Concept

Operant conditioning

Overview

Operant conditioning, also called instrumental conditioning, is a learning process in which voluntary behaviors are modified by association with the addition (or removal) of reward or aversive stimuli. The frequency or duration of the behavior may increase through reinforcement or decrease through punishment or extinction.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

Related ideas

• Homeostasis
• Punishment
• Classical conditioning
• Neuroplasticity
• Neuron
• Political philosophy
• Social psychology
• Visual cortex
• Dopamine
• B. F. Skinner
• Behaviorism
• Ernst Mach
• Cerebral cortex
• Reward system
• Economics

Opposing perspectives

• Applied behavior analysis
• Experimental analysis of behavior
• Stimulus control
• Propaganda techniques

Place in the tradition

Part of Behaviorism.

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