Operant Conditioning by B.F.Skinner:

Skinner was one of the influential psychologists in behaviorism. He made his reputations by testing and taking a step above the experiments of Watson and Pavlov, another two influential psychologists. He dismissed the notion that organisms were passive and they do not have any control over their behavior. He believed that we behave in certain ways because if we act in certain ways it provides us a particular consequence (Coon, Mitterer, Talbot, & Vanchella, 2010.). He further believed that our behaviors are determined by the pleasant and unpleasant consequences of our behavior. Therefore, according to him organisms are clearly a thing which could be operated in any way we want if we provide them a pleasant consequence of that particular action. Skinner did several experiments to explain his notion using animals such as mice and pigeons. He carried these experiments in a box which was named as “Skinner box” where the behavior can be measured and controlled (Cohen, 2009). The experiment which was used the rat will be further demonstrated.

Fig.1: Skinner box

            Skinner placed a hungry rat in the box like the one shown in Fig.1. Inside the box was a bar connected to a pallet (food) dispenser. The rat was all alone in the box therefore he was running here and there exploring the box. When the rat was running around, exploring the box in different angles, at some point he found a bar in the box. He then pressed the bar; not knowing what would be the consequence. But when he pressed the bar, a small food pallet was released. The hungry rat ate the food pallet and the behavior was soon again continued. It was because the rat was hungry and was in need for food and by pressing the bar his desired response was made, a pallet of food. Thereby he wants to repeat the response and therefore he made the action, pressing the bar. After this behavior of the rat, Skinner concluded that a behavior reinforced by a pleasant consequence increases the probability of that behavior occurring in the future (Henton & Iversen, 2011) since in his experiment, the food reinforces bar pressing and soon the rate of pressing the bar increased.

            Skinner wanted to know the consequence if he stopped giving the food even if the rat pressed the bar. Therefore, he disconnected the food dispenser. When the rat pressed the bar there was no food released. But before skinner offered food every time the rat pressed the bar. By not providing the food even if the rat pressed the bar, the action, pressing the bar was less frequent and finally at some point the action totally was diminished. After this response of the rat, skinner was quite sure of his experiment. He then concluded that if a pleasant consequence is rewarded to particular behavior, then the behavior increases and in similar way, if an unpleasant consequence is followed by the particular behavior, the behavior decreases (Henton & Iversen, 2011).

            Skinner then varied the experiment by linking it to the light. The condition was that the food will be released only by pressing the bar when the light was on but if the light was off there will not be any food rewarded. Soon the rat figured out this condition and he began pressing the bar when the light was on and avoided pressing the bar when the light was off. Based on this experiment, Skinner was assured that animal is active and the occurrence of increase of response is followed by its consequence, reinforce (Cohen, 2009). He introduced the word “operant” after this experiment which means that organisms operate on the environment.