Operant Conditioning Made Easy

The work of the Psychologist B.F. Skinner made great strides in research on the Human Brain. Skinner has discovered that most of the decisions and problem-solving techniques of the human brain relate to conditioning. Skinner did experiments with rats and pigeons and discovered that by putting the animals in a cage they would learn to press a lever in order to get food. Skinner calls this behavior operant or instrumental conditioning. (Morris & Maisto 2005)

Skinner also experimented on negative and positive reinforcement and learned that both would produce a new behavior. However, he found that punishment suppresses undesirable behavior but does not necessarily teach a better behavior.

Skinner also found that animals and humans have what he called Superstitious behavior. He found this by doing experiments on birds. He found that if he rewarded the birds with food they would repeat any behavior done just prior to the reward of food. Humans also have this superstition. For example… if you gamble the first time and win, say by putting money in a slot machine, you will be more likely to keep putting money in the slot machine even if you are losing. (Morris & Maisto 2005)

Reference

Morris C.G., Maisto A.A. (2005), Psychology: an introduction, Twelfth edition, Prentice-Hall, Copyright 2005 by Pearson Education