Operant conditioning is a method of learning whereby behaviors are strengthened through positive reinforcement or weakened through punishment. B.F. Skinner experimented with rats in a box and found that they learned to press a lever to receive food (positive reinforcement) or avoid electric shocks (negative reinforcement). His work built upon Edward Thorndike's law of effect. Operant conditioning explains how behaviors are acquired and modified through reinforcement and punishment schedules in the environment. However, it has limitations as it does not account for cognition or genetics.

1. Operant
Conditioning
Hadley D’Souza

2. A Daily phenomenon
• One of the two most common ways of learning
new things
• Learning= acquiring new behaviours
• Operant also known Instrumental- Rewards
(reinforcements) , Punishments.
• Skinner and Thorndike.

3. Origin
• Burrhus Frederic Skinner (B.F. Skinner)-
regarded as Father of Operant Conditioning.
• However, his work was based on Edward
Thorndike’s ‘Law of Effect’
• Thorndike- believed- the pleasure
(reinforcement) or discomfort (punishment)
caused by a stimulus can either strengthen or
weaken a particular behaviour.

4. Skinner Box

5. Reinforcement: Positive
• Skinner placed hungry rat in box
• Rat would keep moving around searching for
food
• By chance, it would press the lever and food
would appear in the container.
• Consequently, rat learnt to press the lever
directly to obtain food

6. • Here the rat learns (acquires) a particular
beahviour (pressing the lever) in order to
obtain the reinforcement (food pellets)
• This is positive reinforcement: behavior
strengthened

7. Negative
• Skinner would subject-rat to mild electric
shock
• Rat would run around the box
• Eventually press a lever by chance
• This lever stops the current
• The rat learns to immediately go to the lever to
stop the current

8. • Here rat learns to engage in certain behaviour
to stop the painful stimulus.
• This is negative reinforcement.
• >Behaviour that is learnt by receiving
something pleasant- Positive Reinforcement
• >Behaviour that is learnt by removing
something unpleasant- Negative
Reinforcement.

9. 2 more Phenomenon
• 1: escape learning: the rats learnt to
straightaway head for the lever to escape the
current.
• 2: avoidance learning: Skinner started turning
on a light before giving the current. The rats
learnt to associate the light to the current- rats
went to the lever simply at the sight of the light
to avoid the current completely.

10. Punishment: Positive
• Rat has learnt to press lever by reinforcement.
• But now, If rat is given a shock for pressing
the lever- rat will learn to stop doing it-
behaviour weakened.
• Giving something unpleasant to weaken the
behaviour is Punishment (positive)

11. Negative
• Suppose the rat is given food regularly, but not
if it presses the lever: It stops pressing lever.
• If something pleasant is taken away, it leads to
weakening of behaviour.
• Giving unpleasant stimulus- Positive
Reinforcement.
• Taking away a pleasant stimulus- Negative
Reinforcement.

12. Reinforcement vs. Punishment
• Anything that strengthens behaviour- reinforcement
• > positive reinforcement is where a reward is given to
strengthen behaviour
• > negative reinforcement is where a painful stimulus is
removed to strengthen behaviour
• Anything that weakens a behaviour- punishment
• > positive punishment is where a punishment is given
to weaken behaviour.
• > negative punishment is where something pleasant is
taken away to weaken behaviour.

13. • PR- pleasant stimulus given [more pocket
money]
• NR- unpleasant stimulus removed [seminar
topic reduced]
• Both will strengthen behaviour
• PP- Unpleasant stimulus given [extra seminar]
• NP- pleasant stimulus removed [pocket money
taken away]
• Both will weaken behaviour

14. Other concepts:
• Shaping: developing a behaviour using
reinforcements and punishments- from simpler to
more complex tasks. [ex; training a dog]
• Extinction: stopping punishments and
reinforcements-> behaviour will have no reason
to continue.
• Generalization: after getting used to engage in a
particular behaviour in a particular situation, may
engage in the same behaviour in other similar
situations. [a tortured prisoner may show a fear of
all people]

15. • Discrimination: opposite of generalization.
Here one learns that all situations may not
yield same reward/punishment as the one
which was learnt. [ex: the tortured prisoner
will learn to differentiate between his torturers
and other human beings]

16. Schedules of Reinforcement
• Continuous Reinforcement Schedule: Reinforcements
are continuously given.
• Partial or Intermittent Schedules:
A. Ratio Schedules:here a fixed number of responses will
be awarded a fixed number of reinforcements. EX:
getting ‘A’ in all exams is rewarded with a new video
game.
 fixed ratio: a reinforcement will surely follow after a
certain number of behaviours.
 variable ratio: the number of times the behaviour
should be performed to obtain the reinforcement varies
from one reinforcement to the next.

17. B. Interval Schedules: Reinforcement does not
depend on the number of times behaviour has
occurred, but on a certain period of time.
EX: Monthly salary.
Fixed interval: the time gap between
reinforcements is constant.
Variable interval: the time gap between
reinforcements varies.

18. Implications and limitations
Like animals, humans too learn more or less in
a similar way.
Based on observable behaviour, influence of
environment
Did not consider insight, cognition, or
genetics.
One argument- Experiments on animals cannot
be generalized to humans as physiology and
mental capacities are very different.

19. THANK YOU!
• References:
• >Bauer,A., Maracich,C., ‘Skinner’s Operant
Conditioning’. Retrieved from
http://www3.niu.edu/acad/psych/Millis/History/2003/
conditioning.htm
• >McLeod, S. A. (2007). ‘Skinner - Operant
Conditioning’. Retrieved from
http://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-
conditioning.html