We do the things we do because we have learnt to repeat the behaviours that bring the results we want and avoid the results we don’t want.
We study – to get good marks.
We tell jokes – to make our friends laugh.
We eat – so that we won’t feel those nasty pangs of hunger. The list of these is almost endless – and it’s not only us – our pets, farm animals, wild animals – any organism capable of performing a voluntary behaviour has learnt, through operant conditioning to repeat the actions that bring good results and to avoid performing those actions that bring unpleasant results. Operant conditioning is also deliberately applied to help people and animals learn processes and procedures that improve quality of life. Operant conditioning is a form of learning in which behaviour becomes controlled by its consequences
Study design dot point •Operant conditioning as a three-phase model (antecedent, behaviour, consequence) involving reinforcers (positive and negative) and punishment (including response cost) that can be used to change voluntary behaviours, including stimulus generalisation, stimulus discrimination and spontaneous recovery (excluding schedules of reinforcement)