The box contains a bar or key that the organism can press to receive food and water as well as a device that records the organism’s responses. Skinner used a Skinner box to study operant learning. It also contains a device to record the animal’s responses.įigure 6.5. A Skinner box (see Figure 6.5) is a structure that is big enough to fit a rodent or bird and that contains a bar or key that the organism can press or peck to release food or water. Skinner created specially designed environments known as operant chambers - usually called Skinner boxes - to systematically study learning. Skinner (1904–1990) expanded on Thorndike’s ideas to develop a more complete set of principles to explain operant conditioning. Video: Thorndike-Puzzle Box (jenningh, 2007).The following YouTube link provides an example of this behaviour: Thorndike described the learning that follows reinforcement in terms of the law of effect. When Thorndike placed his cats in a puzzle box, he found that they learned to engage in the important escape behaviour faster after each trial. Unsuccessful responses, which produce unpleasant experiences, are “stamped out” and subsequently occur less frequently. The essence of the law of effect is that successful responses, because they are pleasurable, are “stamped in” by experience and thus occur more frequently. Observing these changes in the cats’ behaviour led Thorndike to develop his law of effect, which is the principle that responses that create a typically pleasant outcome in a particular situation are more likely to occur again in a similar situation, whereas responses that produce a typically unpleasant outcome are less likely to occur again in the situation (Thorndike, 1911). The next time the cat was constrained within the box, it attempted fewer of the ineffective responses before carrying out the successful escape, and after several trials, the cat learned to almost immediately make the correct response. Eventually, and accidentally, they pressed the lever that opened the door and exited to their prize, which was a scrap of fish. At first, the cats scratched, bit, and swatted haphazardly, without any idea of how to get out. Thorndike (1898) observed cats who had been placed in a “puzzle box” from which they tried to escape. Psychologist Edward Thorndike (1874–1949) was the first scientist to systematically study operant conditioning. How reinforcement and punishment influence behaviour: The research of Thorndike and Skinner In operant conditioning, the organism learns from the consequences of its own actions. Operant conditioning occurs when a dog rolls over on command because it has been praised for doing so in the past, when a schoolroom bully threatens classmates because doing so allows them to get their way, and when a child gets good grades because their parents threaten to punish them if they do not. Operant conditioning, on the other hand, is learning that occurs based on the consequences of behaviour and can involve the learning of new actions. The organism does not learn something new, but it begins to perform an existing behaviour in the presence of a new signal. In classical conditioning, the organism learns to associate new stimuli with natural biological responses such as salivation or fear. Explain how learning can be shaped through the use of reinforcement schedules and secondary reinforcers.Outline the principles of operant conditioning.
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