Realised that his dogs salivated before they were fed so tested his theory
The dogs learnt to associate the bell ringing with getting food so salivated every time they heard the same bell
This can be used in a school setting to teach a child to share their toy
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Operant Conditioning
Definition: Learning though reinforcing behaviours to encourage or discourage them
Thought up by Burrhus Frederic Skinner
There is positive and negative reinforcement and punishment
Positive reinforcement: To give something to encourage a behaviour e.g. Allowing a child to have a toy for sharing
Negative Reinforcement: To take something unpleasant away to encourage a behaviour e.g. not allowing a child to play outside until they finish their work
Positive Punishment: To give an unpleasant consequence to reduce the likelihood of a behaviour reoccurring e.g. making a child stand against the wall for hitting another child
Negative Punishment: To take away something pleasant to reduce the probability of a behaviour reoccurring e.g. to take a toy away from a child for not helping clean a classroom
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Operant Conditioning Example
Skinner simply put a rat in a box as show in Figure 3
He increased and reduced the possibility of a certain behaviour from reoccurring by:
Every time a lever was pressed a food pellet would come out (Positive reinforcement)
The rat would be electrocuted via the grid and when the lever was pressed the electric current would stop (Negative reinforcement)
Every time the lever was pressed an electric shock would be given (positive punishment)
Every time the lever was pressed nothing happened
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Evaluation: Positives
Positives:
Can easily be applied to a health and social care situation e.g. schools
Can be used to treat phobias by altering the associations with the phobia
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Evaluation: Negatives
Negatives:
Since dogs and rats are not like humans we cannot extrapolate the findings
If another form of treatment is tried it may work better
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