- Also called:
- instrumental conditioning or ontogenetic conditioning
- Key People:
- William K. Estes
operant conditioning
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What is operant conditioning?
Operant conditioning is a learning mechanism where behaviors become more or less likely based on their consequences. Voluntary behaviors are strengthened or weakened by either enhancers or suppressors, which can be positive (adding a stimulus) or negative (removing a stimulus).
Positive reinforcement adds a desired consequence, while negative reinforcement removes an undesired one. Positive punishment adds an undesired consequence, and negative punishment removes a desired one. When a behavior stops being rewarded, extinction occurs, reducing the behavior's frequency. This conditioning differs from classical conditioning, which involves involuntary responses.
Edward L. Thorndike's law of effect and B.F. Skinner's work formalized operant conditioning, demonstrating how consequences guide behavior. Applications range from animal training to psychotherapy.
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Who developed the theory of operant conditioning?
B.F. Skinner formalized operant conditioning, expanding on Edward L. Thorndike's law of effect, which stated that behaviors producing positive results tend to be repeated, while those with negative results are avoided. Skinner, a proponent of behaviorism, believed operant conditioning explained human behavior.
In the 1930s, Skinner introduced the Skinner box to study animal behavior in a controlled environment, using stimuli and rewards to elicit specific actions, like pressing a bar. His work emphasized reinforcement, where correct responses are rewarded to facilitate learning. Operant conditioning uses behavior enhancers to encourage desired actions and behavior suppressors to discourage undesired actions.
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How does operant conditioning work to change behavior?
Operant conditioning, formalized by B.F. Skinner, changes behavior through consequences. It uses behavior enhancers to encourage desired actions and behavior suppressors to discourage undesired ones.
Both enhancers and suppressors can be positive (adding a stimulus) or negative (removing a stimulus). Positive reinforcement adds a desired stimulus after a behavior, like giving a dog a treat for doing a trick. Negative reinforcement removes an aversive stimulus when a desired action is performed. Positive punishment adds an aversive stimulus when an undesired behavior occurs, while negative punishment removes a positive stimulus. Extinction occurs when a behavior is no longer rewarded, causing it to decrease over time.
Edward L. Thorndike's law of effect, which states that behaviors with positive results are repeated, while those with negative results are avoided, influenced operant conditioning.
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What is the difference between reinforcement and punishment in operant conditioning?
In operant conditioning, reinforcement and punishment are central to modifying behavior. Reinforcement enhances desired actions, while punishment suppresses undesired actions. Both can be positive or negative, where "positive" means adding a stimulus and "negative" means removing one.
Positive reinforcement involves giving a reward when a desired behavior occurs, such as a dog getting a treat for doing a trick. Negative reinforcement involves removing an unpleasant stimulus when a desired behavior occurs, like an alarm stopping when you get out of bed. Positive punishment involves introducing an unpleasant stimulus after an undesired behavior, such as students sitting next to the teacher for talking too much. Negative punishment means removing a pleasant stimulus after an undesired behavior, such as taking away driving privileges from a teen for bad behavior.
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What are some examples of positive and negative reinforcement?
In operant conditioning, positive and negative reinforcements encourage desired actions, while positive and negative punishment discourage undesired actions.
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Positive reinforcement involves adding a desired stimulus or reward after a behavior occurs. For instance, a dog receives a treat for performing a trick.
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Negative reinforcement involves removing an unpleasant stimulus when a desired behavior occurs. For example, a loud alarm motivates someone to get out of bed in the morning by stopping the irritating sound.
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How is operant conditioning used in everyday life or education?
Operant conditioning uses behavior enhancers and suppressors to encourage desired actions and discourage undesired ones. Positive reinforcement rewards desired behavior, like a dog getting a treat for doing a trick. Negative reinforcement removes aversive stimuli when a desired action occurs, such as using an alarm to wake someone up.
Positive punishment applies a negative stimulus when an undesired behavior occurs, such as students talking too much in class being required to sit next to the teacherās desk. Negative punishment removes a positive stimulus when an undesired behavior occurs, such as teenagers losing driving privileges for bad behavior. Extinction happens when a behavior is no longer rewarded, causing it to decline. These strategies apply to animal training, pedagogy, parenting, and psychotherapy.
