Understanding Operant Conditioning and Its Principles

Operant Conditioning

Operant Conditioning

A type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher.

Respondent Behavior

Behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus; Skinner's term for behavior learned through classical conditioning.

Operant Behavior

Behavior that operates on the environment, producing consequences.

Law of Effect

Thorndike's principle that behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely, and behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences become less likely.

Operant Chamber (Skinner Box)

In operant conditioning research, a chamber containing a bar or key that an animal can manipulate to obtain a food or water reinforcer; attached devices record the animal's rate of bar pressing or key pecking.

Shaping

An operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior.

Successive Approximations

Small steps in behavior, one after the other, that lead to a particular goal behavior.

Reinforcer

In operant conditioning, any event that strengthens the behavior it follows.

Positive Reinforcement

Increasing behaviors by presenting positive stimuli, such as food. A positive reinforcer is any stimulus that, when presented after a response, strengthens the response.

Negative Reinforcement

Increasing behaviors by stopping or reducing negative stimuli, such as shock. A negative reinforcer is any stimulus that, when removed after a response, strengthens the response. (Note: Negative reinforcement is not punishment.)

Primary Reinforcers

An innately reinforcing stimulus, such as one that satisfies a biological need.

Conditioned Reinforcers

A stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer; also known as a secondary reinforcer.

Continuous Reinforcement

Reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs.

Partial (Intermittent) Reinforcement

Reinforcing a response only part of the time; results in slower acquisition of a response but much greater resistance to extinction than does continuous reinforcement.

Fixed-Ratio Schedule

In operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses.

Variable-Ratio Schedule

In operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses.

Punishment

An event that decreases the behavior that it follows.