Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Reinforcement and punishment are the core tools through which operant behavior is modified. These terms are defined by their effect on behavior. "Positive" and "negative" refer to whether a stimulus was added or removed, respectively. Similarly, "reinforcement" and "punishment" refer to the future frequency of the behavior.
By controlling this reinforcement together with discriminative stimuli such as lights and tones, or punishments such as electric shocks, experimenters have used the operant box to study a wide variety of topics, including schedules of reinforcement, discriminative control, delayed response ("memory"), punishment, and so on.
Though punishment may seem just the opposite of reinforcement, Skinner claimed that they differ immensely, saying that positive reinforcement results in lasting behavioral modification (long-term) whereas punishment changes behavior only temporarily (short-term) and has many detrimental side-effects.
B. F. Skinner expanded upon Thorndike's existing work. [9] Skinner theorized that if a behavior is followed by a reward, that behavior is more likely to be repeated, but added that if it is followed by some sort of punishment, it is less likely to be repeated. He introduced the word reinforcement into Thorndike's law of effect. [10]
Reinforcing consequences increase the likelihood of a behavior occurring in the future; it is further divided into positive and negative reinforcement. Punishing consequences decrease the likelihood of a behavior occurring in the future; like reinforcement, it is divided into positive and negative punishment. An example of punishment may ...
It describes the general relation between resistance to change (persistence of behavior) and the rate of reinforcement obtained in a given situation. B. F. Skinner (1938) proposed that all behavior is based on a fundamental unit of behavior called the discriminated operant. The discriminated operant, also known as the three-term contingency ...
Shaping is a conditioning paradigm used primarily in the experimental analysis of behavior.The method used is differential reinforcement of successive approximations.It was introduced by B. F. Skinner [1] with pigeons and extended to dogs, dolphins, humans and other species.
Behavior modification was a treatment approach that used respondent and operant conditioning to change behavior. Based on methodological behaviorism, [1] overt behavior was modified with (antecedent) stimulus control and consequences, including positive and negative reinforcement contingencies to increase desirable behavior, as well as positive and negative punishment, and extinction to reduce ...