OPERANT CONDITIONING

Operant Conditioning

Operant Conditioning

Operant conditioning describes one type of associative learning in which there is a contingency between the response and the presentation of the reinforcer. This situation resembles most closely the classic experiments from Skinner, where he trained rats and pigeons to press a lever in order to obtain a food reward. In such experiments, the subject is able to generate certain motor-output, (the response R, e.g. running around, cleaning, resting, pressing the lever).

A Skinner box typically contains one or more levers which an animal can press, one or more stimulus lights and one or more places in which reinforcers ...