Operant Conditioning Program Analysis

This study, conducted as a requirement for an introductory psychology course, was an investigation of how learning principles such as reinforcement and punishment could be applied to improve conditions in everyday life. In particular, I was studying to see if positive reinforcement would help me to increase my daily water intake. Conceptually defined, daily water intake is the act of drinking water by mouth on a day-to-day basis, in order to keep body cells hydrated and functional. The positive reinforcement I used was a treat of bite-sized Hershey bars, a candy of chocolate. I had hypothesized that I would remember to drink water more often during the day if I rewarded myself for remembering during the intervention period.

Within the concept of operant conditioning, there are various simple schedules of reinforcement that are a part of our daily routine. Operant conditioning is a category of learning that invokes consequences, either negative or positive, as a way to increase or decrease behaviors (Powel, Honey & Symbaluk, 2013, p. 264) Schedules of reinforcement, such as fixed ratio, variable interval, fixed interval and variable ratio, are used as ways to strengthened or weaken those wanted or unwanted behaviors (Powel, Honey & Symbaluk, 2013, pp. 271-279). When applying these fundamental concepts to real world scenarios, it is crucial to first acknowledge which behavior is to be strengthened or weakened and then proceed with the conditioning.

Operant conditioning is the effects punishment and reinforcement have on behavior; “the law of effect, which states that behaviors associated with good consequences (satisfiers) are more likely to occur again in the future, whereas behaviors associated with bad consequences (annoyers) are less likely to occur again” (Durwin 162). This is a necessary component used by many psychologists and educators to provide the best positive outcome in a child’s behavior. When analyzing the “Billy Scenario,” it is obvious that the teacher, Ms. Allen, tried different techniques of punishment to decrease the students’ misbehavior, but was unsuccessful; leading to an increase in the frequency of response or more disruptive behavior.

1. Operant conditioning is a type of behavioral learning developed by made famous by psychoanalysis B.F. Skinner in the late 1930’s. Operant conditioning is the act of learned behavior through consequences. Types of operant conditioning are positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment.

Bobby will never know when we he is going to get the positive reinforcement so he will continue to maintain the desired behavior. Mr. Kelly could write down 3 rewards on strips of paper and place them in a jar with blanks strips of paper. Every time Bobby cleans his room, he gets to draw from the jar until he gets a reward. This will also produce a high rate of responding, but minimize post-reinforcement pause. Using operant conditioning paired with positive reinforcement with schedules that offer the reinforcement so that the behavior response happens quickly and often is the best process of behavior modification for this specific case (Cooper, Heron, Heward, 2007).

Skinner believed that, “any human action is the result of consequences of our actions. Positive reinforcement involves providing a reinforcing stimus to an organism” (Charles, Senter, & Barr, 1998). Behavior is shaped by consequences, therefore, reinforcements must be immediate (A. C. Juhasz, personal communication, February 12, 2016). From this perspective, my student, who falls asleep during class needs a positive reinforcement in her life to stop her from sleeping during class. Right now she is sleeping during class because she has no positive reinforcement to make her want to do otherwise. Because she has no motivation not to sleep, as the teacher, I should be thinking of positive reinforcements to keep my student awake. There are several aspects of positive reinforcement that I could consider using, including, social, graphic, activity, tangible, etc. Reinforcements must be immediate (A. C. Juhasz, personal communication, February 12, 2016). Therefore, if she does not sleep through class than I should give a positive reinforcement immediately after. I like the idea that my students can choose their own actions, however every action shapes the next action. I can use positive reinforcements to keep my student awake, and therefore have a positive outcome of

According to Gewirtz and Peláez-Nogueras (1992), “B. F. Skinner contributed a great deal to advancing an understanding of basic psychological processes and to the applications of science-based interventions to problems of individual and social importance.” He contributed to “human and nonhuman behavior, including human behavioral development, and to various segments of the life span, including human infancy” (p. 1411). One of Skinner's greatest scientific discoveries was “single reinforcement” which became sufficient for “operant conditioning, the role of extinction in the discovery of intermittent schedules, the development of the method of shaping by successive approximation, and Skinner's break with and rejection of stimulus-response

Reinforcement is the main contributing factor in operant conditioning. There is more than one way to go about establishing reinforcement, if a delay occurs between the response and the reinforcement the response may not become strengthened. It is likely that if the reinforcement occurs immediately after the response that there will be a definite strengthening of the response. Continuous reinforcement is when reinforcement occurs at every instance of the desired response. Intermittent reinforcement occurs when a response is reinforced some of the time. The different schedules of reinforcement influence patterns of response. Intermittent schedules offer greater resistance to extinction than continuous schedules.

