Psych 101: Beginner Operant Condition

 Edward Thorndike discovered operant conditioning 

 "As he conducted a series of experiments based around the test  subject, a cat, learning how to traverse a puzzle box. The experiment  was set up so that the hungry cat was locked in a cage while a dish of  food waited just outside of it. There was a series of levers and  mechanics the cat had to operate in order to unlock the cage and  retrieve the food.  

What Thorndike found as a result of these studies was that the cat  slowly and over time learned the precise steps required in order to be  released from the locked cage. This was a slow and gradual process which  suggested that the cat did not suddenly and fully understand how to  unlock the cage. Instead, the cat learned, through trial and error, the  steps required for the cage to be unlocked.  

 From this famous experiment,  Thorndike established the law of effect which defines the  relationship between a behavior and a response. In essence, if a certain  action or behavior had a positive effect on the test subject, there was  more of a reason for the subject to perform it again. On the other  hand, if a behavior had a negative effect, it was less likely to be  performed in the future. This provided the basis for our modern  understanding of operant condition which is learning based on the  association of consequences with behavior.  

Operant conditioning  did not enter the popular stage of psychology and become fully  detailed until the work of a famous psychologist named B.F. Skinner. His  special contraption dubbed a Skinner box, embodies all of the basic  elements of operant conditioning, basically, it was a box that held a  lever that was pulled in order for the animal inside of it to get food.  A reinforcer is any product or action that causes pleasure in the  subject, while reinforcement is the process of the subject receiving the  reinforcer. In the instance of a Skinner box, the food pellet acts as  the reinforcer while the animals receiving the food is reinforcement.  Reinforcement can further be split into positive reinforcement and  negative reinforcement.  

 Positive reinforcement  is defined as any action which adds something pleasant to the  environment of the subject, such as giving food or providing heat in a  cold room. Negative reinforcement is the process of removing unpleasant  conditions from the environment of the subject. An example of negative  reinforcement is eliminating a loud noise that is constantly in the  environment  In addition to reinforcement, punishment is another process that can  be used to shape the behavior of a test subject. Punishment, overall, is  affecting behavior by using unpleasant consequences and like  reinforcement; it can be split into two categories. Positive punishments  is when unpleasant conditions are used on the subject.  

 For instance, if every time a mouse pulls a lever,  it is given a small shock to discourage it from doing so, a positive  punishment was used. Negative punishment is the removal of a pleasant  condition already present, such as taking away  food whenever the animal  pushes a lever.  In general, it is very easy to confuse the names of these different  processes. A simple trick to remember them correctly is to remember that  the first of the two terms refers to whether something is added or  taken away from the subject. When the term begins with positive,  something is added. When the term begins with negative, something is  taken away. The second term defines whether the overall process is  pleasant or unpleasant for the subject.  

 Reinforcement is positive while punishment is negative.  Overall, Operant Condition is distinctly different from classical  condition. while classical conditions involve shaping one's behaviors  based on the responses provided by the system the subject is in. "

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