Operant

Description of the Strategy

An operant is a behavior that operates (or acts) on the environment to produce reinforcing consequences. The term was first used by B. F. Skinner to describe the relationship between behavior and the environmental events that occur both before and after behavior. Operant conditioning occurs when, in the presence of a discriminative stimulus, a behavior occurs that produces reinforcement. This behavior is more likely to happen again in the future in the presence of the same or similar discriminative stimuli because it worked to produce reinforcement. Skinner observed that while an organism can perform many behaviors at any given time, the “fittest” behaviors are the ones that occur because they are most effective at operating (or producing) reinforcement. These effective behaviors are retained in one's repertoire, while less effective behaviors adapt out. In other words, in operant conditioning, the behavior of an organism is selected by the consequences it produces. Behavior that is reinforced is retained, while behavior that is not reinforced, or is punished, is eliminated. For example, if a student's hand-raising behavior is reinforced by immediate teacher attention, the student is more likely to raise his hand in the future. If a student's hand-raising behavior is not reinforced, the student is less likely to raise his hand in the future and more likely to try a different behavior that might produce the reinforcing teacher attention more effectively (such as talking out).

Operant behavior often is described in contrast to respondent behavior. Respondent conditioning has been called a two-term contingency (stimulus response conditioning). By contrast, operant conditioning is a three-term contingency (stimulus, response, stimulus [SRS] or, more commonly, antecedent, behavior, consequence [ABC] relationship). The three-term contingency reflects the indispensable role that consequences play in learning and shaping new behaviors. While respondent conditioning has few educational applications, the operant is represented in nearly every behavior of interest in schools today. The scientific understanding of operant conditioning has led to the development of many of the concepts and interventions described in this volume.