Operant Conditioning & Skinner's Research

What is operant conditioning?

A type of learning where behaviour is acquired and maintained based on its consequences.

What does reinforcement do in operant conditioning?

It increases the likelihood of the observed behaviour being repeated.

What is a punishment and what does it do in operant conditioning?

It’s an unpleasant consequence of behaviour, and it decreases the likelihood of the observed behaviour being repeated. A type of

• e.g. being told off by the teacher or not being allowed to attend a party

What are the two types of reinforcement?

1. Positive reinforcement

2. Negative reinforcement

What is positive reinforcement?

When we carry out a behaviour to receive positive consequences (a reward).

• E.g. completing homework to receive praise from a teacher

What is negative reinforcement?

When we carry out a behaviour to avoid negative consequences (behaviour is followed by the removal of an unpleasant consequence so it’s more likely to be repeated).

• E.g. completing homework to avoid being given a detention

What did B.F. Skinner (1953) suggest?

He suggested that learning is an active process whereby humans and animals operate upon their environment (hence, ‘operant conditioning’)

What were the three types of operant Skinner identified?

1. Neutral operants - Environmental forces that neither increase nor decrease the repetition of a specific behaviour

2. Reinforcers - Environment forces that increase the repetition of a specific behaviour; positive - a behaviour which is repeated to enjoy the pleasant consequence, negative - a behaviour which is repeated to avoid unpleasant consequences

3. Punishers - Environmental forces that decrease the repetition of specific behaviour

What did Skinner do to determine how animals learn from consequences of their actions?

He set up a series of experiments, dependent upon the specific operants he implemented.

• He devised a box known as the ‘Skinner Box’

How did Skinner devise the ‘Skinner Box’?

• Skinner placed one rat at a time inside the box

• Each box contained different stimuli, including a lever that released food (the rat's reward) and an electroplated floor (the rat's punishment)

How was positive reinforcement done in Skinner’s Box?

It was demonstrated by placing a hungry rat in the box.

• The box contained a lever which the rat (initially) accidentally triggered as it explored the box

• Upon triggering the lever a food pellet was delivered (reward)

• The rats quickly learned (it only took them a few tries) to go straight to the lever

• The consequence/reward (food) of pressing the lever saw them repeating the action over and over again

How was negative reinforcement done in Skinner’s Box?

It was demonstrated by placing a rat in the box and then subjecting it to an unpleasant electric shock (punishment).

• The rat (initially) accidentally triggered the lever as it explored the box

• Upon triggering the lever, the electric current was switched off (unpleasant sensations stopped)

• The rats quickly learned to trigger the lever immediately as soon as they were placed in the box

• The consequence/reward of escaping the electric shock saw them repeating the action over and over again

What are the strengths of Operant Conditioning & Skinner's Research?

Based on well-controlled research

• Behaviourists focused on the measurement of observable behaviour within highly controlled settings, possible extraneous variables were removed, allowing a cause and effect relationship to be established. This suggests that behaviourist experiments have scientific credibility

The principles of conditioning have been applied to real-world behaviours and problems

• For example, phobias are though to be a learned response, so treatments such as systematic desensitisation were developed, which aims to recondition fear through reinforcement.

• Token economy systems (a method of behaviour modification - desirable behaviours are reinforced with tokens, which can later be exchanged for rewards/privileges) have also been used in institutions such as prisons and psychiatric wards to reinforce appropriate behaviour, increasing the value of the behaviour approach due to its widespread application

What are the weaknesses of Operant Conditioning & Skinner's Research?

It doesn’t explain why some people repeat behaviours which are damaging, detrimental or unpleasant

• People who self-harm may do so for the specific relief it brings them, but such behaviours would not be recognised as positive reinforces by operant conditioning

Skinner’s research is overly simplistic - environmentally deterministic (the idea that people are at the mercy of their environment and are controlled by external factors such as experiences, rewards, punishments and conditioning rather than by free will)

• Skinner argued that when we do something and think “I made the decision to do that”, behaviour is actually shaped entirely by our past reinforcement history. This ignores free will and conscious decision-making, as emphasised by the cognitive approach, limiting its ability to explain complex human behaviour

What is a counterpoint related to how operant conditioning was researched?

Behaviourists may have oversimplified learning by explaining behaviour only in terms of stimulus–response links. This ignores the role of human thought, such as thinking, memory, and decision-making. Other approaches, such as Social Learning Theory and the cognitive approach, suggest that learning involves mental processes as well as observable behaviour.