Skip to main content
Learning and Memory: A Comprehensive Reference

Operant behavior

Publication ,  Chapter
Jozefowiez, J; Staddon, JER
January 1, 2007

Operant behavior is behavior guided by its consequences. Conditioning operant behavior requires making a biologically important event, or a stimulus signaling such an event, depend on the occurrence of a target operant response. If this arrangement leads to an increase in the probability of the target response, the contingent event is termed a reinforcer and the associated process reinforcement. In this chapter, we review the conditions under which reinforcement takes place, that is, how an animal is able to detect that a reinforcer is delivered as the consequence of the emission of a behavior (operant learning). We look at how behavior is modulated by its consequences in situations in which reinforcement occurs at a fixed time after a specific event (interval timing) and situations in which the animal has the choice between several response alternatives, each reinforced according to a different rule (operant choice). Finally, we review theories that explain why some events have reinforcing properties (reinforcement theory).

Duke Scholars

Altmetric Attention Stats
Dimensions Citation Stats

DOI

Publication Date

January 1, 2007

Start / End Page

75 / 101
 

Citation

APA
Chicago
ICMJE
MLA
NLM
Jozefowiez, J., & Staddon, J. E. R. (2007). Operant behavior. In Learning and Memory: A Comprehensive Reference (pp. 75–101). https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-012370509-9.00087-5
Jozefowiez, J., and J. E. R. Staddon. “Operant behavior.” In Learning and Memory: A Comprehensive Reference, 75–101, 2007. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-012370509-9.00087-5.
Jozefowiez J, Staddon JER. Operant behavior. In: Learning and Memory: A Comprehensive Reference. 2007. p. 75–101.
Jozefowiez, J., and J. E. R. Staddon. “Operant behavior.” Learning and Memory: A Comprehensive Reference, 2007, pp. 75–101. Scopus, doi:10.1016/B978-012370509-9.00087-5.
Jozefowiez J, Staddon JER. Operant behavior. Learning and Memory: A Comprehensive Reference. 2007. p. 75–101.

DOI

Publication Date

January 1, 2007

Start / End Page

75 / 101