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
Skinners 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
o

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 Skinners view is a
process in which the stimulus
follows a response and increases
the probability of that response to
appear again

Types of Reinforcers

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

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

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 comes first

Reinforcement is provided
after the response is made
by the organism

The essence of learning is

stimulus substitution

The essence of learning is

response modification