People watch my videos – then take to google – and they use google to fight with me. Don’t do that, that’s setting yourself up to fail out of the gate. Then they tell me to read Skinner – but they clearly haven’t.
How do dog trainers define operant conditioning? Is it a method of behavioral modification using rewards and punishments like trainers tell you? Trainers definition of operant conditioning is the quadrants of dog training. And they blame B.F Skinner for it. Are they right? Hell no.
But… Direct quote from “About Behaviourism” – B.F Skinner. Pages 39 and 40, published in 1974. The book is in the files section in my group – nothing mentioned about the “application” of reward and punishment. The “science” has marched on – but trainers are still stuck on Konrad Most.
OPERANT CONDITIONING
A very different process, through which a person comes to deal effectively with a new environment, is operant conditioning. Many things in the environment, such as food and water, sexual contact, and escape from harm, are crucial for the survival of the individual and the species, and any behavior which produces them therefore has survival value.
Through the process of operant conditioning, behavior having this kind of consequence becomes more likely to occur. The behavior is said to be strengthened by its consequences, and for that reason the consequences themselves are called “reinforcers.” Thus, when a hungry organism exhibits behavior that produces food, the behavior is reinforced by that consequence and is therefore more likely to recur. Behavior that reduces a potentially damaging condition, such as an extreme of temperature, is reinforced by that consequence and therefore tends to recur on similar occasions. The process and its effects have given rise to a large number of mentalistic concepts, many of which will be examined in the following chapters.
The standard distinction between operant and reflex behavior is that one is voluntary and the other involuntary.
Operant behavior is felt to be under the control of the behaving person and has traditionally been attributed to an act of will. Reflex behavior, on the other hand, is not under comparable control and has even been attributed to invading wills, such as those of possessing spirits. Sneezing, hiccuping, and other reflex acts were once attributed to the Devil, from whom we still protect a friend who has sneezed by saying, “God bless you!” When no invader is assumed, the behavior is simply called automatic.