Operant
Conditioning vs. Classical Conditioning
When
dealing with behavior (learning or modifying) we are dealing with Operant Conditioning
and Classical Conditioning. For our purposes we will be dealing primarily with
Operant Conditioning. However, some understand of both will help. The following
is a brief summary.
Classical Conditioning: This describes an involuntary,
or automatic, response to a stimulus. This type of conditioning is sometimes referred
to as respondent conditioning or Pavlovian conditioning as a result of Dr.
Pavlov's famous experiments with dogs early in the 20th century. Classical
conditioning is what happens when an animal learns associations among things.
Learning associations means learning that things go together. When one thing happens
(you burn your dinner), another thing will follow shortly (the smoke detector
goes off). You say "Let's go for a walk", your dog gets all excited
because he has learned that this particular phrase precedes going out for a walk.
Your cat runs to its food bowl when he hears the can opener because this often
signals feeding time. In each case, there is a predictable relationship among
the events and the animal learns to respond to the first event in anticipation
of the second event. Your dog learns that a treat comes after the sound of the
clicker.
Operant Conditioning: Operant conditioning is a set of principals that describe how an animal learns to survive in its environment through reinforcement (consequences). This is learning in which behaviors are altered by the consequences that follow them. If your dog "sits" and you give him a treat, he'll be more likely to repeat the behavior "sit". On the other hand, if the dog "sits" and is knocked in the head, it will be less likely to repeat the behavior. These responses were operantly conditioned. B.F. "Fred" Skinner first coined the term in 1938 in this book The Behavior of Organisms.
Within Operant Conditioning there are four possible consequences to behavior.
They are:
1. Positive Reinforcement: Your dog does something
you like, you give your dog something he likes. Your dog sits, comes, heels, fetches
the remote, does not chase after the cat or kids, you give him a treat. This will
increase the likelihood of the behavior occurring again. "Positive reinforcement
is the basis of all conditioning." (K. Pryor 1984)
2. Negative Reinforcement:
Involves the removal of a bad consequence when the response is performed. For
instance, you say "sit" and apply upward pressure on the leash which
tightens the choke chain around your dog's neck, your dog sits, and you stop choking
him with a choke chain. The release of the choke chain reinforces the "sit."
This also serves to increase the likelihood of the behavior in the future. However,
it can be (and often is) argued, that this is technically a punishment. It is
not pleasant and the dog learns to sit to avoid being choked.
3. Positive
Punishment: Involves the presentation (adding) of a bad consequence when the
response is performed. For instance, you say "sit", your dog lies down,
and you jerk him onto his feet with the leash. This serves to decrease the likelihood
of the response in the future. We see positive punishment a lot: child hit brother,
parent spanks child; person drives after drinking, person ends up in jail; puppy
pees on floor, puppy gets hit with rolled up newspaper.
4. Negative Punishment:
Involves the removal of a good consequence when the response is performed.
For instance, you say "sit", your dog lies down, and you eat the treat
you were about to give the dog. You begin to pet your dog and he begins to paw
and mouth on you, you STOP petting and ignore him. This also serves to decrease
the likelihood of the response in the future; the dog's behavior causes what he
wants and likes (your petting) to go away.
We focus primarily on positive reinforcement to shape behavior we want and negative punishment to eliminate behavior we don't want.
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