Operant Conditioning theory
Frederic Burrhus Skinner
Operant Conditioning theory
◦Skinner’s views differ a bit with that of Ivan Pavlov.
◦According to Skinner, not all types of learning can be
explained on the basis stimuli-responses relationship,
but sometimes learning follows the response-
reinforcement relationship.
◦Sometimes a person is engaged himself or herself in
certain actions or behaviour, just operating freely in
the environment.
Operant Conditioning theory
◦Surprising something unusual occurred. Thereafter, one start
to concentrate and ask yourself. How did I get this results?
Operant Conditioning theory
◦Think about how the San people discover that one
can get fire out of a dry wood.
◦What is the stimuli that caused someone to
continuously inflict one wood with another wood until
a flame came out?
◦In operant conditioning theory of learning, the stimuli
is unknown.
Operant Conditioning theory
◦Man and animals continuously operates in their
environments.
◦Skinner called their actions operant behaviours. Such
operant behaviour are followed by different consequences.
◦When consequences to our actions are pleasing, rewarding
then we are likely to increase that particular responses.
When consequences to our actions are unpleasing
experiences we cease to act in a particular way.
Operant Conditioning theory
◦Skinner called the consequences that increases the
frequencies of the person or an animal behavior a
reinforcement
◦After getting a flame from the wood, this community increased
this type of behavior. Each time they need to set a fire they do
the same.
◦While, Pavlov theorizes that learning is enhanced by effective
selection of stimuli, Skinner’s argument is that we can
enhance learning by effective application of different types of
reinforcement
The Skinner Box from which the
theory was developed
The Skinner Box
◦This box can be equated with any environment where we
always move or walk around
◦E.g. Home, playground, school, town and so forth. In this
Skinner box there are many things.
◦Lights blue and red, speakers to allow the experimenter to
make a sound to the animal in the box etc. Within the box,
there is a food delivery system connected to the food cup,
food tube and a pellet dispenser outside the box.
The Skinner Box
◦This rat was just moving freely in any direction of the
box
◦Out of curiosity it pressed the lever and the food
pellet dropped into the box
◦Because the rat was hungry, it ate the food
◦It continued to make several pressing because it was
rewarded with food.
Theory
◦In operant conditioning the stimuli that caused the rat to press
the bar was not specified. Whether it was hunger, curiosity,
fear, wanting to go outside, nobody knows
◦Operant conditioning theory view learning as a spontaneous
action of a person or an animal towards things in his/ her
environment.
◦Our actions are followed by something good or maybe by some
painful experiences.
◦The fact remains that both people and animals are busy acting
in their environments
Theory
◦When our actions are rewarded or followed by a pleasing
consequences, we tend to repeat that action.
◦When our action is followed by painful consequences we stop
acting that way.
◦Skinner called anything that is anything that increases the
frequency of the behaviour preceded it is a reinforcer.
◦Operant conditioning view learning as controlled by
reinforcement than by stimuli as classical conditioning states
Theory
◦The primary responsibility of the teacher is not mainly to know
how to decide on effective stimuli as per classical conditioning,
but rather on how to decide on effective reinforcements
◦A reinforcement is a follow-up stimuli to strengthen a desired
behaviour.
◦Anything that increases the frequency of the behaviour that
preceded it, it is a reinforcer.
◦Hence operant conditioning theory follows a R-S pattern
Types of Reinforcement
◦Skinner divided the reinforcements into
different categories and types
◦Primary reinforcements: A primary
reinforcement are those used to satisfy
physiological needs such as hunger, thirsty
and so forth. These are food and drinks that
are used to encouraged the desired responses.
Types of Reinforcement
◦Using food items to motivate learners to increase their efforts
is not recommended in any educational situations. They are
expensive and sometimes dangerous. You also do not know
what are the prohibited diets of different learners.
◦Secondary reinforcement: Secondary
reinforcements include things such as verbal praise,
medals, certificates, smiles of appreciation, free time
and other tokens of appreciations.
Types of Reinforcement
◦Positive reinforcement: Increases the desired
behavior. Rewarding the student on good
performance is an example of positive reinforcement.
◦Negative reinforcement: Removal of a homework
for a learners who got all the classroom activities
correct, would increase the good performance in
classroom activities. A negative reinforcement is the
removal of something to increase the desired
response.
Types of Reinforcement
◦Punishment is the addition of something to
decrease an undesired behavior. Punishment is a
follow-up stimuli that decreases the frequencies of an
undesired behavior.
◦Continuous reinforcement: Reinforcing an
organism each time it makes a correct response. This
is effective when you teach something new.
Types of Reinforcement
◦Intermittent reinforcement: Reinforcing the organism after
it has made more than one correct response. This
reinforcement is given to an organism after it has acquired
some mastery over a given task.
◦The disadvantage of continuous reinforcement is that when is
discontinued, the learned material or behavior is decreased,
Extincted/ forgotten
◦The teacher must decide as to how many correct responses
must the learners make before he/she can be reinforced/
rewarded.
Types of Reinforcement
◦ Intermitted reinforcements can be applied in four ways .
