Operant Conditioning
Operant Conditioning
Psychologist define learning as the process of acquiring new and relatively enduring information or behaviors. (Myers and Dewall, 2015, pg. 280) Some ways we have come to learn our information throughout the years is known as operant conditioning. Operant conditioning which is defined as a behavior that operates on the environment producing consequences (Myers and Dewall, 2015, pg. 281) in a simpler term, this mean we learn our behaviors by associating them with consequences. Because of this we tend to repeat actions with a positive outcome rather than those actions followed by a negative result. Operant condition is a very important concept in psychology, throughout this paper you will see just how important it really is.
Historical Basis
The theory of operant conditioning was developed by BF Skinner. Skinner believe that the best way to understand our behavior was to look at the consequences, the term operant conditioning came about when skinner decided that this was a way of thinking that changed our behavior by the use of either positive or negative reinforcement. The theory of operant conditioning was based off the work of Edward Thorndike who studied learning in animals by using what is known as a puzzle box to propose a theory known as the law of effects. BF Skinner took the puzzle box one step further and created the Skinner box which was used on animals to conduct experiments to prove the operant conditioning in animals.
Main Concept
Skinner identified reinforcement as an event that strengthens the behavior that follows. The two types of reinforcement he identified were positive reinforcements, which is known as something that comes with a rewards or a praise. Skinner negative reinforcement which involves an unpleasant outcome. Punishment also play an important role in the operant conditioning process. According to Skinner, punishment is the application of an adverse outcome that decreases or weakens the behavior it follows. To get more in to depth there are four different types of operant conditioning which include positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment. Positive reinforcement is when a positive behavior is followed by a positive stimulus, making the behavior more likely to happen in the future. Or when a certain behavior is the result of something pleasant after a behavior. Negative reinforcement occurs when negative behavior is followed by a certain stimulus that is taken away after a bad behavior. This also increases the result of removing something that is unpleasant. Positive punishment is when a negative consequence comes after an unpleasant behavior, making the behavior less likely to happen in the future. Negative punishment happens when a stimulus is removed after a particular bad behavior is found, which results in the behavior happening less often in the upcoming future.
When Skinner accidentally running out of rat food in one of his experiments he discovered another effects of operant conditioning, which was schedules of reinforcements. Reinforcement is a process that increases the frequency of a targeted behavior by either using a negative stimulus or a positive stimulus. There are four different types, continuous, fixed ratio, fixed interval, and variable schedules. To get a better understanding of each of these you need to know when that occur, continuous reinforcement occurs after every behavior, while fixed ratio reinforcement occurs every certain amount of times. Fixed interval schedules is a reinforcement
That happens within a specific about of time. The last type is variable schedules, which is a number of required behavior that have to happen in order to receive a reinforcement, but the reward will be different every time.
Applying Operant Conditioning
An example of applying operant conditioning would be one of my own experiences, while working at a summer camp we are expected to take care of the children and to teach them how to solve problems. When working out situation with the children, we would reinforce their answers by using what we called the Oreo effect. The Oreo effect is when you praise the child for doing something they did well, correcting what they did wrong and then praising them for doing something well again. This would reinforce that the child understood what we wanted them to fix but it would also make them feel important because we were paying attention to what they were doing. For example, if we were teaching the kids to build a fire, we would encourage them to build a good structure and collect the appropriate materials. We would then praise them for doing so, but then proceed to explain to them what they needed to do better. A few days later we would then give