Operant Conditioning Essay

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Operant Conditioning Operant conditioning is a way of learning that happens through rewards and punishments for an individual’s behavior. Operant conditioning provides the association that is made between a behavior and a consequence that the individual is given for that behavior. Burrhus Frederic Skinner is one of the best known social philosophers for his invention of the operant conditioning chamber and his research on the subject. Theory Edward Thorndike had created the “puzzle box” for his theory but following him was Skinner with his “Skinner box”. Mcleod (2007), “[Skinner is regarded as the father of Operant Conditioning, but his work was based on Thorndike’s law of effect. Skinner introduced a new term into the Law of Effect - Reinforcement. Behavior which is reinforced tends to be repeated (i.e. strengthened); behavior which is not reinforced tends to die out-or be extinguished (i.e. weakened). Skinner studied operant conditioning by conducting experiments using animals which he placed in a “Skinner Box” which was similar to Thorndike’s puzzle box. BF Skinner coined the term operant conditioning; it means roughly changing of behavior by the use of reinforcement which is given after the desired response. Skinner identified three types of responses or operant that can follow behavior]” (Skinner: Operant Conditioning, para.2). Three responses the Skinner found were neutral operants, reinforces, and punishers. Neutral operants are the response from the environment that can either increase or decrease the chance of the behavior repeating. Reinforces is the response from the environment as well that increases the chance of the behavior repeating positively or negatively. Punishers are the response from the environment that decreases the chance of a behavior being repeated and weakens the behavior. Positive and Negative Reinforcements There are two main

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