Operant Conditioning

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Operant Conditioning

• Catherine Jaquith

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Operant Conditioning

• Learning based on the consequences of responding
• Basic principle acts that are reinforced tend to
  be repeated

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Thorndikes Puzzle-Box

• A puzzle-box is a small cage that can be opened
  from the inside by a simple act (pressing a
  lever, etc.)
• Placed cats in the box while they were hungry,
  and food right outside the box.
• Eventually random movements would cause the cat
  to push the lever and open the box

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Thorndikes Puzzle-Box

• After 20-30 trials, the cat would trip the latch
  to freedom (and food!) almost as soon as it was
  placed in the puzzle-box.
• The puzzle-box experiments led to the formation
  of the law of effect.

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Thorndikes Law of Effect

• Responses that produce a satisfying effect in a
  particular situation become more likely to occur
  again in that situation
• Responses that produce a discomforting effect
  become less likely to occur again in that
  situation

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B.F. Skinner

• Use the conditioning chamber to study operant
  conditioning
• Conditioning chamber is a box with a bar that can
  be pushed for food or water.
• The reinforcement occurs after the behavior

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Important Concepts

• Response-contingent reinforcement reinforcement
  given only when a particular response is made
• Operant conditioning works best when a correct
  response is immediately rewarded.
• Response chaining the assembly of separate
  responses into a series of actions that lead to
  reinforcement

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More terms

• Shaping gradually molding responses to a final
  desired pattern
• Successive approximations a series of steps or
  ever-closer matches to a desired response pattern

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And more terms

• Operant extinction the weakening or
  disappearance of a non-reinforced operant
  response
• Negative reinforcement occurs when a response
  is followed by an end to discomfort or by the
  removal of an unpleasant stimuli
• Positive reinforcement occurs when a response
  is followed by a reward or other positive event

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Punishment

• Any event that follows a response and decreases
  its likelihood of occurring again
• Difference between punishment and negative
  reinforcement is that negative reinforcement
  increases responding, not decreases

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• How do parents often misuse operant conditioning
  while raising their children?