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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 and all of their relevant effects measured. In interpretation, behavior is explained, but through the exclusive use of principles uncovered by experimental analysis when circumstances do not permit experimental analysis. Complex behavior, including much adult human behavior and applied behavior analysis, is the province of interpretation. The experimental analysis of reinforcement is emphasized here, because understanding reinforcement is key to interpreting and modifying behavior in the natural environment.

At the behavioral scale of measurement, reinforcement occurs when a stimulus that elicits a response is introduced into an ongoing stream of environmental and behavioral events. The eliciting stimulus may be the product of either natural selection, as when food elicits salivation, or of prior reinforcement, as when a tone elicits salivation after being paired with food. An eliciting stimulus that increases the environmental control of behavior is said to function as a reinforcing stimulus, or reinforcer. An eliciting stimulus that decreases the strength of an environment-behavior relation is said to function as a punishing stimulus, or punisher. When a stimulus has become an elicitor through natural selection, it functions as an unconditioned, or primary, reinforcer. When a stimulus becomes an elicitor through prior reinforcement, it functions as a conditioned, or secondary, reinforcer.

Experimental Analysis of Reinforcement

In the laboratory, two basic procedures are used to investigate reinforcement: the classical procedure and the operant procedure. In the classical procedure, the reinforcing stimulus is introduced after an environmental event, and that environment acquires control of the response elicited by the reinforcer. For example, if a tone is regularly followed by a food stimulus (which elicits salivation), then the tone comes to control salivation. In the operant procedure, the reinforcing stimulus is introduced after a behavioral event, and the environment acquires control of that behavior as well as the elicited response. For example, if a rat sees and presses a lever and the press is regularly followed by a food stimulus, then the sight of the lever acquires control over lever pressing as well as salivation. In the classical example, food strengthened the tone-salivation relation. In the operant example, food strengthened both the tone-lever press and the tone-salivation relation. The present treatment of reinforcement focuses on the operant procedure because an arbitrary behavior (e.g., lever pressing) may be brought under the control of the environment, whereas the classical procedure allows only elicited responses (e.g., salivation) to come under environmental control. The full behavioral capabilities of the learner are modifiable only with operant procedures.

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