Access over 20 million homework & study documents

Operant Conditioning Final Essay

Content type
User Generated
Subject
Psychology
School
University of Technology Sydney
Type
Homework
Rating
Showing Page:
1/5
Running Head: OPERANT CONDITIONING
Operant Conditioning
Student’s Name
Affiliation
Course Name and Number
Instructor’s Name
Due Date

Sign up to view the full document!

lock_open Sign Up
Showing Page:
2/5
OPERANT CONDITIONING 2
Also known as instrumental conditioning, operant conditioning has been defined as an
associative learning process through which punishment and reinforcement are utilized to modify
behavior. B.F Skinner first introduced it, and, thus, it is sometimes called the Skinnerian
conditioning. According to Skinner, there are three kinds of operant or responses: punishers,
reinforces, and neutral operant. Furthermore, reinforcement plays a significant role in ensuring
that particular behavior is repeated. This essay is concerned with providing significant insights
into operant conditioning as a concept, method, and subject, its significance, and the crucial role
it plays in associative and behavioral learning. Based on sources, operant conditioning crucial
process in everyday learning and does not occur in experimental settings only because learning
and reinforcement occur in structured settings such as in classrooms and therapy sessions.
The reinforcement in operant conditioning ought to be either positive or negative
reinforcement. As per McLeod (2015), positive reinforcement is highlighted by putting a hungry
rat in a box, and the box has a lever. When the rat presses the lever when the light is green, there
is a pellet reward. Therefore, the rat learns to press the lever to get a pellet reward. Positive
reinforcement plays a significant role in encouraging behavior through rewards. On the other
hand, negative reinforcement involves getting rid of a nasty reinforcement to enhance a
particular behavior. In Skinner's study, he used a rat by placing it in a box, and whenever the rat
pressed the lever while the red light was on, it experienced an electric shock. The action of
avoiding the shock encouraged the rat to repeat the action often.
Behavior modification refers to a set of techniques and therapies based on operant
conditioning. The significant themes in behavior modification entail altering environmental
activities that are associated with individual behavior. Some modifications include punishing or
ignoring undesired behaviors and rewarding desired behaviors (Altman & Linton, 1971). Some

Sign up to view the full document!

lock_open Sign Up
Showing Page:
3/5

Sign up to view the full document!

lock_open Sign Up
End of Preview - Want to read all 5 pages?
Access Now
Unformatted Attachment Preview
Running Head: OPERANT CONDITIONING Operant Conditioning Student’s Name Affiliation Course Name and Number Instructor’s Name Due Date OPERANT CONDITIONING 2 Also known as instrumental conditioning, operant conditioning has been defined as an associative learning process through which punishment and reinforcement are utilized to modify behavior. B.F Skinner first introduced it, and, thus, it is sometimes called the Skinnerian conditioning. According to Skinner, there are three kinds of operant or responses: punishers, reinforces, and neutral operant. Furthermore, reinforcement plays a significant role in ensuring that particular behavior is repeated. This essay is concerned with providing significant insights into operant conditioning as a concept, method, and subject, its significance, and the crucial role it plays in associative and behavioral learning. Based on sources, operant conditioning crucial process in everyday learning and does not occur in experimental settings only because learning and reinforcement occur in structured settings such as in classrooms and therapy sessions. The reinforcement in operant conditioning ought to be either positive or negative reinforcement. As per McLeod (2015), positive reinforcement is highlighted by putting a hungry rat in a box, and the box has a lever. When the rat presses the lever when the light is green, there is a pellet reward. Therefore, the rat learns to press the lever to get a pellet reward. Positive reinforcement p ...
Purchase document to see full attachment
User generated content is uploaded by users for the purposes of learning and should be used following Studypool's honor code & terms of service.

Anonymous
Awesome! Made my life easier.

Studypool
4.7
Trustpilot
4.5
Sitejabber
4.4

Similar Documents