OPERATE YOUR WAY THROUGH An Introduction to Operant Conditioning

WHAT IS LEARNING?


Learning is one process that transcends all other human mental and behavioral processes. Apart from our instincts (inborn patterns of behavior that are biologically predetermined), all other thoughts, beliefs, actions and even emotional responses are learnt.

Learning has been defined as a relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs due to experience and practice and is not a result of the organism’s temporary state or maturation.

Behavioral psychologists study learning in terms of stimulus-response relationships. A stimulus such as a spider when associated with a loud noise results in a response of screaming out of fear. This is an example of a type of learning known as Classical Conditioning (Ivan Pavlov, 1927). Here, two stimuli are paired together to bring about a response to a stimulus that previously did not emit that type of behavior.

OPERANT CONDITIONING

However, not all patterns of behavior have been learnt by combining stimuli. How did we learn to study and do well on a test or how did we learn to stop making tantrums every time we needed attention? We learnt this through the consequences we experienced each time we displayed any of these behaviors. The praise and recognition we received on an excellent test score or the spanking our parents gave us when we kicked our feet in the air and cried out for attention helped us learn an appropriate conduct of behavior.

This type of learning, which gives importance to the response, is called Operant Conditioning. It is the process in which a voluntary response is strengthened or weakened, depending on its favorable or unfavorable consequences (Feldman, 2004). In other words, it is the concept of rewards and punishments.

We continue or learn to continue those behaviors that are rewarded or reinforced and we discontinue or learn to discontinue those behaviors that are punished.



EXPERIMENTS OF OPERANT CONDITIONING

Edward L. Thorndike was the forerunner of this concept. He experimented on cats by putting them in a cage that had a lever which opened the door. Outside the cage was a plate of food. The cat wandered around the cage and accidently stepped on the lever. After a few more trails, it automatically stepped on the lever to get to its food. Hence, behavior had been learnt as the action of stepping on the lever had been rewarded with food.

B.F Skinner took the experiment forward and built a Skinner box where rats or pigeons were placed and taught to press a button or peck a key to obtain food. Skinner formalized the concept of reinforcements (stimuli that increase behavior), and punishments (stimuli that decrease behavior).

RELEVENCE

Through these simple experiments a whole new dimension has been added to learning. Most of our actions are determined by the consequences we experience. Whether it is the angry glare of a friend who we just jibbed or the appreciation received by our boss on winning an important deal, we are constantly adjusting out behaviors to suit the consequences.

As intelligent beings with higher cognitive capacities, we are quick to form a relationship between the action and its outcome. We not only learn what to do and what not to do but also learn to expect consequences. For example, if making yourself look attractive won you a hot date, you not learn that attractiveness helps in dating but you also learn to expect a good date each time you make yourself look attractive.

In conclusion, our lives operant around our experiences and outcomes. The much used phrase ‘we learn from our experience’ is more than apt to describe operant conditioning.