Operant Conditioning
Operant conditioning involves the regulation of behavior by its consequences. B. F. Skinner called this kind of behavior regulation operant conditioning because, in a given situation or setting (SD), behavior (R) operates on the environment to produce effects or consequences (Sr). Any behavior that operates on the environment to produce an effect is called an operant. During operant conditioning, an organism emits behavior that produces an effect that increases (or decreases) the frequency of the operant in a given situation. In the laboratory, a hungry rat in a chamber may receive food if it presses a lever when a light is on. If lever pressing increases in the presence of the light, then operant conditioning has occurred (see Fig. 1.2).
Most of what we commonly call voluntary, willful, or purposive action is analyzed as operant behavior. Operant conditioning occurs when a baby smiles at a human face and is picked up. If smiling at faces increases because of social attention, then smiling is an operant and the effect is a result of conditioning. In a more complex example, pressing a sequence of buttons while playing a video game will increase in frequency if this response pattern results in hitting
FIG. 1.2. Simple operant conditioning: In an operant chamber, lever pressing produces food for a hungry rat. The consequences of lever pressing (presentation of food) increase its frequency in that setting. In another example, a baby smiles to a human face and is picked up. The consequences of smiling (social attention) increase the frequency of this behavior in the presence of human faces.
a target. Other examples of operant behavior include driving a car, talking on the phone, taking notes in class, walking to the corner store, reading a book, writing a term paper, and conducting an experiment. In each case, the operant is said to be selected by its consequences.
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