Operant Conditioning and Skinner's Method

1. Operant conditioning is a type of behavioral learning developed by made famous by psychoanalysis B.F. Skinner in the late 1930’s. Operant conditioning is the act of learned behavior through consequences. Types of operant conditioning are positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment.

We can find examples of operant conditioning at work all around us. Consider the case of children completing homework to earn a reward from a parent or teacher, or employees finishing projects to receive praise or promotions.

Skinner’s reinforcement experiments conducted on rats showed the principles of operant conditioning. While working with rats, Skinner would place them in a Skinner box with a lever attached to a feeding tube. After multiple trials, rats learned the connection between the lever and food, and started to spend more time in the box procuring food than performing any other action. He used positive reinforcement, and negative reinforcement to produce or inhibit specific target behaviors. Therefore, if a specific behavior is reinforced then the probability of that behavior occurring again is increased. Based on Skinner’s view, this theory can be applied to learning because learning is nothing more than a change in behavior. Operant conditioning encourages positive reinforcement, which can be applied in the classroom environment to get the good behavior you want and need from students. One of the ways of reinforcing a student’s behavior is through praise. Also teachers can build operant conditioning techniques into their lesson plans to teach children possible skills as well as good behaviors. For example: to give a smiley face, or motivational stamps to encourage children to perform correctly and encourage them to repeat such action again.

In this paper there will be an examination of the Operant Conditioning theory. It will describe the theory, and compare and contrast the positive and negative reinforcement. It will determine which form of reinforcement is the most effective, and will give an explanation of the reasoning behind that choice. It will also give a scenario in which operant conditioning is applied and how it shapes behavior. It will show a schedule that could be used in the reinforcement of the selected behavior in the scenario.

Operant conditioning is a theory that was pioneered by Skinner, and it is a theory that is based on the type of consequence that is given following a particular behaviour. Skinner divided the consequences of actions into three groups, positive rein forcers, negative reinforcers and punishers. Skinner looked at what would happen to behaviour if giving positive reinforcers at different intervals. Most professionals and practitioners will use this theory in one way or another such as giving rewards for good behaviour or sanctions for bad behaviour so the theory is well used in today’s frameworks and practices.

Operant conditioning refers to the method of learning to occur through rewards and punishment for behavior (Staddon & Cerutti 2002). In the operant condition, an association occurs between the behavior and the consequences of the behavior. Behaviorist B.F Skinner coined operant conditioning, and that is why some refer to it as Skinnerian conditioning. Skinner started studying operant conditioning in the late 1920s when he was a graduate student at Harvard University. As a behaviorist B.F Skinner believes that it was obligatory to look at the internal thoughts and motivation so as to explain behavior (Staddon & Cerutti 2002). As an alternative, he did suggest that we should look only at the external and observable causes of human behavior. The characteristics of operant conditioning are that an organism may emit a particular response instead of just eliciting the response because of the external stimulus. Skinner did use the term operant in referring to any active behavior that operates on the environment so as to generate consequences (Doyle-Portillo & Pastorino 2013).

Operant conditioning is a theory put forward by Thorndike. This theory waits for a desired behaviour to occur and then rewards it. It builds somewhat on the work done by Watson regarding trial and error learning. Perhaps the most prominent or influential behaviourist work is that done by Skinner. Skinner adopted an operant approach to behaviourism and famously conducted experiment using rats in specially designed boxes. Skinner’s ideas revolved around the presence of a reinforcer to cause a desired behaviour to be repeated. This could be in the form of a primary reinforcer (a basic need like food) or a secondary reinforcer (such as money or praise). In the case of his rats, Skinner effectively trained them to pull certain levers to release food. Initially, the release was accidental but after a while, the rats learned to associate the arrival of food with the pressing of a lever. Skinners work revolved heavily around the need for reinforcement, reward, punishment and feedback. The scheduling and delivery of these things was also important to Skinner who suggested the timing of something like a reward was paramount to its success at brining about long term changes in behaviour. Similarly, he suggested giving punishment should occur immediately after the event in question and in a consistent manner. Also, it was skinner who introduced the concept of successive approximations – small

Operant conditioning has made a significant contribution into the development of psychology. However, as with most psychological theories, this theory it has its strengths and weaknesses. Nevertheless, operant conditioning, with both its positive and negative aspects, is very important in promoting learning of desirable behaviors or removal of undesirable

Burrhus Frederic (B.F.) Skinner was born on March 20, 1904. Skinner lived 86 years passing away on August 18, 1990. He was born in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania to William and Grace Skinner. His father was a lawyer, while his mother stayed home to care for Skinner and his younger brother. Skinner being 18 lost his 16-year-old brother of a cerebral hemorrhage. At a young age, Skinner showed an interest in building different gadgets and contraptions.

Operant conditioning can occur in a setting with children, especially in a school setting where there is an abundance of operant conditioning taking place. In the school setting, I have witnessed many instances of operant conditioning learning. For example, many schools have a positive reinforcement program (PBIS), and also have a behavior management plan. These are prime examples of operant conditioning learning.

Skinner’s theory of operant conditioning (McLeod, 2016). B.F. Skinner’s theory of operant conditioning hypothesized that behavior was a result of reinforcement (Hutchison, 2008). If the child received rewards as a result of the behavior, the child became more likely to repeat the behavior (McLeod, 2016). Reinforcements can be external or internal, and positive or negative (McLeod, 2016). An example of operant conditioning from The Taming of the Shrew was how Katherine learned that arguing with Petruchio meant that he would mistreat her.

Parenting children, raising them to be strong, honest, independent adults who we brag to our friends about requires training. As we mold our children’s behavior, we aren’t simply teaching them how to eat, maintain personal hygiene, how to become good students, or even the careers they pursue, we are molding their value systems. And all of this behavioral molding depends on operant conditioning, a system of operant and reinforcement first proposed by B.F. Skinner, a behaviorist and the Father of Operant Conditioning. Operant conditioning can be defined as learning based on the consequences of responding (Coon & Mitterer, 2010).

Operant conditioning is one’s attempt to modify behaviors which are generally voluntary in nature and can be maintained by consequences/responses as opposed to classic conditioning that can deal with the conditioning of the automatic/reflexive behavior which are not maintained by consequences. Operate conditioning can be a method of learning that can occur through rewards and also punishments for behavior in other words it is a type of learning in which an individual’s behavior may change in form, frequency, or strength. Conditioning one may attempt to reach their goal and keep the process going even after the goal has been met. We see that with positive reinforcement an outcome can be strengthened by getting a praise or direct reward. By measuring progress we can make sure that the goal

Operant conditioning is a type of learning which occurs through either receiving reinforcement or punishment for a behavior. This type of learning creates an association between a behavior and consequence for that behavior. The four types of operant conditioning are positive reinforcement, positive punishment, negative reinforcement, and negative punishment. If operant conditioning was used properly it could be used to solve a variety of social and resource dilemmas; especially in the case of the cattle ranchers and overgrazing.

Skinner believed that classical conditioning was limited to behaviors that are reflexively elicited. An operant describes behaviors that are "operate upon the environment to generate consequences." Reinforcement follows an operant and increases the likelihood of the operant being repeated.