Operant conditioning chamber

An operant conditioning chamber (also known as a Skinner box) is a laboratory apparatus used to study animal behavior.

An animal is placed in the box where it must learn to activate levers or respond to light or sound stimuli for reward.

[6] It is believed that psychologist Clark Hull and his Yale students coined the expression "Skinner box".

[7] In 1898, American psychologist, Edward Thorndike proposed the 'law of effect', which formed the basis of operant conditioning.

The puzzle box trapped the animals until they moved a lever or performed an action which triggered their release.

[10] Through his experiments, Skinner discovered the law of operant learning which included extinction, punishment and generalization.

[10] Skinner designed the operant conditioning chamber to allow for specific hypothesis testing and behavioural observation.

When the correct action is performed the animal receives positive reinforcement in the form of food or other reward.

The outside shell of an operant conditioning chamber is a large box big enough to easily accommodate the animal being used as a subject.

[5] The other minimal requirement of an operant conditioning chamber is that it has a means of delivering a primary reinforcer such as a food reward.A simple configuration, such as one response mechanism and one feeder, may be used to investigate a variety of psychological phenomena.

Modern operant conditioning chambers may have multiple mechanisms, such as several response levers, two or more feeders, and a variety of devices capable of generating different stimuli including lights, sounds, music, figures, and drawings.

Some configurations use an LCD panel for the computer generation of a variety of visual stimuli or a set of LED lights to create patterns they wish to be replicated.

[14] Operant conditioning chambers have become common in a variety of research disciplines especially in animal learning.

[10] Skinner's theory of operant conditioning played a key role in helping psychologists understand how behavior is learned.

Skinner box
Students using a Skinner box
An old black and white drawing of a puzzle box used by Edward Thorndike. The box looks similar to a cage with an opening at the front. The front door is connected to wiring which connects to a lever.
Original puzzle box designed by Edward Thorndike
A rat presses a button in an operant conditioning chamber.
On the left are two mechanisms including two levers and light signals. There is a light source and speaker above the box and an electrified floor at the bottom.
A pigeon is pecking at one of four lights which corresponds with the coloured stimuli presented. It correctly pecks the yellow light (was shown a yellow image) and is therefore, rewarded with food pellets.
A pigeon offering the correct response to stimuli is rewarded with food pellets.