AP BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Operant conditioning was first described by behaviorist B.F. Skinner. His theory was based on two assumptions. First, the cause of human behavior is something in a person’s environment.

Detailed explanation-2: -Skinner was more interested in how the consequences of people’s actions influenced their behavior. Skinner used the term operant to refer to any “active behavior that operates upon the environment to generate consequences.” Skinner’s theory explained how we acquire the range of learned behaviors we exhibit every day.

Detailed explanation-3: -B. F. Skinner a renowned American psychologist-is often regarded as the founder of Operant Conditioning. However, the theory’s true father was Edward Thorndike. Operant conditioning is a method of learning that takes place through rewarding a certain behavior or withholding reward for undesirable behavior.

Detailed explanation-4: -The term operant conditioning1 was coined by B. F. Skinner in 1937 in the context of reflex physiology, to differentiate what he was interested in-behavior that affects the environment-from the reflex-related subject matter of the Pavlovians.