Operant

conditioning
 DEFINITION
 Learning in which a voluntary response is strengthened or weakened,
depending on its favorable or unfavorable consequences

 A type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a

reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher.

 Basis – Thorndike’s law of effect / Trial and error learning

 Proponent – B F Skinner
 Skinner’s box- highly controlled
environment
 Skinner designed an operant
chamber, popularly known as a
Skinner box .

 The box has a bar (a lever) that

an animal presses—or a key (a
disc) that an animal pecks—to
release a reward of food or
water, and a device that
records these responses.
REINFORCEMENT

 Reinforcement: The process by which a stimulus increases the

probability that a preceding behavior will be repeated.

 Reinforcer: Any stimulus that increases the probability that a

preceding behavior will occur again.
 Ex: Bonuses, toys, praise, good grades, borrowing the
family car from dad, or taking a break after an hour of study.

 A reinforcer depends on individual preferences.

Ex: Rock concert tickets can be a reinforcer for one and
money can be reinforcer for other
 TYPES OF REINFORCERS

1. Primary reinforcers: satisfies some biological need and

works naturally, regardless of a person’s prior experience.
Ex: Food for a hungry person, warmth for a cold person,
and relief for a person in pain

2. Secondary reinforcers/conditioned reinforcers: is a

stimulus that becomes reinforcing because of its
association with a primary reinforcer.
Ex: Money, token economies
3. Positive reinforcers: are that which strengthens the response
by presenting a pleasurable stimulus after response
Ex; The paychecks that workers get at the end of the week,
increase the likelihood that they will return to their jobs the
following week

4. Negative reinforcers: strengthens a response by reducing or

removing something undesirable or unpleasant.
Ex: 1. Student decides to clean up the mess in the room in
order to avoid getting in a fight with the roommate
 Negative reinforcement can be administered in two ways

 Escape: Removing noxious stimuli following correct behavior

Ex: Pushing the snooze button will silence your annoying alarm

 Active avoidance: Behavior avoids noxious stimuli

Ex: Studying hard to avoid poor grades
SCHEDULES OF REINFORCEMENT

 Continuous reinforcement schedule: Reinforcing of a

behavior every time it occurs.

 Partial (or intermittent) reinforcement schedule:

Reinforcing of a behavior sometimes but not all of the
time. It is classified into 2

Considering number of response : Ratio schedules

Considering amount of time : interval schedules
1. Interval reinforcement: Scheduled reinforcement in which
the reinforcement occurs at definite establishment time
intervals

Ex: A talkative student is praised if he remains quiet for 5

minutes, no additional reinforcement is given until another 5
minutes pass.
2. Ratio reinforcement: Reinforcement that occurs after a
certain number of responses.

Ex: Allowing students play a game after reading three

chapters

Skinner also developed variable schedules for both interval and

ratio reinforcement where reinforcement appears after any
time interval or number of responses.
1. Fixed ratio: Reinforcement depends on a definite
number of responses.
Ex: Reinforcing after every third time a child exhibits
sharing behavior.

2. Variable ratio: The number of responses needed for

reinforcement varies from one reinforcement to the
next.
Ex: Some teachers don’t like giving marks to
competed project but would like to see the project
during various stages of progress and then mark it.
3. Fixed interval: A schedule in which a response results in
reinforcement only after a definite length of time.
Ex: reinforcement – twenty seconds- reinforcement-
twenty seconds-reinforcement.

4. Variable interval: A schedule in which the time

between reinforcements varies
Ex: Reinforcement- twenty seconds- reinforcement-
thirty seconds- reinforcement- thirty five seconds.
 PUNISHMENT

 The presentation of an aversive stimulus or removal of positive

stimulus following a response that decreases the frequency of
that response.

 Two types of punishments

 Positive
 Negative
POSITIVE PUNISHMENT- type I punishment

 This type of punishment is also known as "punishment by

application."

 Positive punishment involves presenting an aversive

stimulus after a behavior as occurred.
Ex 1: When a student talks out of turn in the middle of
class, the teacher might scold the child for interrupting her.

Ex 2: Spending 10 years in jail for committing a crime

NEGTIVE PUNISHMENT – type II punishment

 This type of punishment is also known as "punishment by

removal."

 Negative punishment involves taking away a desirable

stimulus after a behavior as occurred.

Ex: A teenager comes home after curfew and the

parents take away a privilege, such as cell phone usage. If
the frequency of the child coming home late decreases,
the privilege is gradually restored.
 FACTORS CONTRIBUTING THE
EFFECTIVENESS OF PUNISHMENT

Punishment is more likely to lead to a reduction in

behavior if it immediately follows the behavior.

Ex: Prison sentences often occur long after the

crime has been committed, that’s why sending
people to jail does not always lead to a reduction in
criminal behavior.
 Punishment achieves greater results when it is
consistently applied, but it can be difficult to
administer a punishment every single time a
behavior occurs.

Ex: People often continue to drive over the speed

limit even after receiving a speeding ticket. Why?
Because the behavior is inconsistently punished.
 DRAWBACKS OF PUNISHMENT

 Any behavior changes that result from punishment are often temporary.
Punished behavior is likely to reappear after the punishing consequences
are withdrawn

 Punishment does not actually offer any information about more

appropriate or desired behaviors. While subjects might be learning to not
perform certain actions, they are not really learning anything about
what they should be doing.
Ex: Punishing a child for staring out the window in school could merely
lead her to stare at the floor instead.

