B. F.

SKINNER
Operant Conditioning Theory
Burrhus Frederic Skinner was born on
March 20, 1904, in the small town of
Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, where he
also grew up.

His father was a lawyer and his mother

stayed home to care for Skinner and his
younger brother.

At an early age, Skinner showed an

interest in building different gadgets and
contraptions.
As a student at Hamilton College, B.F. Skinner
developed a passion for writing. He tried to
become a professional writer after graduating
in 1926, but with little success.

Two years later, Skinner decided to pursue a

new direction for his life. He enrolled at
Harvard University to study psychology.
After finishing his doctorate degree and
working as a researcher at Harvard, Skinner
published the results of his operant
conditioning experiments in The Behavior of
Organisms (1938).

His work drew comparisons to Ivan Pavlov,

but Skinner's work involved learned
responses to an environment rather than
involuntary responses to stimuli.
In his later years, B.F. Skinner took to chronicling
his life and research in a series of autobiographies.
In 1936, Skinner married Yvonne (Eve). The couple
had two daughters, Julie and Deborah.
He also continued to be active in the field of
behavioral psychology—field he helped popularize.
In 1989, Skinner was diagnosed with leukemia.

He succumbed to the disease the following year,

dying at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
on August 18, 1990.
 OPERANT CONDITIONING THEORY

Operant conditioning is a method of learning that occurs through

rewards and punishments for behavior. Through operant conditioning,
an individual makes an association between a particular behavior and a
consequence.

Skinner believed that the best way to understand behavior is to look at

the causes of an action and its consequences. He called this approach
operant conditioning.
Skinner’s work was based on Thorndike’s law of effect.

According to this principle, behavior that is followed by pleasant

consequences is likely to be repeated, and behavior followed by
unpleasant consequences is less likely to be repeated.

Skinner introduced a new term into the Law of Effect - Reinforcement.

Behavior which is reinforced tends to be repeated (i.e., strengthened);
behavior which is not reinforced tends to die out-or be extinguished
(i.e., weakened).
Skinner studied operant conditioning by conducting experiments using
animals which he placed in a 'Skinner Box' which was similar to
Thorndike’s puzzle box.
Skinner used a special box known as
“Skinner Box” for his experiment on rats.

As the first step to his experiment, he

placed a hungry rat inside the Skinner box.
The rat was initially inactive inside the
box, but gradually as it began to adapt to
the environment of the box, it began to
explore around. Eventually, the rat
discovered a lever, upon pressing which;
food was released inside the box.
After it filled its hunger, it started exploring
the box again, and after a while it pressed the
lever for the second time as it grew hungry
again.

This phenomenon continued for the third,

fourth and the fifth time, and after a while,
the hungry rat immediately pressed the lever
once it was placed in the box. Then the
conditioning was deemed to be complete.
This experiment deals with and
explains the effects of positive
reinforcement. Upon pressing the
lever, the hungry rat was served
with food, which filled its hunger;
hence, it’s a positive
reinforcement.
 Positive Reinforcement

Positive reinforcement strengthens a behavior by providing a

consequence an individual finds rewarding. If the person is
rewarded, he/she will be more likely to repeat this behavior in
the future, thus strengthening it.
 Negative Reinforcement

The removal of an unpleasant reinforcer can also strengthen

behavior. This is known as negative reinforcement because it
is the removal of an adverse stimulus which is ‘rewarding’ to
the animal or person.
Negative reinforcement strengthens behavior because it stops
or removes an unpleasant experience.
 Punishment (weakens behavior)

Punishment is defined as the opposite of reinforcement since it is

designed to weaken or eliminate a response rather than increase it.

It is an aversive event that decreases the behavior that it follows.

Like reinforcement, punishment can work either by directly applying an
unpleasant stimulus after a response (positive punishment) or
by removing a potentially rewarding stimulus (negative punishment).
 Token Economy

Token economy is a system in which targeted behaviors are reinforced

with tokens (secondary reinforcers) and later exchanged for rewards
(primary reinforcers).

Tokens can be in the form of fake money, buttons, poker chips, stickers,
etc. While the rewards can range anywhere from snacks to privileges or
activities. 
 Behavior Shaping
A further important contribution made by Skinner (1951) is the notion
of behavior shaping through successive approximation.

Skinner argues that the principles of operant conditioning can be used

to produce extremely complex behavior if rewards and punishments
are delivered in such a way as to encourage move an organism closer
and closer to the desired behavior each time.

* Successive approximation – giving of series of rewards that provide positive reinforcement to

make the individual gets closer to the desired behavior.
END