Operant Conditioning Notes

B.F. Skinner

  • Founder of modern behavioral perspective.
  • Focused on how consequences influence behavior.
  • Best-known psychologist.

Operant Conditioning

  • Method of learning based on consequences (rewards and punishments).
  • Operant: Active behavior that operates on the environment to generate consequences.

Skinner Box

  • Chamber for small animals with a bar.
  • Pressing the bar results in a reward.

Edward Thorndike’s Law of Effect

  • Actions followed by desirable outcomes are repeated; undesirable outcomes are not.
  • Used puzzle boxes to study animal learning.

Shaping

  • Guiding behavior using successive approximations of the desired behavior.
  • Reward responses that get closer to the final behavior; ignore others.

Instinctive Drift

  • Animals revert to automatic behaviors that interfere with learned ones.

Reinforcement

  • Any event that strengthens/increases a behavior.

Primary Reinforcement

  • Fulfills a biological need (e.g., food, drink, shelter).

Secondary Reinforcement (Conditioned Reinforcers)

  • Learned through association with other reinforcing stimuli.

Positive (+) Reinforcement

  • Stimulus presented after a response that strengthens the behavior.
  • Example: Giving a bonus for good work.

Negative (-) Reinforcement

  • Strengthens behavior by removing an undesirable consequence.
  • Example: Drinking caffeine to avoid a withdrawal headache.

Punishing Stimulus (Punishment)

  • Adverse event that decreases the behavior it follows.
  • Timing of consequence must be close to the behavior.

Positive (+) Punishment

  • Presents an unfavorable event to weaken the response.
  • Example: Receiving a speeding ticket.

Negative (-) Punishment

  • Removes a favorable event to decrease behavior.
  • Example: Losing cellphone privileges.

Learned Helplessness

  • Organisms learn they have no control over negative consequences.

Learned Superstition

  • Consequences reinforce unrelated behaviors.

Reinforcement Discrimination

  • Ability to distinguish situations where reinforcement will or will not occur.

Reinforcement Generalization

  • Spread of reinforcement effects to related behaviors/situations.