Operant Conditioning

A procedure in which an initially nonautomatic response to a stimulus (the operant response and discriminative stimulus, respectively) is either strengthend or weakened by its consequences (a reinforcement or punishment, respectively):

• The discriminative stimulus (DS) is a stimulus that, based on prior experiences, signals the probable consequence of a particular operant response.
• The operant response (OR) is a learned response to the DS that develops because, in the past, it reliably led to a particular consequence.
• A reinforcement is a stimulus that strengthens the OR (increases the likelihood that it will be performed) whenever the DS occurs.
• A punishment is a stimulus that weakens the OR (decreases the likelihood that it will be performed) whenever the DS occurs.

(Also called instrumental learning)

See: associative learning
See: classical conditioning
See: latent learning
See: observational learning
See: vicarious conditioning