that signals a response has contacted reinforcement in its presence.
- Conditional Discrimination
- A discrimination in which the function of one stimulus depends on another stimulus present on the trial.
- Stimulus Equivalence
- A pattern of relational responding demonstrated through reflexive, symmetrical and transitive properties among stimuli.
- Mutual Entailment
- A derived relation in one direction that follows from a trained relation in the other direction.
- Functional Extinction
- Withholding the specific reinforcer that previously maintained a response.
- Differential Reinforcement
- Reinforcing a selected response, absence interval or rate while other responding does not contact reinforcement.
EDF5684 FAQ
How difficult is this unit?
The difficulty comes from closely related terms whose everyday meanings are misleading. The unit materials expect definitions, examples and contrasts, then require those concepts to align inside a practical teaching plan. Revision is more effective when you classify new scenarios and justify the functional relation than when you reread term lists.
How is the unit assessed?
The published structure has a 40% Quiz / Test component and a 60% Artefact component. The quiz component contains two online multiple-choice tests worth 20% each. The artefact is the Conditional Discrimination Training Project, presented as a lesson plan with emergent-relation tests and a matching data sheet.
What is the format of each online test?
Each test contains 20 multiple-choice questions, permits one attempt and allows 60 minutes. Test 1 covers content from Weeks 1 to 6, while Test 2 covers Weeks 7 to 12. Questions are drawn randomly from a larger bank, so practise concept boundaries across unfamiliar examples.
What does the teaching project require?
The project requires an original match-to-sample teaching plan for conditional discriminations. It must describe materials, setup, the discriminative stimulus, correct response, prompts and fading, reinforcement, error correction, data collection and mastery, followed by procedures that test reflexivity, symmetry and transitivity.
What should I do about the hurdle requirement?
The captured Moodle structure labels a Week 13 hurdle due on 13 November 2026, while the handbook assessment rows do not attach a hurdle to either weighted task. The captured Week 13 page does not include the completion condition. Read the current Moodle activity and complete the stated requirement there.
How should I revise across the semester?
Build a two-column error log. In the first column, write the term you chose; in the second, write the environmental relation that actually decides the answer. Revisit any item where the label was right for the wrong reason. For project topics, draw trained and tested arrows before writing procedures.
Can I reuse a lesson-plan example from the materials?
Use the unit examples to understand procedure shape, but build original stimuli and wording for your submission. The task asks for an original teaching plan. Check the current task instructions and the responsible-use statement, disclose permitted assistance, and verify every technical decision against the unit materials.
Questions students ask in each EDF5684 chapter
- How do respondent and operant behaviour differ?
- Respondent behaviour is elicited as a reflex by antecedent stimuli, while operant behaviour is emitted and changes as a function of its consequences. Both may have events before the response, so the response class and learning history, rather than timing alone, decide the analysis. Chapter 01 · Respondent Conditioning
- Why is intention not enough to identify reinforcement?
- Reinforcement is defined by a later increase in a response, not by a person's intention to reward it. A consequence can be offered as reinforcement and fail to increase behaviour. State the stimulus change and the measured future effect before applying the functional label. Chapter 02 · Operant Conditioning
- Why is a reward not automatically a reinforcer?
- Reward is an everyday label based on intention or appearance. A reinforcer is defined functionally: it follows a response and increases that response in the future. If the target response stays stable or decreases, the offered item did not function as positive reinforcement in that arrangement. Chapter 03 · Positive Reinforcement
- Why is negative reinforcement not punishment?
- Negative reinforcement removes, reduces, prevents or postpones a stimulus and the response increases later. Punishment requires a later decrease in the response. The word negative describes removal only, so it cannot determine whether the process strengthens or weakens behaviour. Chapter 04 · Negative Reinforcement
- What is the fastest way to identify a schedule?
- Ask whether reinforcement depends on response count or on the first response after time. Then ask whether that count or time remains constant or changes. This two-question method identifies the four basic intermittent schedules without relying on familiar examples. Chapter 05 · Schedules of Reinforcement
- Why is a warning not automatically punishment?
- Warning is an everyday name for a consequence. Positive punishment is established only if the warning is added after a defined response and that response decreases later. Without future response data, the intended function remains unverified. Chapter 06 · Punishment
- What are the two effects of a motivating operation?
- The value-altering effect changes how effective a consequence is as a reinforcer. The behaviour-altering effect changes current responding that has previously produced that consequence. A complete MO analysis names both effects and the relevant response history. Chapter 07 · Motivating Operations
- How does an SD differ from a conditioned stimulus?
- An SD sets the occasion for an emitted response because reinforcement has been available in its presence. A conditioned stimulus elicits a learned reflex through stimulus pairing. Both precede behaviour, so the response class and learning history decide the label. Chapter 08 · Stimulus Control and Discrimination
- Why must trained and tested relations stay separate?
- A relation demonstrates emergence only when it was not directly taught. If prompts, correction or differential feedback teach the test relation, correct performance can no longer show that the relation derived from the baseline training alone. Chapter 09 · Stimulus Equivalence
- How do non-equivalence relations differ from equivalence?
- Equivalence involves sameness, so reversing the relation preserves the term. Comparison and spatial relations require reciprocal terms: if A is larger than B, B is smaller than A. Their derived logic depends on direction and contextual cues. Chapter 10 · Derived Stimulus Relations
- Why is ignoring not always extinction?
- Ignoring changes social attention, but the response may be maintained by escape, an item or automatic consequences. Functional extinction must withhold the identified maintaining reinforcer. A visible procedure alone cannot establish that the relevant contingency changed. Chapter 11 · Extinction
- How do DRA and DRI differ?
- DRA reinforces a specified alternative response. DRI is narrower because the reinforced response must be physically incompatible with the target. Every incompatible response is an alternative, but an appropriate alternative can still co-occur with the target. Chapter 12 · Differential Reinforcement
How to prepare for the assessments
Use retrieval and contrast rather than rereading. For Weeks 1 to 6, make a four-cell consequence grid: stimulus added or removed against behaviour increased or decreased. Add respondent versus operant, escape versus avoidance, and ratio versus interval as separate comparison cards.
For Weeks 7 to 12, draw a three-column antecedent map for motivating operation, discriminative stimulus and consequence; then draw trained and tested relation arrows for equivalence and entailment. After each answer, write the decisive evidence clause. For the artefact, review horizontally across one trial: setup, sample, comparisons, instruction, response, prompt, consequence, correction and data code.
Review vertically across trials for position rotation, fading and mastery. Keep prompted and independent responses separate. In the final week, use the 35, 15 and 10 point marking allocation to budget review time, and consult the live Moodle activities for the overall completion requirement and submission details.
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