AP PSYCHOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Operant conditioning occurs when a behavior (as opposed to a stimulus) is associated with the occurrence of a significant event. In the best-known example, a rat in a laboratory learns to press a lever in a cage (called a “Skinner box”) to receive food.

Detailed explanation-2: -Positive reinforcement refers to the addition of something pleasant. For instance, if we give a rat in a Skinner box food when it presses a lever, we are using positive reinforcement.

Detailed explanation-3: -The Skinner box. To show how reinforcement works in a controlled environment, Skinner placed a hungry rat into a box that contained a lever. As the rat scurried around inside the box, it would accidentally press the lever, causing a food pellet to drop into the box.

Detailed explanation-4: -For example, when a rat is receiving an electric shock and presses a bar that stops the shock, the shock is a negative reinforcer-it is an aversive stimulus that reinforces the bar-pressing behavior. The application of negative reinforcement may be divided into two types: escape and avoidance conditioning.