Operant Conditioning
A Skinner’s type of learning
Meaning of operant conditioning
Skinner’s box/maze
Laws of learning
Introduction
 Skinner is an influential and radical American
behaviorist.
 He believes that:
 mind is irrelevant in understanding the learning
process.
 Behavior is the result of association between
stimulus and response but the association between
response and consequence is more important.
Meaning: Operant Conditioning is the use of pleasant
and unpleasant consequences to change behavior.
Meaning of Operant Conditioning
 Consequence is the result of operant behavior
operating in the environment without using an
unconditioned stimulus such as food. In operant
conditioning, the learner controls his initial
behavior unlike classical conditioning by which the
UCR is automatic,.
 The stimulus events follow rather than precedes
the behavior.
Skinner’s experiment
• Skinner was usually using rats or pigeons. In one of
his experiments he used a box or maze containing a
simple apparatus.
• An apparatus consisted of a bar which is easy for the
rat to press and a food dispenser. The dispenser
contained a pellet of food.
• The apparatus was set up so that when the rat
happened to press a bar it would receive a pellet of
food.
 After few accidental bar pressing, the rat could
start pressing the bar frequently receiving food
each time.
 Wondering aimlessly in the box decreased.
 The rat’s behavior of bar pressing has been
conditioned and was strengthened by the pellet
of food the (the consequence).
In the experiment:
 food is a consequence,
 bar pressing is response,
 continuous bar pressing is the new behavior
which has been conditioned
 Stimulus: Anything in the environment that
stimulates action (iron bar)
 Response: Action stimulated by some conditions in
the environment (bar pressing).
 Consequence: condition that follows a behavior and
affects the frequency of future behavior.
 Rein-forcer: pleasurable consequence that
maintains or increases the occurrence of behavior
(food) .
 Punishment: unpleasurable consequence that
follows the response and stops the initiated behavior.
Laws of learning
 Law of reinforcement
 Law of punishment
 Laws of generalization, discrimination and
extinction
 Premack’s principle
Law of reinforcement: any behavior contingently
followed by a pleasant consequence is likely to occur
again in the same way.
Types of rein-forcers; primary and secondary reinforcers
 Primary rein-forcer: A consequence that satisfies
human needs and important for physical survival; food,
security, attachment, water
Secondary rein-forcer: their value as rein-forcers are
gained through association with primary rein-forcers.
Three kinds of secondary rein-forcers:
1. Social: praise, attention, smile, hugs, relationship
2. Activity: games, fun activities, change from regular
procedures.
3. Symbolic (token): material things-prizes, grades,
marks, money
Rein-forcers can also be categorized into positive and
negative rein-forcers.
Positive rein-forcer: a pleasant stimulus that when
added increases the likelihood of the repetition of the
response.
Examples of positive rein-forcers
 Approval in speaking
 Immediate feedback
 Teacher attention and support
 Good grades and valuing students’ work
 Knowledge of the accomplishment of work
 Peer approval
 Giving tokens
Negative rein-forcer: an unpleasant stimulus that
when is removed in the situation, increases the
probability that the desired response will occur.
Example: a teacher says to the student who is
interruptive in class, ‘if you do it this again you will
spend the whole day outside the class’.
 Being interruptive (undesired behavior); spending
outside the class is unpleasant stimulus.
 The student will want to avoid spending outside the
class (unpleasant stimulus), so will behave acceptably
(being not interruptive).
 It is a situation to be avoided and in so doing the
desired behavior occurs.
 It should not be overused
Punishment
Law of punishment: an unpleasant or painful
consequence that stops or reduces the occurrence
of initiated behavior.
Punishment may be painful physically or/and
psychologically.
Punishment may be:
1. Denying or removing pleasant stimulus
2. Giving unpleasant stimulus

 An ‘unpleasant stimulus’ becomes a punishment only
when it stops unwanted behavior.
 Punishment should not be overused, used frequently
or too painful.
 It must be the last resort, first use positive reinforcer, then negative rein-forcer and lastly
punishment
 Law of extinction: If a learnt behavior is no longer
followed by a rein-forcer, it will stop.
 To extinguish the unwanted behavior, study and
identify the rein-forcer that stimulates the behavior.
Then remove the rein-forcer.
 Premack principle: If the less desired activity is
linked with more desired activity, the organism will
likely develop desire with the previously less desired
activity.
 Law of discrimination: An organism is more likely
to respond to reinforced activities rather than nonreinforced activities.
 Children will like the more reinforced subjects than
the less reinforced subjects, more reinforcing
materials than non-reinforcing materials.
 Stimulus generalization: An organism responds
to reinforced and non-reinforced responses alike.
 It is either due to inability to distinguish between
reinforced and non-reinforced, or because the
stimuli share the same function or they have the
same physical features.
 In school, response to physics may be the same as
Math subject, just because they share the same
features; may the teacher of both subjects is fair.
 Response to one book may be generalized with
another book just because they have been written by
the same author.
Conclusion
Important to note on Operant conditioning:
 It is a bit higher level of learning than classical
conditioning.
 The learner is active. Whatever learnt, the learner
must be involved in doing.
 It is appropriate in learning skills and behavior.
 It is also intensified by inner drives or needs.
 It may be ‘temporary’ once you stop giving a reinforcer, the behavior may stop.
 Is intensified by immediacy of consequences.
 It is more controlled by the trainer and the
environment has an upper hand in determining
behavior.
 There is no learner’s judgment and choice
 Situations where classical and operant conditioning are
applied:
 In school
 In classroom
 In organizations and institutions
 In sports grounds
Application in school
In school it is applied in:
 Behavior therapy
 Dealing with disruptive behavior
 Shaping behavior
 Behavior modification
 Programmed learning
Testing questions
Radical behaviorists like Skinner and Watson believe that:
A. Behavior is shaped by both environment and the individual person
B. Behavior of the learner is controlled by the external environment
C. Punishment is more effective in changing behavior than reinforcement
D. Individual’s person behavior changes as a result of thinking
In classical conditioning, learning occurs through association between:
A. Consequence and response
B. Neutral stimulus and unconditioned stimulus
C. Neutral stimulus and conditioned stimulus
D. Consequence and neutral stimulus
In Pavlov’s experiment of salivating dog, the new behavior is:
A. Dog’s salivation in response to the presentation of meat
powder
B. Lack of response when the bell was rung
C. Experimenter’s salivation by the sight of meat
D. Dog salivation in response to the sound of a bell
The rat response in Skinner’s box is indicated by:
A. Aimless movement in the box
B. The iron bar
C. Pressing the iron bar
D. Food pellet