By the s, John B. Watson had left academic psychology, and other behaviorists were becoming influential, proposing new forms of learning other than classical conditioning. Perhaps the most important of these was Burrhus Frederic Skinner. Although, for obvious reasons, he is more commonly known as B. Skinner's views were slightly less extreme than those of Watson Skinner believed that we do have such a thing as a mind, but that it is simply more productive to study observable behavior rather than internal mental events.
The work of Skinner was rooted in a view that classical conditioning was far too simplistic to be a complete explanation of complex human behavior. He believed that the best way to understand behavior is to look at the causes of an action and its consequences. He called this approach operant conditioning. According to this principle, behavior that is followed by pleasant consequences is likely to be repeated, and behavior followed by unpleasant consequences is less likely to be repeated. Skinner introduced a new term into the Law of Effect - Reinforcement.
A Skinner box, also known as an operant conditioning chamber, is a device used to objectively record an animal's behavior in a compressed time frame.
An animal can be rewarded or punished for engaging in certain behaviors, such as lever pressing for rats or key pecking for pigeons. Reinforcers can be either positive or negative. Punishment weakens behavior. We can all think of examples of how our own behavior has been affected by reinforcers and punishers. As a child you probably tried out a number of behaviors and learned from their consequences.
For example, if when you were younger you tried smoking at school, and the chief consequence was that you got in with the crowd you always wanted to hang out with, you would have been positively reinforced i.
If, however, the main consequence was that you were caught, caned, suspended from school and your parents became involved you would most certainly have been punished, and you would consequently be much less likely to smoke now. Positive reinforcement is a term described by B. Skinner in his theory of operant conditioning.
In positive reinforcement, a response or behavior is strengthened by rewards, leading to the repetition of desired behavior. The reward is a reinforcing stimulus. Skinner showed how positive reinforcement worked by placing a hungry rat in his Skinner box. The box contained a lever on the side, and as the rat moved about the box, it would accidentally knock the lever.
Immediately it did so a food pellet would drop into a container next to the lever. The rats quickly learned to go straight to the lever after a few times of being put in the box.
The consequence of receiving food if they pressed the lever ensured that they would repeat the action again and again. Positive reinforcement strengthens a behavior by providing a consequence an individual finds rewarding.
Negative reinforcement is the termination of an unpleasant state following a response. Negative reinforcement strengthens behavior because it stops or removes an unpleasant experience. Skinner showed how negative reinforcement worked by placing a rat in his Skinner box and then subjecting it to an unpleasant electric current which caused it some discomfort.
As the rat moved about the box it would accidentally knock the lever. Immediately it did so the electric current would be switched off. The consequence of escaping the electric current ensured that they would repeat the action again and again. For example, a child may be told they will lose recess privileges if they talk out of turn in class.
This potential for punishment may lead to a decrease in disruptive behaviors. While behaviorism may have lost much of the dominance it held during the early part of the 20th century, operant conditioning remains an important and often used tool in the learning and behavior modification process. Sometimes natural consequences lead to changes in our behavior. In other instances, rewards and punishments may be consciously doled out in order to create a change.
Operant conditioning is something you may immediately recognize in your own life, whether it is in your approach to teaching your children good behavior or in training the family dog. Remember that any type of learning takes time. Consider the type of reinforcement or punishment that may work best for your unique situation and assess which type of reinforcement schedule might lead to the best results.
Ever wonder what your personality type means? Sign up to find out more in our Healthy Mind newsletter. Operant conditioning. Annu Rev Psychol. Rilling M. How the challenge of explaining learning influenced the origins and development of John B.
Watson's behaviorism. Am J Psychol. Evidence for a neural law of effect. Progressive ratio schedules of reinforcement. Your Privacy Rights. To change or withdraw your consent choices for VerywellMind. At any time, you can update your settings through the "EU Privacy" link at the bottom of any page. These choices will be signaled globally to our partners and will not affect browsing data. We and our partners process data to: Actively scan device characteristics for identification.
I Accept Show Purposes. Table of Contents View All. Table of Contents. Behavior Types. Once the association between behavior and consequences is established, the response is reinforced, and the association holds the sole responsibility for the occurrence of that behavior. Thorndike posited that learning was merely a change in behavior as a result of a consequence, and that if an action brought a reward, it was stamped into the mind and available for recall later.
From a young age, we learn which actions are beneficial and which are detrimental through a trial and error process. For example, a young child is playing with her friend on the playground and playfully pushes her friend off the swingset. Her friend falls to the ground and begins to cry, and then refuses to play with her for the rest of the day.
The law of effect has been expanded to various forms of behavior modification. Because the law of effect is a key component of behaviorism, it does not include any reference to unobservable or internal states; instead, it relies solely on what can be observed in human behavior. While this theory does not account for the entirety of human behavior, it has been applied to nearly every sector of human life, but particularly in education and psychology. Skinner was a behavioral psychologist who expanded the field by defining and elaborating on operant conditioning.
Research regarding this principle of learning was first conducted by Edward L. Thorndike in the late s, then brought to popularity by B. Skinner in the mids. Much of this research informs current practices in human behavior and interaction. Skinner theorized that if a behavior is followed by reinforcement, that behavior is more likely to be repeated, but if it is followed by some sort of aversive stimuli or punishment, it is less likely to be repeated.
