Operant Conditioning

Skinner was interested in behaviours that have effects on the environment, and on
the behaviours themselves. Behaviours that act, or 'operate' on physical and social
environments are called operants. Operant conditioning is changes in behaviours,
such as an increase or decrease in the frequency of occurance, due to the
consequences of these behaviours.
Charles Darwin 's notion of natural selection, Edward Thorndike 's 'Law of Effect',
and Skinner's theory of operant learning are based on the same idea: If the
consequence is favourable, the likelihood that the cause of the consequence will
will occur, increases.

Generalization

Generalization involves the elicitation of a response to a stimulus that resembles

the discriminitave stimulus. Generalization is useful in that it facilitates the transfer
of behaviour across similar situations. For example, a secretary who can type on a
typewriter can also type on a computer keyboard.

Discrimination involves the elicitation of a response only in the presence of a

specific discriminative stimulus, and not in the presence of similar stimuli.
Discrimination is useful when a particular response is not appropriate in similar
situations. For example, behaviour that is appropriate in a fast-food restaurant,
such as eating with your hands, may not be appropriate in a French restaurant.

Extinction

When a response is no longer followed by a reinforcer, this previously reinforced

response decreases in frequency. This is called extinction . For example, a child
will stop throwing tantrums if they are no longer reinforced by paying attention to
them. This happens not because the child has forgotten how to kick and scream,
but because such behaviour fails to produce the desired effect. Extinction is
different from forgetting.
Spontaneous Recovery

Spontaneous recovery is a phenomenon that involves suddenly displaying a

behavior that was thought to be extinct. This can apply to responses that have
been formed through both classical and operant conditioning. Spontaneous
recovery can be defined as the reappearance of the conditioned response after a
rest period or period of lessened response. If the conditioned stimulus and
unconditioned stimulus are no longer associated, extinction will occur very rapidly
after a spontaneous recovery.