Operant Conditioning

If you want to keep on learning you must keep on risking failure - for the rest of your life.

Classical conditioning forms an association between two stimuli. Operant conditioning forms an association between a behavior and a consequence. (It is also called response-stimulus or RS conditioning because it forms an association between the animal's response [behavior] and the stimulus that follows [consequence])

Operant conditioning is a set of principals that describe how an animal learns to survive in its environment through reinforcement (consequences). This is learning in which behaviors are altered by the consequences that follow them. If your dog "sits" and you give him a treat, he'll be more likely to repeat the behavior "sit". On the other hand, if the dog "sits" and is knocked in the head, it will be less likely to repeat the behavior. These responses were operantly conditioned. B.F. "Fred" Skinner first coined the term in 1938 in this book The Behavior of Organisms.

Within Operant Conditioning there are four possible consequences to behavior.

They are:

Something Good can start or be presented;
Something Good can end or be taken away;
Something Bad can start or be presented;
Something Bad can end or be taken away.

Consequences have to be immediate, or clearly linked to the behavior. With verbal humans, we can explain the connection between the consequence and the behavior, even if they are separated in time. For example, you might tell a friend that you'll buy dinner for them since they helped you move, or a parent might explain that the child can't go to summer camp because of her bad grades. With very young children, humans who don't have verbal skills, and animals, you can't explain the connection between the consequence and the behavior. For the animal, the consequence has to be immediate. The way to work around this is to use a bridge

1. Positive Reinforcement: Your dog does something you like, you give your dog something he likes. Your dog sits, comes, heels, fetches the remote, does not chase after the cat or kids, you give him a treat. This will increase the likelihood of the behavior occurring again. "Positive reinforcement is the basis of all conditioning." (K. Pryor 1984)
2. Negative Reinforcement: Involves the removal of a bad consequence when the response is performed. For instance, you say "sit" and apply upward pressure on the leash which tightens the choke chain around your dog's neck, your dog sits, and you stop choking him with a choke chain. The release of the choke chain reinforces the "sit." This also serves to increase the likelihood of the behavior in the future. However, it can be (and often is) argued, that this is technically a punishment. It is not pleasant and the dog learns to sit to avoid being choked.
3. Positive Punishment: Involves the presentation (adding) of a bad consequence when the response is performed. For instance, you say "sit", your dog lies down, and you jerk him onto his feet with the leash. This serves to decrease the likelihood of the response in the future. We see positive punishment a lot: child hit brother, parent spanks child; person drives after drinking, person ends up in jail; puppy pees on floor, puppy gets hit with rolled up newspaper.
4. Negative Punishment: Involves the removal of a good consequence when the response is performed. For instance, you say "sit", your dog lies down, and you eat the treat you were about to give the dog. You begin to pet your dog and he begins to paw and mouth on you, you STOP petting and ignore him. This also serves to decrease the likelihood of the response in the future; the dog's behavior causes what he wants and likes (your petting) to go away.

We focus primarily on positive reinforcement to shape behavior we want and negative punishment to eliminate behavior we don't want.

	Reinforcement (behavior increases)
Positive (something added)	Positive Reinforcement: Something added increases behavior
Negative (something removed)	Negative Reinforcement Something removed increases behavior

Remember that these definitions are based on their actual effect on the behavior in question: they must reduce or strengthen the behavior to be considered a consequence and be defined as a punishment or reinforcement. Pleasures meant as rewards but that do not strengthen a behavior are indulgences, not reinforcement; aversives meant as a behavior weakener but which do not weaken a behavior are abuse, not punishment.

The person too old to learn was probably always too old to learn.