skinner's box

• The rat moves around the cage, when it accidentally presses the lever, a food pellet (reinforcer/reward) falls into cage. Rat begins pressing lever to obtain food because it learned through positive reinforcement that a particular action results in a positive consequence. If the food pellet stops, the rat presses the lever a few more times and then abandons it (extinction).
• Skinner also experimented with unpleasant stimuli such as loud noises, which could be turned off by pressing lever. The rat learned through negative reinforcement that performing a certain action resulted in the removal of an unpleasant stimulus which acted as a reward.
• He also experimented with the use of punishment by delivering an electric shock following each lever press. This led to a decrease in lever pressing as the rat learned performing a certain action resulted in a unpleasant consequence and therefore behaviour was not repeated.