Positive reinforcement. Wearing makeup is being reinforced by receiving attention from others.

1. By Alisha Abbas

2. What Is Operant Conditioning?
 Actions that are followed by reinforcement will be
strengthened and more likely to occur again in the future.
 Operant conditioning is a method of learning that
occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior.
Through operant conditioning, an association is made
between a behavior and a consequence for that behavior.
 It is sometimes referred as instrumental conditioning.

3. Burrhus Fredric (B.F.) Skinner
March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990
American psychologist, behaviorist,
inventor, author and social philosopher.
He was the Edgar pierce Professor of
psychology at Harvard University from
1958-1974.

4. Inventions of BF Skinner
Skinner Box
Project Pigeon
Air crib
Cumulative Recorder

5. Skinner’s Contribution
Skinner's views were slightly less extreme than those of
Watson (1913). 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.
Skinner 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.
Skinner's theory of operant conditioning was based on the
work of Thorndike (1905). Edward Thorndike studied
learning in animals using a puzzle box to propose the
theory known as the 'Law of Effect'.
Skinner is regarded as the father of Operant Conditioning

6. The Skinner Box
Skinner’s operant conditioning chamber (AKA Skinner box)
was designed to teach rats how to push a lever. This
behavior is not natural to rats, so operant conditioning
with positive and negative reinforcement were performed
in order to teach the behavior
Positive reinforcement:
A rat was rewarded with food
when he pressed the lever.
Negative reinforcement:
A rat was able to turn off electric
shocks produced by the floor by
pressing the lever.

7. Law of Effect
The law of effect principle developed by
Edward Thorndike suggested that
responses closely followed by satisfaction
will become firmly attached to the
situation and therefore more likely to
reoccur when the situation is repeated.
Conversely, if the situation is followed by
discomfort, the connections to the
situation will become weaker and the
behavior of response is less likely to occur
when the situation is repeated.

8. Shaping
To achieve a desired behavior, step-by-step trails are used to direct the
participant towards the end goal.
In other words: breaking down behavior into small steps, and giving
positive reinforcement along the way can result in the learning of more
complex behaviors.
Skinner noticed that the pigeons in the skinner box were not
accidentally pushing the button that would release food. How
could he teach the pigeon that pressing the button would result in
a positive outcome?

9. Shaping
Step 1: give pigeon
food when it turns
toward the button.
Step 3: give the
pigeon food when
raises its head to the
height of the button
Step 2: give the pigeon
food when it walks
toward the button.
Step 4: give the pigeon
food when taps the
button with its beak.

10. Components of Operant Conditioning
Reinforcement:
any event that strengthens or increases the
behavior it follows.
Punishment:
the presentation of an adverse event or outcome
that causes a decrease in the behavior it follows.

11. Types of Reinforcements
Positive reinforcement are favorable events or
outcomes that are presented after the behavior. In
situations that reflect positive reinforcement, a
response or behavior is strengthened by the addition
of something, such as praise or a direct reward.
Negative reinforcement involve the removal of an
unfavorable events or outcomes after the display of a
behavior. In these situations, a response is
strengthened by the removal of something considered
unpleasant.

12. Types of Reinforcement
Positive Negative
if your teacher gives you £5
each time you complete your
homework (i.e. a reward) you
are more likely to repeat this
behavior in the future, thus
strengthening the behavior of
completing your homework.
if you do not complete your
homework you give your
teacher £5. You will complete
your homework to avoid
paying £5, thus strengthening
the behavior of completing
your homework.

13. Principles of Reinforcement
Primary Reinforcer:
• Innately reinforcing stimulus.
• They are biological needs.
• Known without being learned.
• Food, drink, and pleasure are the principal examples of primary reinforcers
Conditioned Reinforcer:
• Stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with primary reinforcer.
• Secondary reinforcer.
• Learned value.
• Example Let's train a dog to sit. First we would introduce the discriminative
stimulus, the word "sit." We could just say "sit" and when the dog sits, we would
give it some food. The food would be the primary reinforcer. Immediately after we
gave it the food we would say, "good dog." "Good dog" is our secondary reinforcer
of praise. We would then repeat the above process many times. Gradually, we
would give the food less often, but the dog would continue to sit when we told it to.
The words "good dog" gradually became a secondary reinforcer.

