Operant Conditioning

There are important concepts to operant conditioning, and within the four concepts lies two types of stimulus; the first where something is introduced or added and the second is when something is taken away. Also, with the two types of stimulus follows a response or directional behavior change. For instance an upward direction is where something is reinforced and a downward or decrease in behavior is when there is a punishment. Now that we know the different stimulus and responses, we can move into the actual concepts:

1. Positive Reinforcement
• is when you increase a behavior by introducing something
2. Negative Reinforcement
• is when you increase a behavior by removing something
3. Positive Punishment
• Is when you decrease a behavior by adding something
4. Negative Punishment
• Is when you decrease a behavior by removing something

Now, in order to make this more clear, I have created some examples or scenarios that out line each along with the desired behavior change.

1. Positive Reinforcement
• If a child is doing a great job concentrating and working on their assignment, rather than fooling around and being distracted, you may offer praise to the student
• The behavior you want is for the student to continue to work hard so the addition of praise will make the student want to work just as hard the next day to continue receiving that praise
2. Negative Reinforcement
• A child may constantly be late handing in assignments, and so if you are constantly nagging the student to hand it on time, the student is bound to hand it on time. Then when they do this, you will stop nagging them
• With the removal of the nagging the student will continue to hand in their assignments on time to avoid the nagging.
3. Positive Punishment
• If a student is continually being disruptive and bugging students in class, you may give them a detention
• The addition of detention will hopefully make the student stop being disruptive in class so they don't receive another detention
4. Negative Punishment
• If a student is continually not doing their homework, you may take away their recess and make them finish their homework in that time
• The removal of recess will hopefully make the student do their homework on time, so they don't lose their recess again.

So, as you can see these concepts of operant conditioning can be found in many classrooms, and will also be very useful as new teachers.