Operant Conditioning

During Dr.Wedes lecture our class discussed two different types of conditioning described as classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning is when an organism learns to associate stimuli. A very popular example of this conditioning is Pavlov’s dogs. Operant conditioning happens when an organism forms an association between behaviors and resulting events. An example of operant conditioning is teaching a seal to balance a ball on its nose by feeding it fish after it does the action. The main difference is that classical conditioning associates an involuntary response and operant conditioning associates a voluntary behavior.

I experienced operant conditioning when I was around the age of two. My parents told me that they created a system of operant conditioning to help me potty train. My mom said she kept a jar of M&M’s in the bathroom and each time I came to the bathroom myself she would give me one. She said this worked for a while until I got bored of the M&M’s and I would walk to the bathroom just to eat the M&M’s and fell back into my routine of diapers. She then came up with a better idea and said that each time I went to the bathroom she would tally it on a chart and once it reached a certain number then we would go to Disney World. She had already been planning the trip but acted like I had to work for it and my two year old self was so excited and became determined to reach the goal. My mom was using a positive reinforcement to increase my behaviors by presenting a positive reaction and reward each time I went to the bathroom. She said I would practically run to the bathroom each time I had to go so I could reach the goal. She said that even after I reached the goal of Disney I still kept going to the bathroom because I associated a very positive feeling and reward with it.

Although this was just a small example, operant conditioning can be used in various amounts of ways. This type of conditioning is great for training pets and humans. Both types of conditioning are used in tv shows and everyday life.

Operant Conditioning – Shaping

Shaping is a type of operant conditioning that is used as a way to guide a subject’s behavior to have them do what you want them to do. In order to achieve this desired outcome, you must use successive approximations. Using these reinforcers to guide the actions means that you reward behavior that is nearing the desired outcome up to the point where that outcome occurs.

An example of shaping from my own life experiences occurred when I was training my dog to play fetch. First, I would train her to sit on the floor next to where I was standing by rewarding her with a treat. Next, I would train her to wait until I instructed her to run after the ball. After she successfully performed this step, I would again reward her with a treat. Once she was able to complete both of those previous steps consistently, I trained her to fetch the ball and return to me with it. Upon successful completion of these steps, she then received another treat. I then gave her an additional treat when she dropped the ball at my feet. Finally, I trained her that after giving me the ball, she should sit beside me again to wait for the next round of play. Once she performed this step, I would feed her another treat. Once she was used to regularly performing these steps, I would slowly start removing the treat rewards for each step. Eventually, she would play fetch following the steps outlined above without a reward.

In the example described above, rewarding my dog with treats was my way of using successive approximations to shape her to play fetch. During this training, the reinforcers I used were treats. I rewarded her with them whenever she completed an action that would lead to the overall behavior I wanted her to achieve: playing fetch. Rewarding her with those treats reinforced the behaviors that I deemed were important and useful to the overall goal.

Operant Conditioning

Operant Conditioning is the forming of association between behaviors and resulting events. B.F. Skinner was the scientist best known for his work in the field of operant conditioning. His experiments involved rats and how the responded to both positive and negative reinforcement. He would place the rats into a box that had a lever inside. When demonstrating positive reinforcement the rat would accidentally bump into the lever in the box and a pellet of food would fall into the box. After this happened a few times the rat would immediately run to lever upon being placed into the box. When demonstrating negative reinforcement, the floor of the box was charged with a current of electricity, and again, by accidentally bumping the lever the current was switched off. In turn, every time the rat was placed into the electrically charged box it would run to the lever and hit it to turn off the current. Another example of Operant Conditioning is the concept of a token economy. In a token economy, individuals are given a reinforcer (token) that can later be exchanged for a reward. This system is often used in Psychiatric Hospitals and it helps promotes good behavior.

The best example of operant conditioning that pertains to my life is the training of my two Labrador Retrievers. As puppies, the two of them were nearly uncontrollable and turned my house and yard into a mess. The implementing of Operant Conditioning was necessary in order to control their tireless antics. In many ways, my family and I used this type of conditioning to control them. For example, when they successfully made it outdoors to use the bathroom they were rewarded with a treat upon coming back inside and this started to work within a week or two. However, they thought they were getting smart and would run outside and run back in right away expecting a treat for simply taking a step outside. This behavior did not earn them a treat and they learned that quickly as well.

Skinner Rat image obtained from google images