Publications [#349307] of John E. Staddon
search www.pbs.duke.edu.Book Chapters
- Jozefowiez, J; Staddon, JER, Operant behavior,
in Learning and Memory: A Comprehensive Reference
(January, 2007),
pp. 75-101 [doi] .
(last updated on 2025/03/09)Abstract:
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).