Operant Conditioning

Operant conditioning is the process of changing behavior by providing reinforcement after a response.

Reinforcement is the process of increasing the future probability of the most recent response.

Positive reinforcement occurs by awarding a motivating item to a person after the desired behavior is presented, making the behavior more likely to happen in the future.

Negative reinforcement arises when a stimulus is removed after a undesired behavior occurred.

Punishment is a disciplinary action used when an undesired behavior is performed.

As an example of operant conditioning is the time my wife and I potty trained our baby girl. Therefore, the target behavior is using the potty. To prepare for this, we let our daughter watch videos with children using the toilet; we sang songs and read books. Then, one morning we told her that we didn’t have any more diapers and it was time for her to wear panties and she needed to use the potty. As a positive reinforcement we would give her a gummy bear any times she went