Operant Conditioning Techniques

Change, both in therapy and on a daily basis, can be accelerated by very different variables. Our behavior, in turn, is determined by a set of more or less relevant variables: personal history, baggage, skills or rewards that we want to obtain. Let’s discover some operant conditioning techniques.

The role of reinforcements and punishments in the behavior of the individual is a very interesting field of experimental psychology. The first to venture into this area was Thorndyke, with his differential psychology, then Pavlov who defined classical conditioning, up to Skinner and operant conditioning.

From these studies it emerges that operant conditioning is a type of learning in which the person acts according to the expected consequences. In this regard, we speak of the product of a learning history. We now know that behaviors followed by reinforcement are more likely than those followed by punishment. Let’s discover together 7 conditioning techniques operating for change.

Positive and negative reinforcement: operant conditioning techniques

Based on operant conditioning, there are two types of reinforcement that can follow a behavior:

• Positive reinforcement : It is a reinforcement that adds something after the behavior has been emitted. For example, when a child cleans his room and the parent offers him candy.

• Negative reinforcement : Arises when a stimulus that is aversive to the person is withdrawn. Removing something unpleasant is also a form of reinforcement, but it differs from positive reinforcement in that the former adds something, while the negative subtracts something.

Positive and negative punishments in operant conditioning

Unlike reinforcement, which makes a behavior more likely to repeat itself if it occurs, punishment achieves the exact opposite. If given after a behavior has occurred, the behavior is less likely to repeat itself. In other words, it will tend to become extinct. There are two types of punishment:

• Positive punishment : As with reinforcement, positive punishment is one that adds something. For example, when a sanction is imposed, such as volunteering for the community.

• Negative punishment : one that suppresses or withdraws something. For example, the revocation of a privilege, such as the withdrawal of the driver’s license for having lost too many points.

Behavior can be influenced through reinforcement and punishment, among other things. This is known to all parents, whether they have studied psychology or not.

However, what matters is the way in which reinforcement is administered, taking into account the environment and motivation as variables.

Here is a list of techniques derived from these operant conditioning mechanisms that can be useful for modifying unwanted or inappropriate behaviors depending on the context.

Operant conditioning techniques based on negative punishment

• Cost of Response : Reinforcements are removed when inappropriate behavior is emitted and returned when the alternate behavior we want to learn occurs. It is important to get several reinforcements in the beginning and avoid the negative balance at all costs (that a child does not run out of all his reinforcements and therefore does not worry about them, or that it takes so long without them to stop functioning as reinforcement for him).

• Time out : When reinforcers from the environment cannot be controlled and the person continues to receive reinforcement despite engaging in inappropriate behavior, the individual can be removed from the reinforcement environment. If the individual is a child, it is important to allow adequate break.

Techniques based on positive punishment

Satiety

It consists of indiscriminately providing reinforcements until the individual is full. There are two types of satiety, response and behavior.

The response approach works massively with reinforcements, while the behavioral approach focuses on the behavior you want to change.

An example of response satiety is the massive delivery of reinforcers so that they stop constituting themselves as reinforcers of that behavior.

For example, when one person yells at another to leave him alone. A satisfactory answer would be to leave her alone for much longer, not just what she would like.

Overcorrection

It is understood that each individual pays for the consequences of his actions. In this regard, we can talk about restorative overcorrection, in which, for example, the child has to collect all the toys he has taken out of the box.

Then there is talk of overcorrection of positive practice, for example when a person who has quit smoking smokes a cigarette and is told that he must perform some action as a penance for that cigarette.

Differential reinforcement techniques

They are used when the goal of the reinforcement and punishment program is not to suppress a behavior, but to change the frequency. Here are three techniques that are not mutually exclusive and that use the reinforcement of operant conditioning:

• Differential reinforcement of low rates : This technique is intended to lower the frequency of a behavior, so it will only be reinforced when little occurs. If it appears at high rates, the individual will not receive reinforcement.

For example, a girl who asks too many questions in class and raises her hand a lot, not allowing others to participate. When the girl raises her hand 25 times during the lesson, she will not receive reinforcement. However, if the girl only intervenes ten times, she will offer her reinforcement until she reaches the ideal number.

• Differential reinforcement of other behaviors : Following the same example, another way to reduce the frequency of a behavior is to reinforce behaviors other than raising the hand. If instead of interrupting the lesson, the girl is doing her homework or solving a math task, it is worth reinforcing these positive behaviors. Indeed, it is necessary to increase the probability and frequency.

• Differential reinforcement of incompatible behaviors : tries to reinforce a series of incompatible behaviors to be implemented at the same time as the one to be modified. For example, if a child bites his nails, behaviors such as holding a pen or hiding his hands in his pockets can be reinforced.

Conclusions

Reinforcement programs must always be performed appropriately, efficiently, intelligently and responsibly. The objectives to be achieved must be clear and also the action plan.

In many cases the person will show resistance to sticking to the plan we propose and will want reinforcement regardless of what is agreed. So you also need to arm yourself with patience, social skills, resilience and precision in establishing the various timelines to be respected.