Operant conditioning
Operant conditioning originated with Edward Thorndike, whose law of effect theorised that behaviors arise as a result of consequences as satisfying or discomforting.
[2] Operant conditioning, sometimes called instrumental learning, was first extensively studied by Edward L. Thorndike (1874–1949), who observed the behavior of cats trying to escape from home-made puzzle boxes.
By plotting escape time against trial number Thorndike produced the first known animal learning curves through this procedure.
[4] Humans appear to learn many simple behaviors through the sort of process studied by Thorndike, now called operant conditioning.
This usually happens without being planned by any "teacher", but operant conditioning has been used by parents in teaching their children for thousands of years.
These records were the primary data that Skinner and his colleagues used to explore the effects on response rate of various reinforcement schedules.
[12] In 1948 he published Walden Two, a fictional account of a peaceful, happy, productive community organized around his conditioning principles.
Example: a rat may be trained to press a lever only when a light comes on; a dog rushes to the kitchen when it hears the rattle of his/her food bag; a child reaches for candy when s/he sees it on a table.
The scope of operant analysis is expanded through the idea of behavioral chains, which are sequences of responses bound together by the three-term contingencies defined above.
For example, the light that sets the occasion for lever pressing may be used to reinforce "turning around" in the presence of a noise.
Behavior that is maintained by preventing a stimulus is called "avoidance," as, for example, putting on sun glasses before going outdoors.
[25] The first scientific studies identifying neurons that responded in ways that suggested they encode for conditioned stimuli came from work by Mahlon deLong[26][27] and by R.T.
These neurons are equally active for positive and negative reinforcers, and have been shown to be related to neuroplasticity in many cortical regions.
This network of pathways "releases a short pulse of dopamine onto many dendrites, thus broadcasting a global reinforcement signal to postsynaptic neurons.
[33][34] Strikingly, pigeons and rats persist in this behavior even when pecking the key or pressing the lever leads to less food (omission training).
[40] Reinforcement and punishment are ubiquitous in human social interactions, and a great many applications of operant principles have been suggested and implemented.
Positive and negative reinforcement play central roles in the development and maintenance of addiction and drug dependence.
The brain's reward system assigns it incentive salience (i.e., it is "wanted" or "desired"),[41][42][43] so as an addiction develops, deprivation of the drug leads to craving.
[41][42][43] These previously neutral stimuli acquire several properties: their appearance can induce craving, and they can become conditioned positive reinforcers of continued use.
The techniques of ABA have been effectively applied in to such things as early intensive behavioral interventions for children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD)[45] research on the principles influencing criminal behavior, HIV prevention,[46] conservation of natural resources,[47] education,[48] gerontology,[49] health and exercise,[50] industrial safety,[51] language acquisition,[52] littering,[53] medical procedures,[54] parenting,[55] psychotherapy,[citation needed] seatbelt use,[56] severe mental disorders,[57] sports,[58] substance abuse, phobias, pediatric feeding disorders, and zoo management and care of animals.
[60] In addition, parents learn to select simple behaviors as an initial focus and reward each of the small steps that their child achieves towards reaching a larger goal (this concept is called "successive approximations").
[62] As stated earlier in this article, a variable ratio schedule yields reinforcement after the emission of an unpredictable number of responses.
Slot machines pay off on a variable ratio schedule, and they produce just this sort of persistent lever-pulling behavior in gamblers.
[63] Human beings have an innate resistance to killing and are reluctant to act in a direct, aggressive way towards members of their own species, even to save life.
Marshall (Brigadier General and military historian) undertook interview studies of WWII infantry immediately following combat engagement.
In the 1980s, during a visit to West Point, B.F. Skinner identified modern military marksmanship training as a near-perfect application of operant conditioning.[66]Lt.
[64]Nudge theory (or nudge) is a concept in behavioural science, political theory and economics which argues that indirect suggestions to try to achieve non-forced compliance can influence the motives, incentives and decision making of groups and individuals, at least as effectively – if not more effectively – than direct instruction, legislation, or enforcement.
[citation needed] The concept of praise as a means of behavioral reinforcement is rooted in B.F. Skinner's model of operant conditioning.
The practice has been tied to the same methods that slot machines and other gambling devices dole out rewards, as it follows a variable rate schedule.
Prabhu reviews the article by Cole and discusses how the responses of two groups of neurosurgeons are classic operant behavior.
