Operant Conditioning

B.F. skinner discovered Operant conditioning, which is often referred to as instrumental conditioning. You might also hear some call it Skinnerian conditioning for the fact that skinner coined the name. Operant conditioning is the method of learning that takes place through the rewards or punishments for a certain behavior. In this kind of conditioning, an association is made between a behavior and consequence followed. 

For instance, there is a lab rat in a cage and two buttons are installed, one is red and other is blue, for every time that rat presses the blue button he receives food, conversely, every time it presses the red button, receives a mild shock, after a few repeated actions, the rat finally learns to press the blue button for food and avoids the red button.

Behaviorism

By the end of the second half of 20th century, behaviorism had its roots embedded deeply with in the discipline of psychology. Behaviorism was a school of thought founded by John B. Watson. John B. Watson is more popular for his discovery and decades of study on classical conditioning. His infamous challenge to pick up any individual and train him to be anything to be anything he wants, regardless of his background, influences etc. further added to his popularity.

B.F. Skinner

While most of the behaviorists followed the footsteps of John B. Watson, B. F. Skinner was one who showed more inclination towards people’s actions and the consequences that followed a particular behavior, unlike others who focused on associative learning.

B.F. Skinner was a behaviorist who believed that the human behavior is not a result of, or cannot be explained by studying the internal thoughts and other mental processes. Like his fellow behaviorists he was also of the view we should focus on the external and observable factors that causes a human to elicit a certain behavior.

Let us put the skinner’s theory in simple words: Skinner wanted to explain how we attain a range of learned behaviors and we exhibit them in routine. A theory which had a greater influence from a work of a yet another famous psychologist Edward Thorndike who came up with Law of effect. According to this law of effect, actions are marked by followed consequences and those actions that could result in adverse outcomes are most likely to be avoided.

We probably got the point, operant conditioning relies on somewhat similar paradigm. Actions that are followed by reinforcement will be strengthened and more likely to occur again in the future.

Suppose, you wear a certain color tie to work, and gain a lot of complements, you are more likely to repeat wearing the same tie in future as well. On the contrary, if you got late to work and that resulted in a penalty or a punishment, you will try to come on time in office. So this behavior of coming late would become less likely to occur. Similarly, if you wear the same tie again and this time people do not notice even, you might not want to wear this tie too often anymore.

Respondent and Operant Behaviors

B.F. skinner, along with his other appreciable contributions to behaviorism, he also worked hard to distinguish between two kinds of behaviors:

Respondent Behavior

This kind of behavior occurs automatically, we can also categorize them as our reflex behaviors. For instance retreating your hands when your finger struck on a needle. The point is, such kinds of behaviors cannot be learnt, they simply occur involuntarily.

Operant Behavior

On the other hand, operant behavior are those that are under our conscious control. Such behaviors that might occur purposely or spontaneously, the consequences of which then further influence the chance of that behavior occurring again. This entire process makes up a significant part of a learning process in our lives.

Skinner was so inclined towards this research that he has also invented a few devices that he used to study operant conditioning. For example, he had created s little chamber  a device that he names operant conditioning chamber or also referred to as Skinner box. This chamber was a box that could house a small animal like a rat or a pigeon. He had installed a button inside that box, or often a bar, which that animal was supposed to press in order to get a reward in form of a treat or food. Skinner had developed a recording device known as Cumulative recorder to track the responses. This device recorded the responses in an upward movement of a line, so the slope of the line would tell or rate the response.

Components of Operant Conditioning

Operant conditioning is based on following components and concepts:

Reinforcement

[large]Reinforcement is what’s responsible for increasing or diminishing the strength of a behavior and its chances of future occurrences. This has two types:

• Positive reinforces are those favors or treats that come as a result of eliciting a particular behavior. In such situations where the behavior results in a positive outcome, the chances of the behavior to be repeated in strengthened. Such a behavior is more likely to be repeated.

• Negative reinforces, unlike the positive reinforces, are those events or outcomes that show up as a consequence of a certain behavior, these negative reinforces could be a punishment or a penalty, that might be said to occur if a certain behavior is not shown, so one might behave in a certain way so as to avoid occurrence of an unpleasant outcome.

Punishment

Punishment, on the other hand, is the presentation of an adverse event or outcome that causes a decrease in the behavior it follows. Punishment has two types:

• Positive Punishment: this is also known as punishment by application. This involves presentation of an unpleasant outcome followed by a certain behavior. This way the response it follows is weakened. 

• Negative Punishment: is also known as punishment by removal, this happens when a pleasant of desired outcome in removed after the occurrence of a behavior. 
In both of these cases of punishment, the behavior decreases.