Shortcoming with Classical Conditioning Thorndike s Experiment The cat in the box experiment Time required to escape against Successive trails in the puzzle box Time decreasing with the Of trails increasing Law of effect a response followed by a satisfying outcome is more likely to be repeated in the future Skinner s Operant Conditioning B F Skinner s theory of learning Operant any behavior made by an organism that has an observable effect on the environment all volunteer behavior Behavior is associated with an outcome in the environment Reinforcement An environmental event that makes behavior more likely to reoccur in the future A Positive R An environmental outcome is present B Negative R An environmental outcome is absent Punishment An environmental event that makes behavior less likely to reoccur in future A Positive P An environmental outcome is present this makes behavior less likely to occur again B Negative P An environmental outcome is absent this makes behavior less likely to occur again Schedules of reinforcement When is the feedback provided by the environment 1 Ratio feedback based on number of responses Fixed Ratio Feedback after some number of responses e g after every other insurance policy you sell Variable Ratio Feedback after some average number of responses e g slot machine 2 Interval feedback based on time of responses Fixed Interval Feedback after some fixed time interval e g paycheck every 2 weeks Variable Interval Feedback after some variable time interval e g random drug testing at the Olympics Variable reinforcement is generally harder to forget extinguish this is why gambling can be so addicting this is why random testing can be effective