He also believed that this learned association could end, or become extinct, if the reinforcement or punishment was removed. Skinner : Skinner was responsible for defining the segment of behaviorism known as operant conditioning—a process by which an organism learns from its physical environment.
In his first work with rats, Skinner would place the rats in a Skinner box with a lever attached to a feeding tube. Whenever a rat pressed the lever, food would be released.
After the experience of multiple trials, the rats learned the association between the lever and food and began to spend more of their time in the box procuring food than performing any other action.
It was through this early work that Skinner started to understand the effects of behavioral contingencies on actions. He discovered that the rate of response—as well as changes in response features—depended on what occurred after the behavior was performed, not before. Skinner named these actions operant behaviors because they operated on the environment to produce an outcome. The process by which one could arrange the contingencies of reinforcement responsible for producing a certain behavior then came to be called operant conditioning.
In this way, he discerned that the pigeon had fabricated a causal relationship between its actions and the presentation of reward. In his operant conditioning experiments, Skinner often used an approach called shaping.
Instead of rewarding only the target, or desired, behavior, the process of shaping involves the reinforcement of successive approximations of the target behavior. Behavioral approximations are behaviors that, over time, grow increasingly closer to the actual desired response. Skinner believed that all behavior is predetermined by past and present events in the objective world. He did not include room in his research for ideas such as free will or individual choice; instead, he posited that all behavior could be explained using learned, physical aspects of the world, including life history and evolution.
His work remains extremely influential in the fields of psychology, behaviorism, and education. Shaping is a method of operant conditioning by which successive approximations of a target behavior are reinforced. In his operant-conditioning experiments, Skinner often used an approach called shaping. The method requires that the subject perform behaviors that at first merely resemble the target behavior; through reinforcement, these behaviors are gradually changed, or shaped , to encourage the performance of the target behavior itself.
Shaping is useful because it is often unlikely that an organism will display anything but the simplest of behaviors spontaneously. It is a very useful tool for training animals, such as dogs, to perform difficult tasks. Dog show : Dog training often uses the shaping method of operant conditioning. In shaping, behaviors are broken down into many small, achievable steps.
To test this method, B. Skinner performed shaping experiments on rats, which he placed in an apparatus known as a Skinner box that monitored their behaviors.
The target behavior for the rat was to press a lever that would release food. They see their parents resort to spanking when they become angry and frustrated, so, in turn, they may act out this same behavior when they become angry and frustrated.
While positive punishment can be effective in some cases, Skinner suggested that the use of punishment should be weighed against the possible negative effects. Make sure you understand the distinction between negative reinforcement and punishment in the following video:.
Still confused? Watch the following short clip for another example and explanation of positive and negative reinforcement as well as positive and negative punishment. In his operant conditioning experiments, Skinner often used an approach called shaping. Instead of rewarding only the target behavior, in shaping , we reward successive approximations of a target behavior. Why is shaping needed?
Remember that in order for reinforcement to work, the organism must first display the behavior. Shaping is needed because it is extremely unlikely that an organism will display anything but the simplest of behaviors spontaneously. In shaping, behaviors are broken down into many small, achievable steps.
The specific steps used in the process are the following: Reinforce any response that resembles the desired behavior. Then reinforce the response that more closely resembles the desired behavior. You will no longer reinforce the previously reinforced response. Next, begin to reinforce the response that even more closely resembles the desired behavior. Continue to reinforce closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior.
Finally, only reinforce the desired behavior. Shaping is often used in teaching a complex behavior or chain of behaviors. Skinner used shaping to teach pigeons not only such relatively simple behaviors as pecking a disk in a Skinner box, but also many unusual and entertaining behaviors, such as turning in circles, walking in figure eights, and even playing ping pong; the technique is commonly used by animal trainers today.
An important part of shaping is stimulus discrimination. This discrimination is also important in operant conditioning and in shaping behavior. They use shaping to help him master steps toward the goal. Instead of performing the entire task, they set up these steps and reinforce each step. First, he cleans up one toy. Second, he cleans up five toys. Third, he chooses whether to pick up ten toys or put his books and clothes away. Fourth, he cleans up everything except two toys.
Finally, he cleans his entire room. Rewards such as stickers, praise, money, toys, and more can be used to reinforce learning. How did the rats learn to press the lever in the Skinner box? They were rewarded with food each time they pressed the lever. For animals, food would be an obvious reinforcer.
What would be a good reinforce for humans? For your daughter Sydney, it was the promise of a toy if she cleaned her room. How about Joaquin, the soccer player? If you gave Joaquin a piece of candy every time he made a goal, you would be using a primary reinforcer. Primary reinforcers are reinforcers that have innate reinforcing qualities. These kinds of reinforcers are not learned. Water, food, sleep, shelter, sex, and touch, among others, are primary reinforcers.
Pleasure is also a primary reinforcer. Organisms do not lose their drive for these things. For most people, jumping in a cool lake on a very hot day would be reinforcing and the cool lake would be innately reinforcing—the water would cool the person off a physical need , as well as provide pleasure. A secondary reinforcer has no inherent value and only has reinforcing qualities when linked with a primary reinforcer. Another example, money, is only worth something when you can use it to buy other things—either things that satisfy basic needs food, water, shelter—all primary reinforcers or other secondary reinforcers.
If you were on a remote island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and you had stacks of money, the money would not be useful if you could not spend it.
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