or responses, which are emitted by animals and human beings voluntarily and are under their control. The term operant is used because the organism operates on the environment. Conditioning of operant behaviour is called operant conditioning . Skinner conducted his studies on rats and pigeons in specially made boxes, called the Skinner Box .
A hungry rat (one at a time) is placed in the chamber, which was so built that the rat could move inside but could not come out. In the chamber there was a lever, which was connected to a food container kept on the top of the chamber (see Figure . ). When the lever is pressed, a food pellet drops on the plate placed close to the lever.
While moving around and pawing the walls (exploratory behaviour), the hungry rat accidentally presses the lever and a food pellet drops on the plate. The hungry rat eats it. In the next trial, after a while the exploratory behaviour again starts. As the number of trials increases, the rat takes lesser and lesser time to press the lever for food.
Conditioning is complete when the rat presses the lever immediately after it is placed in the chamber. It is obvious that lever pressing is an operant response and getting food is its consequence. response. They include its types – positive or negative, number or frequency, quality – superior or inferior, and schedule – continuous or intermittent (partial).
All these features influence the course of operant conditioning. Another factor that influences this type of learning is the nature of the response or behaviour that is to be conditioned. The interval or length of time that lapses between occurrence of response and reinforcement also influences operant learning. Let us examine some of these factors in detail.
Types of Reinforcement Reinforcement may be positive or negative. Positive reinforcement involves stimuli that have pleasant consequences. They strengthen and maintain the responses that have caused them to occur. Positive reinforcers satisfy needs, which include food, water, medals, praise, money, status, information, etc.
Negative reinforcers involve unpleasant and painful stimuli. Responses that lead