The behavior I have chosen to do my modification program on is increasing the amount of time I work out every time I go to the gym until I reach my target goal. My target goal is to work out for an hour and half every time I go to the gym in the morning. When I go to the gym I will be taking a stop watch to time the amount of time I work out to verify that I reached my goal as well as mark my calendar every day that I go stating how long I worked out for. To make sure I was committed to the goal I wrote down six reasons/benefits of making this behavior change that are both short term and long term. They are feeling better about myself throughout the day, getting to wear the dress I want to be able to fit by my birthday on July 24th, increasing my endurance for marathons, improving my mood, sleeping better, also something to enjoy doing with my husband. There are many more but these are the ones I placed on my bathroom mirror, on my desk lamp at work, on my dashboard in my car, the table next to my front door that holds my gym bag and shoes, on my fridge and in my husband’s truck in case he drives. I also let my husband know my goal and also invited him to come with me so he could monitor that I am actually sticking with my plan daily. I also had stated the table next to the door holds my gym bag and shoes so if I was to walk outside I automatically see them there taunting me to take them and go to the gym. I also put a reminder on my phone each day of my goal and why it

Additionally, many practical applications of the theory were developed from animal training to human education and in many cases such applications have been shown to be efficient in producing behavioral change (Hill, 2001).

Operant conditioning is a type of learning which occurs through either receiving reinforcement or punishment for a behavior. This type of learning creates an association between a behavior and consequence for that behavior. The four types of operant conditioning are positive reinforcement, positive punishment, negative reinforcement, and negative punishment. If operant conditioning was used properly it could be used to solve a variety of social and resource dilemmas; especially in the case of the cattle ranchers and overgrazing.

One principal of operant conditioning that I would incorporate into a weight loss program for my roommate is positive reinforcement, which is one of the two types of reinforcement that adds a stimulus to promote a positive behavior. Positive reinforcement also strengthens the probability of a response of a healthy diet and exercise. I will award him whenever he completes a workout or other healthy behaviors, which can be choosing healthy food options, or choosing water instead of sugary drinks. I will also give him rewards, such as letting him watch television or hang out with friends. Negative reinforcement is the other type of reinforcement. Negative reinforcement occurs when something already present is removed as a result of a person's

Operant conditioning, is defined as an organism developing a link between its behaviors and consequences that follow those behaviors. The goal of operant conditioning is to develop a desired behavior in response to a given stimulus. When teaching a dog to roll over, the trainer wants the dog to rollover in response to his command. In this way the dog rolling onto its back is the

Skinner’s reinforcement experiments conducted on rats showed the principles of operant conditioning. While working with rats, Skinner would place them in a Skinner box with a lever attached to a feeding tube. After multiple trials, rats learned the connection between the lever and food, and started to spend more time in the box procuring food than performing any other action. He used positive reinforcement, and negative reinforcement to produce or inhibit specific target behaviors. Therefore, if a specific behavior is reinforced then the probability of that behavior occurring again is increased. Based on Skinner’s view, this theory can be applied to learning because learning is nothing more than a change in behavior. Operant conditioning encourages positive reinforcement, which can be applied in the classroom environment to get the good behavior you want and need from students. One of the ways of reinforcing a student’s behavior is through praise. Also teachers can build operant conditioning techniques into their lesson plans to teach children possible skills as well as good behaviors. For example: to give a smiley face, or motivational stamps to encourage children to perform correctly and encourage them to repeat such action again.

For my experiment, I’m going to be training myself. I will be teaching myself how to work out without taking it lightly and without missing a day. I’m going to teach myself that with good habits I can do whatever I want. Normally, I’m lazy so I don’t like to go to the gym if it’s not mandatory but for this experiment I’m going to force myself. For this experiment, I will be using the positive reinforcement so after I go to the gym I’m going to get an award. I choose the positive reinforcement over the others because with this method it will help my behavior to be repeated. By using the negative reinforcement, I’m going to have to remove an unpleasant stimulus if I don’t go to the gym and I won’t be motivate. By putting a punishment it can decrease the frequency of my behavior. My reinforce after going to the gym will be my friend has to cook for me at night, because I’m always hungry at night, I don’t know how to cook and the cafeteria is close, so I got my friend helping me. My reinforce is going to be considering as a primary reinforce because it is a naturally reinforcing. My schedule of reinforcement will be the fixed interval. It will reinforce the first response after a fixed time period that will be every time I finish working out. I choose this schedule of reinforcement over the others because in the fixed-ratio schedules I didn’t like that fact that after a certain number I get my reinforce. In the variable ratio and the variable interval, I didn’t liked that it’s