What is operant behavior? By 1419 in 1419's Diary Thu Oct 12, 2006 at 10:55:39 AM EST Tags: Operant, operant conditioning, behavior, b.f. skinner, behavior analysis, watson, reflex (all tags)
	A brief look at operant conditioning, with a brief comparison of the reflex, and some background on behaviorism.

What is an operant? An operant is a name for what is commonly called "volitional" behavior (i.e . "freely chosen"). The operant has been widely documented in thousands of experiments on animals and humans. Skinner has extended the analysis of operant behavior to the field of what is commonly called "language" in his book "Verbal Behavior". The basic components of operant conditions are a discriminative stimulus, a response, a consequence and a motivating operation. These are commonly abbreviated as Sd, R, Sr+/- and MO. A simple example from pigeon research allows for clarity in the definitions. A pigeon is placed on dietary restriction that brings it down to 85% of its free feeding weight. This motivation operation (MO) makes food a reinforcer for behavior that produces it. We place the pigeon in an operant conditioning chamber and turn on a small green light to signal the availability of food reinforcement for key pecking. The little green light is a discriminative stimulus (Sd). The relationship of food for key pecks is a reinforcer (Sr+). The key pecking is the response(R). In this condition we should see a continuous key pecking for food demonstrated. The key pecking is a function of the contingencies of reinforcement. There is no need to say that the pigeon is exercising "will" or "choice". The pigeon is operating on its environment. The consequences of doing so are strengthened. The probability of the response increases as a result. Skinner's analysis of verbal behavior says that human verbal behavior follows the same underlying functional laws. One class of verbal behavior is a "mand". The mand name is a mnemonic that implies command, demand, etc. This behavior is sometimes said to "describe" its reinforcer. So when we say "give me money" we are "manding" for the money. Our emission of this verbal response will go up if we get the money. It will go down if we do not get the money. To use the four-term contingency above: A motivating operation (MO) of money deprivation occurs to our participant. An opportunity to obtain money arises with the presentation of an individual who is discriminative stimulus(Sd) for the presentation of money. The verbal operant(R) "Give me money" is emitted in the presence of the person. The person gives them money, positively reinforcing(Sr+) their behavior. There is no difference here. Skinner says the same underlying principle is in operation. There is no need to invent elaborate cognitive structures, language acquisition devices, genetically based grammars, expectancies, traits, reflexes, etc. In fact, the strength of Skinner's formulation is its simplicity and what it leaves out. What operant conditioning is not. Skinner's discovery of the operant is not a reflex. It is not a part of what is called Pavlovian , respondent or classical conditioning. There is generally some overlap in the two processes but they are fundamentally different (for example, in receiving money or food our pigeon and human might get show some acceleration in heart rate, salivation, or what not). Respondent conditioning, which is the conditioning of reflexes, is dramatically different. In the basic reflex relationship we have the presentation of a stimulus - a small rubber mallet - to the organism - a knee - and a response - a small knee jerk. Thus the stimulus (S), the mallet, precedes the response (R) - the patellar reflex jerk. This is always the case. What follows the reflex relationship is unimportant. Food to a hungry patient, money, sexual reinforcement and so on /following/ the tap will not in the slightest affect the basic reflex (unless the subject wants to "fake" the response with a volitional movement of the leg, in which case we are back in operant conditioning land, as above). The basic reflex can be conditioned. To use another example of a unconditioned reflex, when Pavlov presented meat powder to a dog the dog began to salivate. This presentation of a stimulus (S) - the meat powder, to the dog produced salivation (R). These are called "unconditioned" stimuli and responses or US and UR. Pavlov notices that the dogs, when fed repeatedly, started salivating before they were even fed - merely at the sound of footsteps that preceded feeding. With this, he began to systematically manipulate stimuli to study what he called "psychic secretions". The presentation of a neutral stimulus (NS) such as a metronome would produce no salivation in the dog. When exposed to the metronome, and then presented with meat powder, the dog would begin to salivate - after many trials - to the sound of the metronome alone. This meant that the NS had become a "conditioned" stimulus (CS). This is called "Pavlovian " conditioning. It is also called classical or respondent conditioning. John B. Watson, in his initial formulation of Behaviorism (of which Skinner's version is but a subset, called "Radical Behaviorism"), took Pavlov's reflexes as his basic mechanism to explain most or all human behavior. And thus was born the association of S-R or reflex psychology with Behaviorism. Skinner and others realized that the reflex was a poor explanation for a vast array of behavior. Skinner not only offered a second, separate mechanism to explain non-reflex behavior, he also radically changed the conceptual paradigm that Watson first offered. Warring on the problem of poor conceptualization, the use of hypothetical constructs as explanatory mechanisms and other similar practices, Skinner strove to offer a clean, systematic and consistent paradigm for the study of behavior that was solidly based on research that was capable of being replicated and based on solid animal research under controlled conditions. Skinner's position was so successful in displacing his contemporaries that Skinner's Radical Behaviorism became, as he noted in his book About Behaviorism, "the" Behaviorism. Older Behaviorisms found their way into the cognitive camp as "cognitive maps" and other constructs that Skinner and other Radical Behaviorists had no use for. Skinner's philosophy of Radical Behaviorism created the basis for a group of experimental psychologists who called their work, The Experimental Analysis of Behavior. Contemporary work in this area in applied settings is called "Applied Behavior Analysis". Two journals deserve particular note in documenting the experimental analysis of behavior. The first, The Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior is the oldest. The second, The Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis is the newer of the two. There are, by one count, about two dozen journals derived from this analytical system. Research derived from Skinner's work has contributed to areas as far ranging as behavioral pharmacology, work place safety, sports and motivation psychology, rehabilitation, and work with children and adults with disabilities and more. See also: John B. Watson, Ivan Pavlov, Behaviorism, Radical Behaviorism

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