Download Skinner`s Operant Conditioning

Developed by
American
psychologist
B.F.Skinner
Revolt against “no stimulus, no
response”
Called as operant conditioning as it is based
on certain operation the organism has to
carry out
 Also called instrumental conditioning as
some action of the learner is instrumental in
bringing about a change in the environment
 For a response to happen the presence of a
stimulus is not essential

Two types of responses or
behaviours
 In
respondent behaviour the responses
are elicited by known stimuli. In operant
behaviour responses are emitted by
unknown stimuli
 In respondent behaviour the stimulus
precedes the response and is responsible
for causing the behaviour. In operant
behaviour stimulus is unknown
Experiment
• Skinner designed a special apparatus known as
Skinner’s box
• He placed a hungry rat in the box
• Pressing of a bar in the box to get food is the
desired response
• The rat was rewarded for each of its proper
attempts for pressing the lever
• The lever press response was rewarded and
whenever it repeated it was again rewarded and
finally rat learned the art of pressing the lever
Definition
• Skinner designs operant conditioning as a process
in which the behaviour of an organism is an
emitted rather than elicited one and is
strengthened in the sense of becoming more likely
or frequent to occur, through reinforcement.
• The basic law type R conditioning is that, “if the
occurrence of an operant is followed by the
presentation of a reinforcing stimulus, the
strength of that operant is increased
Reinforcement
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The concept of reinforcement is the
central idea in operant conditioning
Any thing which has the effect of
strengthening successful behavior
is known as reinforcer
Reinforcement in Skinner’s view is
a process in which the stimulus
follows a response and increases
the probability of that response to
appear again
Types of Reinforcers
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A reinforcer is the stimulus whose presentation or
removal increases the probability of a response reoccurring.
There are two types of reinforcer – positive and
negative.
A positive reinforcer is any stimulus, the
introduction or presentation of which increase the
likelihood of a particular behavior. eg: praise,
prize, smile, encouragement, rewards, awards.
Negative reinforcer is any stimulus the removal or
withdrawal of which increases the likelihood of a
particular behavior. Eg: reproof, critical remarks
etc.
Schedules of Reinforcement
The term schedule of reinforcement refers to the
particular pattern according to which reinforcers
follow responses.
 Continuous reinforcement schedule: reinforce
every correct response
 Fixed interval reinforcement schedule: reward a
right response made only after an interval of
time.
 Variable interval reinforcement schedule:
reinforcement is given at varying intervals of
time
 Fixed ratio reinforcement schedule:
reinforcement is given after a fixed number of
response
Shaping
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Through shaping it is possible to speed up operant
conditioning and can condition quite complex
response.
In some situation where the desired responses do not
occur at random, efforts are made for eliciting the
appropriate responses.
Shaping is a sort of gradual nurturing of correct
responses.
It is a method of successive approximations since the
steps are approximations of the final responses.
Skinner shaped the behavior of a pigeon – by teaching
it to walk in a figure 8 to get food.
Classical Conditioning
It helps in the learning of
respondent behaviour
S conditioning as it
emphasize on stimulus
There is pairing of UCS
and CS
Reinforcement comes first
The essence of learning is
stimulus substitution
Operant Conditioning
It helps in the learning of
operant behaviour
R conditioning as it
emphasize on response
There is no pairing of UCS
and CS, but pairing of a
response and the
reinforcing stimulus which
follows
Reinforcement is provided
after the response is made
by the organism
The essence of learning is
response modification