◦ These are called schedules of reinforcements based on the
amount of work that a learners is expected to complete before
he/she can receive a reinforcement. They are also based on time
that is allowed to pass between one reinforcement and the other.
◦ Schedules of reinforcements
◦ Fixed ratio schedule: A learner is rewarded after the task is
completed. A worker is paid when the work is done. The time it
takes to complete the work is not important, but the amount of
work done is what matters.
Schedules of reinforcements
◦Fixed interval schedule: In this case the
timing of reinforcement is scheduled and does
not necessarily consider the amount of work
completed by the person or the learner.
◦Some people receive their pay weekly, others
get it monthly. The interval at which they
receive this reinforcement is fixed.
Schedules of reinforcements
◦Teachers can also fix the intervals/ time periods at which their
reinforcement can be effected.
◦A weekly test, a monthly test and so on can be used to
increase the frequencies of studying behavior among the
learners. To maintain the behavior of studiousness the teacher
can decide how he want to organize his or her means of
reinforcement.
Schedules of reinforcements
◦Variable ratio schedule: This is an opposite of a schedule
that is fixed ratio and so In a variable ratio schedule of
reinforcement the total amount of work that a learner must
complete to be rewarded is not fixed. The learner cannot easily
predict as to how much more work must be accomplished to
receive this reinforcement.
◦A gambler is never sure as to when to hit the jackpot.
Schedules of reinforcements
◦He/she keeps on gambling
◦This is the same with a learner who does not know when they
are going to be tested. They just have to keep on studying all
the units as they are never sure of the amount of work that
would be included in the test.
◦Variable interval schedule: This form of reinforcements
keeps a learner always expecting, because she does not know
the hour, day, week or month that the reinforcement will be
effected. The time is never the same as the previous one. It is
consistently changing.
Shaping
◦The teacher break a task that she want learners to master into
smaller steps and sub-skills.
◦Every time a learner accomplished a step, he or she is
reinforced or rewarded until the entire task is mastered.
Educational implications of operant conditioning
The teacher is responsible for student learning.
Children learn effectively when their responses are rewarded
Teachers have to know how to sustain learners interest and
attention in what they do.
Educational implications of operant conditioning
◦Teachers can decide on the types of reinforcements that
they want to use to increase learning.
◦They can also decide how they want to use each
schedule for a good purpose.
◦They can arrange with students on how many units are
tested in each and every test (Fixed ratio schedule)
◦The number or amount of units to be tested can vary
from one test to another (Variable ratio schedule)
Educational implications of operant
conditioning
◦Fixed interval schedule whereby students write a
test at the end of every month increases learning
behavior, however regular scheduled test at any
time on a variable interval schedule encourages
more continuous learning as students are never sure
as to when to expect a test
◦While classical conditioning theory emphasized the
power of stimuli in enhancing the learning outcomes,
operant conditioning the stimuli is unknown.
Educational implications of operant
conditioning
◦What is known is the animal’s operational behavior followed by
a reinforcement which might be pleasant or unpleasant in
nature and would determine whether the behavior would
increase or decrease.
◦Teaching machines and programmed instruction.
◦Some teaching machines are programed based on classical
conditioning theory. A learner follow the prescribed instruction to
operate the machine. Think of how you have learned the
Microsoft office application programs
◦
Teaching machines and programmed
instruction
◦Each step you are required to complete a specified action.
◦A learner is provided with a test in the computer game
◦Each time this is done he/she is provided with the correct
answers to compare with his/ her own trials
◦If the answers are correct the learners would try the next
questions.
◦If not, he might review the information again.
The use of operant conditioning as a behavioral
modification technique
◦Punishment: A follow up stimuli used to decrease the
frequencies of an undesired behaviour.
◦ Response cost: Detaining a learner to go home or to a break
due to his/her misbehaviour.
◦Time out: Removing a learner who behave undesirable and put
him/her somewhere in the classroom.
◦Premask principle: If you give the good grades I will buy you a
laptop. Discourage laziness/encourage studiousness. This if then
statements or Grandma rules are used very often
◦ satiation
The use of operant conditioning as a behavioral
modification technique
◦Behavioural contracts: Teachers and learners sign an
agreement and work towards realizing it.
◦Cueing: Giving a non-verbal signal like a look of dismay to
indicate that a particular behaviour is not acceptable.
◦NB: Behavioural view of learning is that both desirable and
undesirable behaviour can be learned and unlearned through
associating a stimuli and another stimuli or a response and the
consequences that followed.
Difference between classical conditioning and
operant conditioning.
In classical conditioning stimuli that caused a person or an
◦ 1.
animal to react or operate in his/ its’ environment is known
and observable in the environment.
◦In operant conditioning the stimuli that caused someone to
react is not definite or is not known. We can never be sure of
the causes, they can be many.
◦In operant conditioning an animal is freely acting upon his/her
environment. What caused it to act is unknown. Successful
actions are reinforced and unsuccessful ones are not
reinforced, hence they die or become Extincted.
Difference between classical conditioning and operant
conditioning .
◦In classical conditioning what causes certain behavior is
known, just observe in the environment to get to know which
events causes certain responses. Use them to elicit the
responses you want.
◦It is up to the teacher to make up the correct choice of stimuli
to get an appropriate response