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operant conditioning, in psychology and the study of human and animal behaviour, a mechanism of learning through which humans and animals come to perform or to avoid performing certain behaviours in response to the presence or absence of certain environmental stimuli. The behaviours are voluntaryāthat is, the human or animal subjects decide whether to perform themāand reversibleāthat is, once a stimulus that results in a given behaviour is removed, the behaviour may disappear. Operant conditioning thus demonstrates that organisms may be guided by consequences, whether positive or negative, in the behaviours they produce.
Operant versus classical conditioning
Operant conditioning differs from classical conditioning, in which subjects produce involuntary and reflexive responses related to a biological stimulus and an associated neutral stimulus. For example, in experiments based on the work of the Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov (1849ā1936), dogs can be classically conditioned to salivate in response to a bell. Food is presented to a dog at the sounding of a bell, the dog salivates involuntarily in response to the food, and over time the animal comes to associate food with the bell ringing. Eventually, the dog salivates involuntarily in response to the ringing bell when food is not present.
Operant conditioning, in contrast, involves learning to do something to obtain or avoid a given result. For example, through operant conditioning a dog can be taught to offer a paw to receive a food treat. The main distinction between the two conditioning methods is thus the kind of reaction that results. Classical conditioning involves involuntary reactions to a stimulus, whereas operant conditioning involves a change in behaviour to either gain a reward or avoid punishment.
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History
The study of operant conditioning began with the work of the American psychologist Edward L. Thorndike (1874ā1949). In 1905 Thorndike formulated the law of effect, which states that, given a certain stimulus, animals repeat behavioral responses with positive (desired) results while avoiding behaviours with negative (unwanted) results.
The American psychologist B.F. Skinner (1904ā90) built on Thorndikeās law of effect and formalized the process of operant conditioning, which he understood to be the explanatory basis of human behaviour (see behaviourism). In the 1930s he invented the so-called Skinner box, a cage with a closely controlled environment that included no stimuli other than those under study. He placed animals such as rats or pigeons in the box and provided stimuli and rewards to elicit certain behaviours such as pressing a bar or pecking at a light.
Methods and applications
Operant conditioning is dependent upon behaviour enhancers and behaviour suppressors. Behaviour enhancers encourage a desired action, whereas behaviour suppressors discourage an undesired action. Both behaviour enhancers and behaviour suppressors can be either positive or negative. In this context, the terms positive and negative do not represent value judgments; they instead refer to stimuli that are added or present (positive) or removed or absent (negative). Thus, an enhancer may be the addition of a desired consequence or the removal of an undesired consequence, and a suppressor may be the addition of an undesired consequence or the removal of a desired consequence.
The notions of positive and negative enhancement or suppression inform five possible strategies for accomplishing operant conditioning. Positive reinforcement (enhancement) occurs when the subject receives a reward for a desired behaviour. An example is when a dog gets a treat for doing a trick. Negative reinforcement is the absence or removal of an annoying or harmful stimulus when a desired action is performed. An example is using a loud alarm as an incentive to get out of bed in the morning. Positive punishment (suppression) happens when a subject performs an undesired behaviour and receives a negative stimulus. Thus, students who talk too much in class may be required to sit next to the teacherās desk. Negative punishment occurs when a subject performs an undesired behaviour and a positive stimulus is removed. Thus, teenagers may be punished for bad behaviour by removal of their driving privileges.
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Extinction takes place when a behaviour is no longer rewarded, and its occurrences gradually decline in number until it is no longer performed. The subject may initially repeat the behaviour with greater frequency in an attempt to receive a reward, then perform it less frequently, and then eventually stop. For example, people who tell unwanted, off-colour jokes are more likely to stop their behaviour if they consistently receive no attention, positive or negative, after telling such a joke.
Another component of operant conditioning is the reinforcement schedule, of which there are two kinds. Interval schedules reward behaviour after a given amount of time has passed since the previous instance of the behaviour. Ratio schedules require the organism to complete a certain number of repetitions of the behaviour before receiving the reward.
Besides the study of human and animal motivations and behaviours, operant conditioning has many applications. It underlies techniques used in animal training, pedagogy, parenting, and psychotherapy.