Operant Conditioning: How Behavior Is Shaped by Its Own Consequences

Operant behavior is characterized by actions that have consequences. Flick a

light switch and the consequence is illumination. Saw on a piece of wood and the

consequence is two shorter pieces of wood. Tell a joke and the consequence is

(sometimes) the laughter of others. Work hard at a job all week and the consequence

is a paycheck. In each of these cases the specified action “operates” on the

environment, changes it in some way.

It was B. F. Skinner (1904–1990) who applied the term operant to the kind

of behaviors described above. He saw that operant behavior is both acquired and

shaped by experience. Consequently, he identified it as a kind of learning. In addition, he also categorized it as a form of conditioning because he believed that such concepts as consciousness and thinking are not necessary to explain much (perhaps most) operant behavior.

Skinner, long associated with Harvard, invented a device called the operant

conditioning apparatus; its informal name is the Skinner box. Think of the

apparatus as something like a candy machine for animals such as rats and

pigeons. A rat, for example, learns that it can obtain a pellet of food when it

presses a lever. If the pellet appears each time the lever is pressed, the rate of

lever pressing will increase. Lever pressing is operant behavior (or simply an operant.)

The pellet is a reinforcer. A reinforcer is a stimulus that has the effect of

increasing the frequency of a given category of behavior (in this case, lever

pressing).

The concept of reinforcement plays a big part in Skinner’s way of looking at

behavior. Consequently, it is important to expand on the concept. Note in the

above definition that a reinforcer is understood in terms of its actual effects. It is to

be distinguished from a reward. A reward is perceived as valuable to the individual

giving the reward, but it may not be valued by the receiving organism. In the

case of a reinforcer, it is a reinforcer only if it has some sort of payoff value to the

receiving organism. By definition, a reinforcer has an impact on operant behavior.

Its function is always to increase the frequency of a class of operant behaviors.

One important way to categorize reinforcers is to refer to them as positive and

negative. A positive reinforcer has value for the organism. Food when you are

hungry, water when you are thirsty, and money when you’re strapped for cash all

provide examples of positive reinforcers.

A negative reinforcer has no value for the organism. It does injury or is noxious

in some way. A hot room, an offensive person, and a dangerous situation all

provide examples of negative reinforcers. The organism tends to either escape

from or avoid such reinforcers. The operant behavior takes the subject away from

the reinforcer. Turning on the air conditioner when a room is hot provides an

example of operant behavior designed to escape from a negative reinforcer. Note

that the effect of the negative reinforcer on behavior is still to increase the frequency

of a class of operants. You are more likely to turn on an air conditioner

tomorrow if you have obtained relief by doing so today.

It is also important to note that a negative reinforcer is not punishment. In the

case of punishment, an operant is followed by an adverse stimulus. For example, a

child sasses a parent and then gets slapped. Getting slapped comes after the child’s

behavior. In the case of a negative reinforcer, the adverse stimulus is first in time.

Then the operant behavior of escape or avoidance follows.

Another important way to classify reinforcers is to designate them as having

either a primary or a secondary quality. A primary reinforcer has intrinsic value

for the organism. No learning is required for the worth of the reinforcer to exist.

Food when you are hungry and water when you are thirsty are not only positive

reinforcers, as indicated above, they are also primary reinforcers.

A secondary reinforcer has acquired value for the organism. Learning is

required. Money when you’re strapped for cash is a positive reinforcer, as indicated

above, but it is a secondary one. You have to learn that cash has value. An