 Punishment can instil irreparable fear and also reduce the self esteem of
recipients unless they can understand the reasons for it
 Physical punishment can convey to the recipient the idea that physical
aggression is permissible and perhaps even desirable.
Ex: A father who yells at and hits his son for misbehaving teaches the son
that aggression is an appropriate, adult response. The son soon may copy his
father’s behavior by acting aggressively toward others.

 Punishment is frequently ineffective, particularly if it is not delivered shortly

after the undesired behavior
Ex: An employee who is reprimanded by the boss may quit
A teenager who loses the use of the family car may borrow a friend’s
car instead

 Punishment can have unintended and undesirable consequences.

Ex: Researchers have found that physical punishment may lead to
antisocial behavior, aggressiveness and delinquency among children.
 REINFORCEMENT Vs PUNISHMENT
 Reinforcers serve to increase behaviors whereas punishers serve to
decrease behaviors

Rewarding Aversive
(Pleasant) stimulus (Unpleasant)
stimulus
Adding/Presenting Positive Positive Punishment
reinforcement

Removing/taking Negative Negative

away Punishment reinforcement
REHEARSE- MATCH

A. Match the type of operant learning with its definition

1. An unpleasant stimulus is presented to a. Positive reinforcement

decrease behavior.

2. An unpleasant stimulus is removed to b. Negative reinforcement

increase behavior.

3. A pleasant stimulus is presented to c. Positive punishment

increase behavior.

4. A pleasant stimulus is removed to d. Negative punishment

decrease behavior.
REHEARSE- MATCH

B. Match the type of reinforcement schedule with its definition

1. Reinforcement occurs after a set time a. Fixed-ratio

period.

2. Reinforcement occurs after a set

b. Variable-interval
number of responses.

3. Reinforcement occurs after a varying

time period. c. Fixed-interval

4. Reinforcement occurs after a varying d. Variable-ratio

number of responses.
Answers

A. 1-c 2-b 3-a 4-d

B. 1-c 2-a 3-b 4-d

APPLICATIONS OF OPERANT
CONDITIONING

CHAINING
SHAPING

 An operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers

guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations
of the desired behavior.

 Shaping allows to learn complex responses that would

never occur naturally, ranging from lions jumping
through hoops, dolphins rescuing divers lost at sea, or
rodents finding hidden land mines.
Example
 A teacher is trying to teach a child to speak in front of
the whole classroom.
 Child is a shy kid, he wouldn’t be able to give a speech
right away. So, instead of promising him some reward for
giving a speech, rewards should be given to behaviors
that come close.

 Giving him a reward when he stands in front of the class.

 Next, when he goes in front of the class and says hello.
 Then, when he can read a passage from a book.
 Finally when he can give a speech.
TIME OUT

 A form of type II punishment in which a student loses

something desirable for a period of time.

 Time-outs may be on a chair, step, corner, bedroom,

or any other location where there are no distractions,
and reduced access to fun items, activities and
people

 Research has established that 15 minutes is the

maximum time that a child should be kept in time out
from reinforcers.
 Experts suggest that time-out should remain
brief.

 A general guideline: the length of time that

the child should remain in time-out should
correlate with the child's age - each of
year of the child's age constitutes one
minute in time-out

 Time out is often not effective because not

all sources of reinforcement are removed.
Ex: A student sent to the hallway for a time
out period may actually receive
considerable attention from peers who
happen to be walking by that way.
TOKEN ECONOMY
 A token economy is a form of behavior modification
designed to increase desirable behavior and decrease
undesirable behavior with the use of tokens.

 Individuals receive tokens immediately after displaying

desirable behavior. The tokens are collected and later
exchanged for a meaningful object or privilege.

 Mainly used in psychiatry set ups, special schools, anti-

addiction centers, prisons

 Tokens should preferably be attractive, visible

countable, easy to carry and difficult to counterfeit.
 Tokens have no value of their own. Commonly used items
include poker chips, stickers, point tallies, or play money
which will be exchanged with toys, extra free time, outings,
phone call or food from home

 Individuals can also lose tokens (response cost) for

displaying undesirable behavior.

 Initially tokens are awarded frequently and in higher

amounts, but as individuals learn the desirable behavior,
opportunities to earn tokens decrease.

 By gradually decreasing the availability of tokens (fading),

students should learn to display the desirable behavior
independently, without the unnatural use of tokens.
CHAINING
 Chaining is a psychological method of teaching or
reinforcing a skill by breaking it down into a series of
smaller tasks that begin from the simplest to the most
complex.

 There are two types of chaining: forward and backward

chaining.
 Forward chaining is where one starts from the beginning,
linking up tasks to the end
 Backward chaining is where one links up tasks from the
end backwards to the beginning.
 Forward chaining is preferred over backward chaining
FORWARD CHAINING

1.pick up the spoon

2.put spoon into the food in the bowl
3.Scoop food onto the spoon
4.lift spoonful of food from the bowl
5.put the food into the mouth.
BACKWARD CHAINING

Getting Dressed

 Backward chaining used to teach the child how to get dressed.

 When teaching a child how to put on her sock, put the sock on all the way
over her heel. This leaves the last step for her – pulling it up.
 After this step, put the sock on up to the heel and have your child put it
over her heel and pull it up.