Operant Conditioning

A DifferentKind of Learning

Operant Conditioning

• Involves:

Learning not to do something because it would produce a punishing effect.

Learning to do something because it produces a rewarding effect.

• Learning a Voluntary Response.

Skinner’s Experiment

• A mouse would receive food, a reward, if he pressed a lever.

• The mouse then learned to press the lever because he wanted food.

Skinner Box

Classical Conditioning: Learning Involuntary

ResponsesUnconditionedResponse(UCR)

NeutralStimulus (NS)

UnconditionedStimulus(UCS)

+

ConditionedStimulus (CS)

ConditionedResponse (CR)

How Could We Teach This Girl to Hate Ice Cream?

Through Classical Conditioning

+Ice Cream (NS)

Shock (UCS)

Unhappiness (UCR)

Ice Cream (CS)

Unhappiness (CR)

Through Operant Conditioning

• Give her a reward each time she doesn’t eat ice

cream when others do.

• Punish her for eating ice cream.