What Is Skinner's Operant Conditioning?

Operant conditioning is a learned response based on experience and expectations of results or consequences. Scientists use operant conditioning teach laboratory animals to complete mazes and perform simple tasks. Psychologist B. F. Skinner first used the term to describe his experiments with rats. Skinner described four types of conditioning, or learned behavior, based on the expected result of an action or ceasing a behavior. Operant conditioning is evident human behavior.

Positive Reinforcement

• Positive reinforcement can be demonstrated by placing a hungry rat in a box with a lever. When the rat pushes the lever, it receives a food pellet. The rat will learn that if it touches the lever, it receives food and will begin to intentionally push the lever. The same type of positive reinforcement is employed in human interactions to encourage a desired behavior. Students receive good grades for studying hard and passing tests, and hard-working employees are promoted and receive pay raises.

Negative Reinforcement

• Skinner demonstrated negative reinforcement by shocking a rat. He placed the rat in a box and subjected it to a mild electrical shock. When the rat pushed a lever, the electrical shock stopped. The rat pushed the lever to stop the negative stimulus. Extreme examples of negative reinforcement in human interactions are the use of coercion, such as a straight jacket on an agitated person, and enhanced interrogation techniques. The unpleasant stimulus is stopped when the person responds in the desired manner by calming down or by giving information.

Punishment

• Rats that receive an electrical shock when they push a lever will soon stop pushing the lever. Punishment in human interaction is evident in the use of unpleasant or painful stimuli to discourage undesirable behavior. Employees who do not perform are not promoted, do not receive pay raises and may be terminated. Students are punished with poor grades when they do not do their homework. Fines are imposed for traffic violations as punishment to discourage dangerous driving habits.

Extinction

• Extinction occurs when a subject receives no response. Skinner's rats that learned to push a lever to receive food were then placed in a box with a lever, but nothing happened when they pushed it. After a while, the rats stopped pushing the lever because the expected result did not occur after repeated attempts. Extinction of learned behavior can be observed in human behavior, such as when parents stop responding to a child's tantrums and ignore the behavior. Tantrums become shorter and less frequent, eventually stopping completely.