Skinner's research

• B.F. Skinner(1953) suggested that learning is an active process whereby humans and animals operate upon their environment (hence, 'operant conditioning')
• Skinner identified three types of operant

  • Neutral operants
  • Environmental forces that neither increase nor decrease the repetition of a specific behaviour
  • Reinforcers
  • Environmental forces that increase the repetition of a specific behaviour
  • A positive reinforcer is a behaviour which is repeated to enjoy the pleasant consequences
  • A negative reinforcer is a behaviour which is repeated to avoid unpleasant consequences
  • Punishers
  • Environmental forces that decrease the repetition of a specific behaviour
• Skinner set up a series of experiments to determine how animals learn from the consequences oftheir actions, dependent upon the specific operants he implemented
• Skinner devised a box known as the 'Skinner Box'

  Skinner placed one rat at a time inside the box

  Each box contained different stimuli, including a lever that released food (the rat's reward) and an electroplated floor (the rat's punishment)
• Positive reinforcement was demonstrated by placing a hungry rat in the box

  • The box contained a lever which the rat (initially) accidentally triggered as it explored the box
  • Upon triggering the lever a food pellet was delivered (reward)
  • The rats quickly learned (it only took them a few tries) to go straight to the lever
  • The consequence/reward (food) of pressing the lever saw them repeating the action over and over again
• Negative reinforcement was demonstrated by placing a rat in the box and then subjecting it to an unpleasant electric shock (punishment)

  • The rat(initially) accidentally triggered the lever as it explored the box
  • Upon triggering the lever the electric current was switched off (unpleasant sensations stopped)
  • The rats quickly learned to trigger the lever immediately as soon as they were placed in the box
  • The consequence/reward of escaping the electric shock saw them repeating the action over and over again
• In another variation, the rats learned to avoid the electric shock (punishment) by pressing the lever when the light came on (avoiding punishment = negative reinforcement)
• The Skinner Box