Reinforcement

Description of the Strategy

Reinforcement is the process by which experience changes behavior or, stated more fully, the process by which experience changes the environmental control of behavior. Reinforcement plays a role in the emergence of complex behavior that is analogous to the role played by natural selection in the evolution of species. That is, through the cumulative effects of reinforcement, the behavior of the newborn is shaped into the behavior of the adult. Reinforcement is a fundamental focus of the experimental analysis of behavior and is basic to the interpretation of behavior in the natural environment. In experimental analysis, behavior is studied under highly controlled circumstances, usually in the laboratory, where, essentially, all of the variables that control behavior can be manipulated ...