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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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Poll
I understand that Skinner is not an S-R psychologist
o Yes, I understand Skinner is NOT an S-R psychologist 60%
o No, because Chomsky says he is, he MUST be an S-R psychologist. Chomsky is NEVER wrong! 0%
o What is an S-R Psychologist? 20%
o (drool) 20%
o give me money! 60%

Votes: 5
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What is operant behavior? | 41 comments (41 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)
Egil, quit it /nt (none / 1) (#1)
by nostalgiphile on Thu Oct 12, 2006 at 11:25:56 AM EST



"Depending on your perspective you are an optimist or a pessimist[,] and a hopeless one too." --trhurler
Soylent Green is operant behavior (none / 1) (#2)
by Enlarged to Show Texture on Thu Oct 12, 2006 at 11:41:14 AM EST

No, wait...


"Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do." -- Isaac Asimov
operant behavior is a new paradigm (3.00 / 5) (#3)
by Hung Three on Thu Oct 12, 2006 at 12:01:58 PM EST

a scalable enterprise-wide solution for managing company brand assets.

--
Behead those who insult Marx.
too simplistic (none / 1) (#4)
by army of phred on Thu Oct 12, 2006 at 12:20:59 PM EST

and entirely unuseful outside the realm of training pigeons.

The human mind is worth the study, but you can't just surrender to simple explanations like skinner and subsequently expect universal aclaim for your work.

"Republicans are evil." lildebbie
"I have no fucking clue what I'm talking about." motormachinemercenary
"my wife is getting a blowjob" ghostoft1ber

lol psyc 101 three times (3.00 / 2) (#5)
by thankyougustad on Thu Oct 12, 2006 at 12:45:14 PM EST

Even birdsong, for all its complexity, is largely stereotyped, more like human laughter than human discourse. Give or take a few notes, the song of any individual bird is repetitive to the point of monotony. Human talk, by contrast, is possessed of a virtually infinite variety, except perhaps in the case of politicians. The sheer inventiveness of human language is well illustrated in an anecdote involving the behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner and the eminent philosopher A. N. Whitehead. On an occasion in 1934, Skinner found himself seated at dinner next to Whitehead and proceeded to explain to him the behaviorist approach to psychology. Feeling obliged to offer a challenge, Whitehead uttered the following sentence: "No black scorpion is falling upon this table," and then asked Skinner to explain why he might have said that. It was more than twenty years before Skinner attempted a reply, in an appendix to his 1957 book Verbal Behavior. Skinner proposed that Whitehead was unconsciously expressing a fear of behaviorism, likening it to a black scorpion that he would not allow to intrude into his philosophy. (The skeptical reader might be forgiven for concluding that this reply owed more to psychoanalysis than to behaviorism.)


No no thanks no
Je n'aime que le bourbon
no no thanks no
c'est une affaire de goût.

baldrson? (none / 0) (#7)
by cDiss on Thu Oct 12, 2006 at 01:04:12 PM EST



ZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... (3.00 / 2) (#11)
by the spins on Thu Oct 12, 2006 at 01:55:53 PM EST

you must be a real blast at parties.

 _
( )
 X
/ \ SUPPORT THE DEL GRIFFITH MODBOMBING CAMPAIGN

Wow (none / 1) (#12)
by tetsuwan on Thu Oct 12, 2006 at 05:02:23 PM EST

This guy went on with a theory for well over 30 years that doesn't explain anything. What does his theory tell about us about how humans act in a complex environment? Nothing. If the option was to starve to death, most people would push a button at the right times. Brilliant.

Njal's Saga: Just like Romeo & Juliet without the romance

Behaviorism again (none / 0) (#15)
by HackerCracker on Thu Oct 12, 2006 at 06:10:30 PM EST

Anyone who know anything about the real world knows that Skinner was a charlatan and that Behaviorism is nothing more than a philosophy dressed up with a thin veneer of science. Some would say there's not even a thin veneer there, but I wouldn't go that far.

IGTT 1/10, 'cause people's still be bitin' on it.

if anybody wants me (none / 1) (#17)
by Wolf At Large on Thu Oct 12, 2006 at 06:44:52 PM EST

I'll be out manding for greenbacks


~ Why can't other people be like me and reach their goals ~ MMM
birds are dying. (none / 0) (#20)
by wampswillion on Thu Oct 12, 2006 at 08:22:24 PM EST



Pigeons fuck in front of me when they feel like it (none / 0) (#21)
by livus on Thu Oct 12, 2006 at 09:27:40 PM EST

pigeons say whay they mean. Chortle chortle coo peck on the neck means "let's fuck right here in front of Livus."

Humans don't say what they mean. They write books about shit like The Rules and Ladder Theory all about getting people to fuck without saying what you mean.

Freud 1 : Skinner 0

---
HIREZ substitute.
be concrete asshole, or shut up. - CTS
I guess I skipped school or something to drink on the internet? - lonelyhobo
I'd like to hope that any impression you got about us from internet forums was incorrect. - debillitatus
I consider myself trolled more or less just by visiting the site. HollyHopDrive

What is operant behavior? | 41 comments (41 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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