Operant Conditioning

What is Operant Conditioning?

Operant conditioning, which is also known as instrumental conditioning, is a method of learning that heavily relies on reward and punishment. Reward is used to increase the likelihood of the reoccurrence of behaviour, whereas punishment is used to decrease it.

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Origin of Operant Conditioning

The concept of operant conditioning is based on Thorndike’s Law of Effect, where he coined this term after learning that animals are able to learn through trial and error.

Thorndike’s Puzzle Box (Thorndike’s Cat)

Thorndike studied animal learning using his cat and set up his experiment with a puzzle box as shown as below:

He placed the cat in the puzzle box, observed 👀 and recorded 📝 the time taken for the cat to escape from the puzzle box. Once the cat has successfully escaped, he will then place the cat back in the same box and rerun the experiment until the time taken ⏳ for the cat to escape has reached its optimal point 💯.

When the cat is placed in the box, it would eventually stumble upon the lever which will lead to opening the door that allows it to escape. Once the cat has learned that the lever is the way to open the door, it would wander less and trigger the lever faster.

As triggering the lever would lead to a favourable outcome 😄 which are door opening and receiving food. On the other hand, wandering around did not produce any favourable outcomes☹️, therefore the frequency of triggering the lever would increase while the frequency of wandering around would decrease. Thorndike coined this phenomenon as the 💡‘Law of Effect’💡.

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Skinner developed operant conditioning, or sometimes also be referred to as ‘Skinnerian Conditioning’, which is heavily based on Thorndike’s Law of Effect. Similar to the Law of Effect, this principle suggests that a behaviour that is accompanied by favourable/pleasant consequences is likely to reoccur in the future, whereas behaviour which is followed by an unfavourable/unpleasant outcome or punishment is not likely to reoccur in the future.

What differentiates operant conditioning and the law of effect is the shaping of the behaviour.

In operant conditioning, ‘reinforcement’ aims to strengthen the behaviour and increase its likelihood of reoccurrence; whereas ‘punishment’ aims to weaken or extinguish the behaviour and decrease its likelihood of reoccurrence.

Types of Operant Conditioning

1. Positive reinforcement

-Something is added to increase the likelihood of behaviour.-

Example:
Child A receives praise from surrounding people and rewards from parents after studying hard and scoring full marks in the final exam. Hence in the future, he is more likely to study hard for exams again.

The received praises and rewards would act as a reinforcer, where it increases the likelihood of studying hard (reinforced behaviour) in the future.

2. Negative reinforcement

-Something is removed to increase the likelihood of behaviour.-

Example:

Child B does not like to attend tuition classes but also dislikes to study and hence, resulting in poor exam performance. When he was given the option to not have to go to tuition classes anymore if he scores well in his exam, he would study harder in order to not attend tuition classes.

In this case, ‘study hard’ is the targeted behaviour that is desired to be reinforced. By adding the option ‘attending tuition classes’, it acts as a negative reinforcer to reinforce the ‘study hard’ behaviour.

3. Positive punishment

-Something is added to decrease the likelihood of behaviour.-

Example:

Child C did not hand in his homework in time and gets scolded in front of his classmates. In the future, he does not want to re-experience getting scolded, hence he will hand in his homework in time.

The behaviour of ‘not handing in homework in time’ is the targeted behaviour to be decreased, and the scolding acts as a positive punisher to decrease the behaviour.

4. Negative punishment

-Something is removed to decrease the likelihood of behaviour.-

Example: 

Child D gets hooked up on video games and constantly neglecting his homework. Hence, his parents confiscated his game console until he had finished his homework.

The confiscation of the game consoles would act as a negative punisher to decrease the behaviour of ‘neglecting homework’.

Reference/Resources:

1. What Is Operant Conditioning and How Does It Work? (verywellmind.com)
2. What Cats Taught Thorndike About Learning