The Fundamental philosophical controversial Issue involved with the basic concept is that man is the best of creation on earth while behaviorists are not giving them status more than an animal. We believe man is more than an animal, but man commits violence like an animal. So, does have animal aspects?
Holy Quran talks about such people:There are people who lived like four legged animals on this earth and yet there are people who are like birds, soaring up to the sky. So there are many people who are not better than animals and few people who are like spirits and innocent birds looking at the sky.
Operant Conditioning
BF Skinner criticized that much of human learning is voluntary and intentional but Classical conditioning only targets involuntary behaviors. So, operant conditioning is distinguished from Pavlovian conditioning in that operant conditioning deals with the modification of voluntary behavior through the use of consequences, while Pavlovian conditioning deals with the conditioning of involuntary behaviors.But being a behaviorist, Skinner also believed that human are just like animals so he also incorporated rats and pigeons in his experiments to explain the human behavior. He took the notion of conditioned reflexes developed by Ivan Pavlov and applied it to the study of behavior. One of his best known inventions is the Skinner box. It contains one or more levers which an animal can press, one or more stimulus lights and one or more places in which rein forcers like food can be delivered.
Skinner’s Experiment with rats: In one of Skinners’ experiments a starved rat was introduced into the box. When the lever was pressed by the rat a small pellet of food was dropped onto a tray. The rat soon learned that when he pressed the lever he would receive some food. In this experiment the lever pressing behavior is reinforced by food. The basic features of experiment
• Rat in a box presses a bar.
• Food pellet would drop in the box.
• Rat eats pellet.
• Frequency of bar pressing increases.Another interesting thing happened that even after fulfilling the hunger rat kept on pressing the bar. But when Skinner did not provide any food at bar pressing, firstly rat decreased the frequency but stopped after thousands and thousands of bar pressings.
Point to Ponder: Skinner concluded a very deep ratiocination about human behavior that if you have rewarded a person initially for performing any behavior and the person have learnt that behavior, he will persist on doing that behavior whatever is learned. No matter it was wrong or immoral. And at this point we can find a link between instrumental conditioning and violence. In Extinction a “particular behavior is weakened by the consequence of not experiencing a positive condition or stopping a negative condition”.
• No reinforcement leads to extinction.
Discrimination
If pressing the lever is reinforced (the rat gets food) when a light is on but not when it is off, responses (pressing the lever) continue to be made in the light but seldom, if at all, in the dark. The rat has formed discrimination between light and dark. When one turns on the light, a response occurs, but that is not a Pavlovian conditioned reflex response. In this experiment Skinner demonstrated the ideas of "operant conditioning" and "shaping behavior." Unlike Pavlov's "classical conditioning," where an existing behavior (salivating for food) is shaped by associating it with a new stimulus (ringing of a bell or a metronome), operant conditioning is the rewarding of an act that approaches a new desired behavior. Skinner applied his findings about animals to human behavior and even developed teaching machines so students could learn bit by bit, uncovering answers for an immediate "reward." Computer-based selfinstruction uses many of the principles of Skinner's technique.
Generalization: If green light is also accompanied by bar pressing the rat would press the bar, whenever observe green light. And if button pressing along with bar pressing also produces a food pallet, rat would learn to press the button too. So, stimulus generalization leads to response generalization.
Holy Quran talks about such people:There are people who lived like four legged animals on this earth and yet there are people who are like birds, soaring up to the sky. So there are many people who are not better than animals and few people who are like spirits and innocent birds looking at the sky.
Operant Conditioning
BF Skinner criticized that much of human learning is voluntary and intentional but Classical conditioning only targets involuntary behaviors. So, operant conditioning is distinguished from Pavlovian conditioning in that operant conditioning deals with the modification of voluntary behavior through the use of consequences, while Pavlovian conditioning deals with the conditioning of involuntary behaviors.But being a behaviorist, Skinner also believed that human are just like animals so he also incorporated rats and pigeons in his experiments to explain the human behavior. He took the notion of conditioned reflexes developed by Ivan Pavlov and applied it to the study of behavior. One of his best known inventions is the Skinner box. It contains one or more levers which an animal can press, one or more stimulus lights and one or more places in which rein forcers like food can be delivered.
Skinner’s Experiment with rats: In one of Skinners’ experiments a starved rat was introduced into the box. When the lever was pressed by the rat a small pellet of food was dropped onto a tray. The rat soon learned that when he pressed the lever he would receive some food. In this experiment the lever pressing behavior is reinforced by food. The basic features of experiment
• Rat in a box presses a bar.
• Food pellet would drop in the box.
• Rat eats pellet.
• Frequency of bar pressing increases.Another interesting thing happened that even after fulfilling the hunger rat kept on pressing the bar. But when Skinner did not provide any food at bar pressing, firstly rat decreased the frequency but stopped after thousands and thousands of bar pressings.
Point to Ponder: Skinner concluded a very deep ratiocination about human behavior that if you have rewarded a person initially for performing any behavior and the person have learnt that behavior, he will persist on doing that behavior whatever is learned. No matter it was wrong or immoral. And at this point we can find a link between instrumental conditioning and violence. In Extinction a “particular behavior is weakened by the consequence of not experiencing a positive condition or stopping a negative condition”.
• No reinforcement leads to extinction.
Discrimination
If pressing the lever is reinforced (the rat gets food) when a light is on but not when it is off, responses (pressing the lever) continue to be made in the light but seldom, if at all, in the dark. The rat has formed discrimination between light and dark. When one turns on the light, a response occurs, but that is not a Pavlovian conditioned reflex response. In this experiment Skinner demonstrated the ideas of "operant conditioning" and "shaping behavior." Unlike Pavlov's "classical conditioning," where an existing behavior (salivating for food) is shaped by associating it with a new stimulus (ringing of a bell or a metronome), operant conditioning is the rewarding of an act that approaches a new desired behavior. Skinner applied his findings about animals to human behavior and even developed teaching machines so students could learn bit by bit, uncovering answers for an immediate "reward." Computer-based selfinstruction uses many of the principles of Skinner's technique.
Generalization: If green light is also accompanied by bar pressing the rat would press the bar, whenever observe green light. And if button pressing along with bar pressing also produces a food pallet, rat would learn to press the button too. So, stimulus generalization leads to response generalization.
