Behavior Modification

B. Theory of operant conditioning: Reinforcement of a specific stimulus-response pattern to condition individual to respond in a desirable way

C. Operant conditioning model: S( R( S

II. Historical Background and Major Theorists

Thorndike and the law of effect: Response to specific stimuli attributed to desire to increase satisfaction and decrease discomfort

Watson and rejection of law of effect: Mentalistic aspects of stimulus-response pattern dismissed

1. Conditioning of rat to produce a desired response for natural reinforcer of food;

2. Regulation of stimuli to modify rats' response to increase awareness of discrimination between light and dark, or differentiation between the amounts of force used.

3. Use of schedules of reinforcement to maintain desirable response in the long term

III. Techniques Utilized within the Field of Behavioral Modification

Reinforcements: Positive and negative reinforcers to increase frequency of desirable behavior

Punishments: Suppression of undesirable behavior

Reinforcement schedules: Regulation of frequency and time intervals in the provision of reinforcements to maintain desirable behavior

Response shaping: Teaching of complex tasks by division into smaller units and using reinforcers for each unit.

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sity of the response could also be modulated by reinforcing the rat only when it pressed the lever forcefully. In this case, the rat became aware of the process of differentiation. Skinner also found that even complex responses could be produced through this process of training through a shaping process in which reinforcements were used for component parts of the task (cited in B.F. Skinner Foundation, pp. 1- 2). In a further extension of Thorndike and Watson's work, Skinner discovered how operant conditioning could be utilized not only to influence and modulate the behavior, but also to maintain the behavior in the long term. By varying the schedules of reinforcementsùthe patterns of meting out reinforcements for desirable behavior based on frequency or time intervals, Skinner noted that the rat's response could be produced and maintained. With a fixed interval schedule of reinforcement in which the rat was reinforced once every five minutes, its response stopped until the time approached for the next reinforcement. In the case of a variable interval schedule in which the reinforcement occurred unpredictably within an average time period of five minutes, the rat responded steadily throughout the period. With a fixed-ratio
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Approximate Word count = 3194
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page)

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