The Components of Instrumental Conditioning
Instrumental conditioning or operant conditioning was developed by the famous American psychologist B.F. Skinner. In instrumental conditioning reinforcement or punishment are used to either increase or decrease the likelihood that a behavior will occur.
As I sort of touched on in the first paragraph the purpose of instrumental conditioning is to alter behavior. In psychology we call this altering shaping. There are two ways to shape behavior: Positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement.
Positive reinforcement strengthens a response by giving a good stimulus after a response you are looking for. This acts in simpler terms as a reward for the behavior. An example would be giving your dog a treat when it sits when told.
The second type of reinforcement is negative reinforcement. Negative strengthens a response by removing something negative for doing a certain behavior. An example of this would be hitting your snooze button in the morning to stop your extremely annoying alarm.
When it comes to reinforcement in psychology there is two different types of reinforcers. Ones you are born with, primary reinforcers, and ones that are learned through association, conditioned reinforcers.
As I said earlier primary reinforcers are something that we are born with. An example of this would be eating when we get hungry. It is a natural response for our stomach to hurt when we are hungry, and so to stop this pain we eat.
There are also reinforcers we learn from life experiences. An example of this would be going to the store to get food to satisfy our hunger. We were not born with the knowledge that we can get food at the store it is learned by living and association.
In psychology there is also ways to discourage behavior. This is known as punishment. There are two types of punishment: Positive punishment and negative punishment.
When administering positive punishment you add a stimulus to discourage behavior. An example of this would be a police officer administering a ticket for speeding.
As I said earlier the second type of punishment is negative punishment. When administering negative punishment you withdraw a rewarding stimulus for an undesired behavior. An example would be revoking a teens driving privileges for coming home past curfew.
Below I have posted two links. The first is a short synopsis of instrumental conditioning that may explain it better than me, and the second is a link to an image of a chart that gives a good visual of instrumental conditioning.
Links:
http://psychology.about.com/od/operantconditioning/f/instrumental-conditioning.htm
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/16/Operant_conditioning_diagram.png/400px- Operant_conditioning_diagram.png
As I sort of touched on in the first paragraph the purpose of instrumental conditioning is to alter behavior. In psychology we call this altering shaping. There are two ways to shape behavior: Positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement.
Positive reinforcement strengthens a response by giving a good stimulus after a response you are looking for. This acts in simpler terms as a reward for the behavior. An example would be giving your dog a treat when it sits when told.
The second type of reinforcement is negative reinforcement. Negative strengthens a response by removing something negative for doing a certain behavior. An example of this would be hitting your snooze button in the morning to stop your extremely annoying alarm.
When it comes to reinforcement in psychology there is two different types of reinforcers. Ones you are born with, primary reinforcers, and ones that are learned through association, conditioned reinforcers.
As I said earlier primary reinforcers are something that we are born with. An example of this would be eating when we get hungry. It is a natural response for our stomach to hurt when we are hungry, and so to stop this pain we eat.
There are also reinforcers we learn from life experiences. An example of this would be going to the store to get food to satisfy our hunger. We were not born with the knowledge that we can get food at the store it is learned by living and association.
In psychology there is also ways to discourage behavior. This is known as punishment. There are two types of punishment: Positive punishment and negative punishment.
When administering positive punishment you add a stimulus to discourage behavior. An example of this would be a police officer administering a ticket for speeding.
As I said earlier the second type of punishment is negative punishment. When administering negative punishment you withdraw a rewarding stimulus for an undesired behavior. An example would be revoking a teens driving privileges for coming home past curfew.
Below I have posted two links. The first is a short synopsis of instrumental conditioning that may explain it better than me, and the second is a link to an image of a chart that gives a good visual of instrumental conditioning.
Links:
http://psychology.about.com/od/operantconditioning/f/instrumental-conditioning.htm
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/16/Operant_conditioning_diagram.png/400px- Operant_conditioning_diagram.png