Now let’s combine these four terms: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment (Table 1). All punishers (positive or negative) decrease the likelihood of a behavioral response. All reinforcers (positive or negative) increase the likelihood of a behavioral response. Reinforcement can be positive or negative, and punishment can also be positive or negative. Reinforcement means you are increasing a behavior, and punishment means you are decreasing a behavior. Instead, positive means you are adding something, and negative means you are taking something away. In operant conditioning, positive and negative do not mean good and bad. In discussing operant conditioning, we use several everyday words-positive, negative, reinforcement, and punishment-in a specialized manner. A recorder counts the number of responses made by the animal. Speakers and lights can be associated with certain behaviors. A Skinner box contains a lever (for rats) or disk (for pigeons) that the animal can press or peck for a food reward via the dispenser. He placed these animals inside an operant conditioning chamber, which has come to be known as a “Skinner box” (Figure 1).
Working with Thorndike’s law of effect as his foundation, Skinner began conducting scientific experiments on animals (mainly rats and pigeons) to determine how organisms learn through operant conditioning (Skinner, 1938). If we stop getting paid, we will likely stop showing up-even if we love our job. One of the reasons (and often the main reason) we show up for work is because we get paid to do so. An example of the law of effect is in employment. If an organism does something that does not bring about a desired result, the organism is less likely to do it again. Essentially, if an organism does something that brings about a desired result, the organism is more likely to do it again. According to the law of effect, behaviors that are followed by consequences that are satisfying to the organism are more likely to be repeated, and behaviors that are followed by unpleasant consequences are less likely to be repeated (Thorndike, 1911). His idea that learning is the result of consequences is based on the law of effect, which was first proposed by psychologist Edward Thorndike. Skinner believed that behavior is motivated by the consequences we receive for the behavior: the reinforcements and punishments. He proposed a theory about how such behaviors come about. Skinner saw that classical conditioning is limited to existing behaviors that are reflexively elicited, and it doesn’t account for new behaviors such as riding a bike. The stimulus (either reinforcement or punishment) occurs soon after the response. The stimulus occurs immediately before the response. The target behavior is followed by reinforcement or punishment to either strengthen or weaken it, so that the learner is more likely to exhibit the desired behavior in the future.
The neutral stimulus eventually becomes the conditioned stimulus, which brings about the conditioned response (salivation). Classical and Operant Conditioning Compared Classical ConditioningĪn unconditioned stimulus (such as food) is paired with a neutral stimulus (such as a bell). For example, Spirit, a dolphin at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, does a flip in the air when her trainer blows a whistle. A pleasant consequence makes that behavior more likely to be repeated in the future. In operant conditioning, organisms learn to associate a behavior and its consequence (Table 1).
Now we turn to the second type of associative learning, operant conditioning. Remember that in classical conditioning, something in the environment triggers a reflex automatically, and researchers train the organism to react to a different stimulus. The previous section of this module focused on the type of associative learning known as classical conditioning. Differentiate between primary and secondary reinforcers.Explain the difference between reinforcement and punishment (including positive and negative reinforcement and positive and negative punishment).Define and give examples of operant conditioning.
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