14. Schedule of Reinforcement
A schedule of reinforcement determines when and
how often reinforcement of a behavior is given.
Behaviorists discovered that different patterns (or
schedules) of reinforcement had different effects on
the speed of learning and on extinction.

15. Continuous Reinforcement:
An animal/human is positively reinforced every time a specific
behaviour occurs.
Partial Reinforcement:
It is when a desired behavior is reinforced only occasionally
when it is displayed.
Fixed Ratio Schedules:
A reinforcement of a desired behavior occurs only after a
specified number of actions have been performed.
Variable Ratio Schedules:
A reinforcement of a desired behavior occurs after a variable
number of actions have been performed.
Fixed Interval Schedules:
A reinforcement of appropriate behavior that is delivered after
a specified interval of time has elapsed.
Variable Interval Schedules:
This is a reinforcement of appropriate behavior that is
delivered after an average interval of time has elapsed.

16. Types of Punishment
Positive Punishment:
Positive punishment, sometimes referred to as punishment
by application, involves the presentation of an unfavorable
event or outcome in order to weaken the response it
follows.
Negative punishment:
Negative punishment, also known as punishment by
removal, occurs when an favorable event or outcome is
removed after a behavior occurs.
Note: In both of these cases of punishment, the behavior decreases.

17. Types of Punishment
Positive Negative
 Burning your hand when you
touch a hot stove.
 receive a parking ticket.
 Spanking.
 Teen is grounded for
misbehaving.
 After getting in a fight with
his sister over who gets to play
with a new toy, the mother
simply takes the toy away.

18. Negative Reinforcement vs. Punishment
One mistake that people often make is confusing negative reinforcement with
punishment. Remember, however, that negative reinforcement involves
the removal of a negative condition in order to strengthen a behavior.
Punishment, on the other hand, involves either presenting or taking away a
stimulus in order to weaken a behavior.
Consider the following example:
Timmy is supposed to clean his room every Saturday morning. Last weekend,
he went out to play with his friend without cleaning his room. As a result, his
father made him spend the rest of the weekend doing other chores like
cleaning out the garage, mowing the lawn and weeding the garden, in addition
to cleaning his room.

19. Positive Reinforcement
Reinforcement = Do it again!
Positive = Adding something(good)
Negative Reinforcement
Reinforcement = Do it again!
Negative = Taking something(bad) away
Positive Punishment
Punishment = Don’t do it again!
Positive = Adding something (bad)
Negative Punishment
Punishment = Don’t do it again!
Negative = Taking something (good) away

20. The “Which Type of
Operant Conditioning Is
It?” Game!

21. Which type of operant conditioning is it?
 You use a shock collar
on your dog when it
jumps on people or
barks at them.

22. Which type of operant conditioning is it?
• Your boss removes all
the coffee machines
from the office until
your team increase
sales.

23. Which type of operant conditioning is it?
• You give your dog a
treat for performing a
trick.

24. Which type of operant conditioning is it?
 Your mom says you
can’t go on vacations
with your friends for
spring break because
you got in trouble at
school.

25. Which type of operant conditioning is it?
 Before heading
out for a day at
the beach, you
slather on
sunscreen in
order to avoid
getting
sunburned

26. Which type of operant conditioning is it?
 A third-grade boy
yells at another
student during
class, so his
teacher takes away
"good behavior"
tokens that can be
redeemed for
prizes.

27. Which type of operant conditioning is it?
 Your cell phone rings
in the middle of a class
lecture, and you are
scolded by your
teacher for not turning
your phone off prior to
class

28. Which type of operant conditioning is it?
 As a Woman
whenever you
wear make-up,
people give you
attention.