Operant Conditioning
Take out your notebook please!
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
Stimulus → Response
Involuntary
John B. Watson
OPERANT CONDITIONING
Response → Stimulus
Voluntary
B.F. Skinner
Operant Conditioning
Everything we do is to
receive a reward or
avoid a punishment.
Operant Conditioning Vocab
• Reinforcement – something that follows a
response and strengthens the tendency to
repeat that response
Big Bang Theory
SeaWorld trainers use operant conditioning
techniques to train marine mammals.
• When an animal performs a
particular behavior and the
consequences of that behavior are
in some ways reinforcing to that
animal, the animal is likely to repeat
that behavior.
• For instance, if a whale splashes its
trainer, : the trainer becomes wet,
then of several consequences may
follow, trainer jumps backward, the
crowd cheers, etc. If any of these
consequences is reinforcing to the
whale, the whale is likely to repeat
the splashing behavior.
http://videos.howstuffworks.com/animalplanet/37897-most-outrageous-killer-whale-trainingvideo.htm
• While watching
the video list
behaviors you
observe and the
reward the whale
receives.
Behavior
Reward
Two Types of Rewards Rewards
1.) I will buy you lunch – your choice!
2.) You and the whole class get free sodas!
3.) I will give you 20 dollars!
4.) I will give you 20 extra credit points!
Primary and Secondary
1.) I will buy you lunch – your choice!
2.) You and the whole class get free sodas!
3.) I will give you 20 dollars!
4.) I will give you 20 extra credit points!
Operant Conditioning Vocab
• Primary Reinforcement – something
necessary for psychological or physical survival
that is used as a reward
• Secondary Reinforcement – anything that
comes to represent a primary reinforcer, such
as money
We see operant conditioning a lot in
parenting…
Good Grades
Rewarded
Tantrums
Punished
Rewards and Punishments
Punishment
Decrease a behavior
by following it with
unpleasant
consequences
Positive
Reinforcement
Negative
Reinforcement
Increase a behavior
by giving a reward,
something pleasant
Increase a behavior
by removing
something
unpleasant
What have you done recently that
was positively reinforced,
negatively reinforced, or punished?
Try to find an example for each.
Write
Positive Reinforcement =
Negative Reinforcement/punishment =
Physical Therapy
• Watch the video:
• What type of reinforcement is being
used?
• Is it successful?
Operant Conditioning in Physical
Therapy
Today’s Summative
• Using the three types of Operant
Conditioning, prove what you learned
today. Give examples.
• Use Pen. Turn in today.
• There are three ways Operant Conditioning
can be achieved. The first is……
• Operant Conditioning can be learned using
three types of reinforcement. The first is…..