Operant conditioning

Consider you're driving home from a long, exhaustive hunt. Your older brother is in unusually high spirits and insists on getting some pie. An odd choice but you agree that a sweet treat is exactly what you need right about now. So you decide to pull into your local Denny’s to try their take on a cherry pie. The moment your brother bites into the pie, he begins uttering words that you’ve never heard before. What on earth is “scrumdiddlyumptious” and how can a pie possibly do something like that? Is it really that good? You follow suit and it turns out, your brother was right. It really is THAT good. You and your brother leave feeling satiated and satisfied. A week later, after another hunting trip, you're both hungry again and find yourselves pulling into the same Denny’s without giving it much thought.

This is a simple example of operant conditioning, a type of learning in which behaviour is influenced by the consequences that follow it. If a behaviour leads to a desirable outcome, you are more likely to do it again in the future. In your example, the operant behaviour was pulling into the Denny’s to order the cherry pie. The scrumptious meal that followed was a desirable outcome and it can increase the likelihood that you'll repeat that behaviour the next time you're hungry.

Note that operant conditioning does not require your active awareness. You may not consciously think through the decision to visit Denny’s each time; instead, the behaviour is modified by its consequences outside of your conscious awareness and does not require you to acknowledge that your behaviour has been operantly conditioned. This is known as automaticity of reinforcement.

Operant conditioning is classified into its four facets based on whether the behaviour is likely to increase or decrease, and whether a stimulus is added or removed as a consequence of the behaviour:

• Positive Reinforcement: Adding something desirable after a behaviour to increase the likelihood of its future occurrence. For example, receiving a delicious pie after pulling into Denny’s.

• Negative Reinforcement: Removing something unpleasant after a behaviour to increase the likelihood of its future occurrence. For example, relief from a headache after taking headache medication.

• Positive Punishment: Adding something unpleasant after a behaviour to decrease the likelihood of its future occurrence. For example, getting reprimanded by your teacher for disrupting the class.

• Negative Punishment: Removing something desirable after a behaviour to decrease the likelihood of its future occurrence. For example, getting fined for parking illegally. 

At first glance, operant conditioning may seem very similar to classical conditioning as they both involve learning through experience. In fact, the two processes often occur simultaneously. The distinction, however, lies in how learning occurs. Classical conditioning focuses on learning associations between events and/or stimuli while operant conditioning focuses on learning from the consequences of behaviour.

Let’s consider the example of you and your brother’s stop at Denny’s. According to classical conditioning, you may come to associate the taste of the cherry pie with the Denny’s logo, and eventually, the sight of the logo alone may trigger salivation. On the other hand, operant conditioning suggests that because you had a positive and enjoyable experience at Denny’s, you are more likely to return there in the future when you are hungry.

Classical and operant conditioning combine to provide a strong basis for understanding various aspects of human behaviour. Whether it be hunting with your brother or guzzling down a cherry pie immediately after, operant conditioning is constantly shaping behaviours through the consequences they produce.

References: -

Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (2020). Chapter 2: Introduction and basic concepts. In Applied Behavior Analysis, 3rd edition. Pearson Education, Inc.