Question

Create an example of operant conditioning. Explain how your example is operant conditioning by identifying the desired behavior, undesired behavior, and how you would use the elements of operant conditioning (positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment) to produce the desired response.

Answer 1

The core concept of operant conditioning is simple: when a certain deliberate behavior is reinforced, that behavior will become more common. Psychology divides reinforcement into four main categories:

• Positive reinforcement
• Negative reinforcement
• Punishment
• Extinction

Timing and frequency are very important in reinforcement.

• A continuous reinforcement schedule (commonly abbreviated CRF) provides reinforcement for all noted behaviors. That is, every time the behavior occurs, reinforcement is provided.
• An intermittent reinforcement schedule (commonly abbreviated INT) reinforces some target behaviors but never all of them. Think of it like a slot machine. You won't win on every pull of the lever, but you do win sometimes, and that reinforces the behavior of pulling the lever.

Examples of Positive Reinforcement

Positive reinforcement describes the best known examples of operant conditioning: receiving a reward for acting in a certain way.

• Many people train their pets with positive reinforcement. Praising a pet or providing a treat when they obey instructions -- like being told to sit or heel -- both helps the pet understand what is desired and encourages it to obey future commands.

Examples of Negative Reinforcement

Negative reinforcement is a different but equally straightforward form of operant conditioning. Negative reinforcement rewards a behavior by removing an unpleasant stimulus, rather than adding a pleasant one.

• An employer offering an employee a day off is an example of negative reinforcement. Rather than giving a tangible reward, they reduce the presence of something undesirable; that is, the amount of time spent at work

Examples of Punishment

In psychology, punishment doesn't necessarily mean what it means in casual usage. Psychology defines punishment as something done after a given deliberate action that lowers the chance of that action taking place in the future. Whereas reinforcement is meant to encourage a certain behavior, punishment is meant to discourage a certain behavior.

• An employee who misses work may suffer a cut in wages. The loss of income (an undesired consequence) constitutes the punishment for missing work (an undesired behavior).

Just as there are examples of positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement, there are also examples of positive punishment (like the ones above) and negative punishment. With the latter, a positive situation is removed when an undesired behavior is performed. For example, a parent may take a favorite toy away from a child who is misbehaving.

Examples of Extinction

Psychology defines extinction as the loss of conditioning over time when the conditioning stimuli are no longer present. Over time, an animal (or person) will become less conditioned unless the stimuli that conditioned them in the first place is reapplied.

• An employee punished once for missing work, then never again, may become more likely to miss work later on because they no longer expect to be punished for absence.