Operant conditioning: Skinner’s research

• BF Skinner (1953) suggested that learning is an active process whereby humans and animals operate upon their environment
• Skinner identified 3 types of operants :

  • Neutral
  • Reinforcers
  • Punishers
• Neutral operants - environmental forces that neither increase nor decrease the repetition of specific behaviours
• Reinforcers- environmental forces that increase the repetition of a specific behaviour
• Positive reinforcer- a behaviour that is repeated to enjoy the pleasant consequences
• Negative reinforcer- a behaviour that is repeated to avoid an unpleasant consequence
• Punishers- environmental factors that decrease the repetition of a specific behaviour
• Skinner set up a series of experiments to determine how animals learn from the consequences of their actions, dependant upon the specific operants he implemented
• Skinner devised a box known as the ‘Skinner box’
• Skinner placed one rat at a time in the box
• Each box contained a different stimuli, including a lever that released food (the rats reward)and an electroplated floor (the rats punishment)
• Positive reinforcement was demonstrated by placing a hungry rat in the box
• The box contained a lever that the rat initially accidentally triggered as the rat explored the box
• Upon triggering the lever a food pallet 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
• Negative reinforcement as demonstrated by placing a rat in the box and then subjecting it to an unpleasant electric shock (punishment)
• upon triggering the lever the electric current was switched off (unpleasant sensations stopped)
• The rats 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
• Psychologist B. F. Skinner saw that classical conditioning is limited to existing behaviors that are reflexively elicited, and it doesn’t account for new behaviors such as riding a bike