Skinner’s Operant

Conditioning
Prepared by :
Danica Jean R. Calzada
Shela Nie I. Sarocam
Nicole Regine M. Lucena
Alexandra Maxine C. Bulac
 The Origin
• John B. Watson, an American psychologist who established the
psychological school of behaviorism, retired from the world of
psychology. This gave a big impact on the psychologists and behaviorists
in their time. They wanted to propose new forms of learning other than
classical conditioning. The most important among all the emerging
theories was the Operant Conditioning founded by Burrhus Frederic
Skinner, more commonly known as B.F. Skinner.
Burrhus Frederic Skinner

An American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor and

Social philosopher. He was the Edgar Pierce Professor of
Psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his
Retirement in 1974.
He was born at Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, U.S. on March
20, 1904 and died on August 18, 1990 at the age of 86.
Other theories that he proposed were Radical Behaviorism,
Behavior Analysis and Verbal behavior.
 The Studies
• Skinner based his theory in the simple fact that the study of observable behavior is much
simpler than trying to study internal mental events. Skinner’s works concluded a study far
less extreme than those of Watson (1913), and it deemed classical conditioning as too
simplistic of a theory to be a complete explanation of complex human behavior.
• B.F. Skinner is famous for his pioneering research in the field of learning and behavior.
He proposed the theory to study complex human behavior by studying the voluntary
responses shown by an organism when placed in the certain environment. He named
these behaviors or responses as operant. He is also called the Father of Operant
Conditioning Learning, but he based his theory known as “Law of Effect”, discovered by
Edward Thorndike in 1905.
 The Experiment
• B.F. Skinner proposed his theory on operant conditioning by conducting various experiments on animals. He
used a special box known as “Skinner Box” for his experiment on rats.
• As the first step to his experiment, he placed a hungry rat inside the Skinner box. The rat was initially inactive
inside the box, but gradually as it began to adapt to the environment of the box, it began to explore around.
Eventually, the rat discovered a lever, upon pressing which; food was released inside the box. After it filled its
hunger, it started exploring the box again, and after a while it pressed the lever for the second time as it grew
hungry again. This phenomenon continued for the third, fourth and the fifth time, and after a while, the hungry
rat immediately pressed the lever once it was placed in the box. Then the conditioning was deemed to be
complete.
• Here, the action of pressing the lever is an operant response/behavior, and the food released inside the chamber
is the reward. The experiment is also known as Instrumental Conditioning Learning as the response is
instrumental in getting food.
• This experiment also deals with and explains the effects of positive reinforcement. Upon pressing the lever, the
hungry rat was served with food, which filled its hunger; hence, it’s a positive reinforcement.
Visual Image of the Experiment

This is the visual image of Skinner’s experiment.

As you can see, the box is designed in a way where
the rat can run around. You can see where Skinner
positioned the lever, food dispenser and other buttons
In a way that is easily accessible to the rat. Eventually
the rat had the intelligence to press the lever to get food.
In relation to real life, people will adapt to the conditions
given by the surroundings. This adaptation is the
response or the operant behavior of a person towards
the given condition.
 What’s more in there?
• In operant conditioning terms, reinforcement is any characteristics in the environment
that serves to increase the probability that a person will repeat a behavior in the future.
But a reinforcement can be positive or negative. Positive reinforcement occurs when you
get something you like and want as what happened to the rat. Negative reinforcements
occurs when something disagreeable is removed by a behavior. For example, the car has a
buzzer who won’t stop beeping unless you wear the seatbelt. The person will then be
forced to wear the seatbelt to erase that annoying sound. The habit in buckling your belt
is reinforced when the sound goes away.
 Tell me more !
• Punishment, on the other hand, is any characteristic that decreases the probability that a
person will repeat a behavior. Example, when a boy comes home late and gets grounded
by his parents, he will less likely come home late.
• In this manner, we can say people adjust their behaviors to attract more reinforcements
than punishments.
• However, Skinner had another way of controlling a child’s undesirable behavior. Ignore
undesirable behavior instead of punishing it, while reinforcing an alternative desirable
behavior. This process is called extinction. A child may be looking for a response from a
parent; therefore spanking may reinforced the child’s undesirable behavior because he got
the attention he wants. So the better way to do is to ignore the child as he misbehave and
give him attention when he behaves.
Reinforcement-Punishment Relationship
Modern Applications of Operant Conditioning

• Operant conditioning has been used as a classroom management strategy for many years.
Students may be given tokens or stickers inside the classroom as a reward for their good
behavior. Meaning their good behaviors were reinforced by the rewards they receive.
Operant conditioning techniques also have been used extensively with children in special
populations. In research with autistic children, their use has been associated with
improvement in IQ, language and sociability, as well as with the reduction of behavioral
problems in children with multiple disabilities.
 Conclusion
• In conclusion, Skinner wanted to make the process of observing and studying the
behaviors of a human being simpler yet more detailed. By observing the responses that
you can actually see and comprehend rather than studying the abstract thoughts and ideas,
you will be able to fully understand a human’s behavior given the situations and
conditions by the external interference. With this, we can conclude that our environment
or the surrounding people in a certain radius can really affect our personality and
behavioral development.