OPERANT CONDITIONING

B.F SKINNER
 BURRHUS FREDERIC
SKINNER
• March 20 1904 – August
18, 1990
• An American psychologist,
behaviorist, author,
inventor and social
philosopher
OPERANT CONDITIONING

Skinner uses the term operant

to refer to any “active behavior
that operates upon the
environment to generate
consequences”.
• His theory was heavily influenced by
the work of psychologist Edward
Thorndike who proposed the what he
called Law of Effect.
• Skinner invented different devices
during his boyhood and he put these
skills to work during his studies on
operant conditioning.
TYPES OF BEHAVIOR

• RESPONDENT

• OPERANT
EXAMPLES
• A professor tells students that if they have
perfect attendance for the whole
semester, they do not have to take the
final comprehensive exam.
• An employee failed to hand in a project on
time, her boss got angry and berates her
performance infront of her co-workers.
• A teen girl does not clean up her room as she
was asked, so her parents confiscated her
phone for the rest of the day
• After performing in a community theatre
play, Maumie received applause from the
audience.
• A child acts out during a shopping trip, his
mother gave him a treat to get him to be
quiet.
THANK YOU :>