Classical conditioning only applies to reflexive responses. B.F. Skinner studied how animals can learn from the consequences of their actions. Consequences can be classified as follows:

1. Positive Reinforcement:

   • This is when something ‘desirable’ is obtained in response to doing something. E.g giving a chocolate bar to a well-behaved child to encourage future good behaviour

   • Behaviour is encouraged by a positive stimulus being added

2. Negative Reinforcement:

   • This is when something ‘undesirable’ (the negative reinforcer) is removed when something happens. E.g being told by the teacher that you’ll have no extra homework if you pass your test

   • Behaviour is encouraged by a negative stimulus being added

Skinner (1938)- Rats showing operant conditioning:

Method:

• Skinner created a ‘Skinner box’, in which he placed one rat at a time

• Each Skinner box contained a variety of stimuli:

  • A speaker

  • Light

  • A floor which gave an electric shock and a food dispenser which released food when the lever was pressed

• A hungry rat was placed in the Skinner box

• The time taken for the rats to learn that pressing the lever would release food was recorded

Result:

• Initially, the rat would run around the cage until it accidentally pressed the lever and was rewarded with food

• The more the rat was put back into the box, the quicker they got at learning where the lever was

Conclusion:

• Rats can learn behaviours through operant conditioning

• A behaviour such as pressing a lever can be positively reinforced by receiving food

Evaluation:

• Skinner’s experiment has been hugely influential in promoting the idea of behavioural psychology

• However, his experiment did use animals, which means the results might not be generalisable to humans

• His sample size was also small, reducing the reliability of his friends

Skinner carried out other variations of his study to test negative reinforcement

E.g he showed that a rat could learn to prevent an electric shock by pressing the lever when a light came on

Watson and Rayner (1920)- Little Albert learned to fear

• Method: The participant was an 11-month-old boy called ‘Little Albert’. He showed no fear of white fluffy objects such as rats or rabbits. The researchers tried to create a conditioned response to these objects. A white rat was placed in front of Little Albert. As he reached out for it, a metal bar was struck loudly behind his head. This was repeated twice at first, then 5 more times a week later

• Results: When Little Albert was shown a rat, he would start to cry. This was extended to other fluffy objects, such as a white Santa Claus beard

• Conclusion: A fear response to white fluffy objects had been conditioned in Little Albert, showing that abnormal behaviour can be learned

• Evaluation: The experiment was very unethical- such an experiment couldn’t be repeated today. Not everyone goes on to develop a fear or phobia after a negative situation, so learning theory can’t be the full story. It was a laboratory study, so it lacked ecological validity as the situation was artificial. However, the results support Pavlov’s idea of classical conditioning