Skinner's Operant Conditioning

Final Exam

Operant Behavior:

Behavior that operates on the enviornment

Law of effect:

for E.L. Thorndike, principle that behavior is determined by its consequences. In operant conditioning, the principle that a behavior becomes more probable when it is followed by a positive reinforcer and less probable when it is followed by a punisher

Skinner is famous for using a _______

“Skinner Box”, a box designed to have rats press a level for food

Scientific Behaviorism:

According to Skinner, a behaviorist analyses the events in the environment, past or current, that help produce the behavior. Skinner believes to understand behavior one must perform a functional analysis.

Functional analysis of behavior:

identifying the environmental conditions that determines if
behavior occurs or does not occur. States that behavior is caused by the operation of environmental factors.

Skinner believed we are ultimately 

conditioned by external events. That everything we do is caused by the enviornment.

Criticism regarding Skinner’s theory:

• research performed on lower animals

• human enviornment cannot be so easily manipulated that of animals

• he sought to manipulate people without them being aware of it

• he set himself up as an arbiter of good and evil

The study of personality:

involves the discovery of the unique set of relationships between behavior of an organism and its reinforcing or punishing consequences

Ivan Pavlov developed the concept of

classical conditioning and B. F. Skinner developed the
concept of operant conditioning.

Classical conditioning involves

learning by association(connections) but operant conditioning involves learning by reinforcement (rewards) and punishment

Operant conditioning:

he establishment of an
association between behavior and its
consequences.
The occurrence of behavior is made more or less
probable by reinforcements or punishments
which make it more or less likely that the
behavior will occur again.

3- term contingency:

refers to the three important components in an operant-conditioning contingency

Contingency:

a rule stating that some events will occur if and only if another events occurs (ill only do this under these circustances)

the three-term contingency involves:

1. The environmental (situational) event in which a response (behavior) occurs. The event that precedes the behavior.
2. The behavior itself.
3. The environmental stimuli (consequences) that follow the behavior.

Discrimination:

responding differently in the presence of certain stimuli (in some situations)
and not in others.

When some behavior is rewarded or punished in one situation yet not in another.

(kid throwing tantrum in public with friends vs at home)- Discrimination is an act

Stimulus contro;l

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