SKINNER’S RESPONSE CENTERD APPROACH

SKINNER’S RESPONSE CENTERD APPROACH

              Skinner called his theory as operant conditioning as it is based on certain operations or actions which an organism has to carry out . The term operant stresses that behavior operates up on the environment to generate its own consequences . An operant is a set of acts which conditions an organism in doing something . In the process of operant conditioning , operant responses are modified or changed by reinforcement . Reinforcement is a special kind / aspect of conditioning  with in which the tendency for a stimulus to evoke a response on subsequent occasions is increased by reduction of a mind.

                Skinner was against ‘No- Stimulus – No Response’ theory and believed that most of the response could not be attributed to the known stimuli. Skinner defined two kinds of responses. The one elicited by known stimulai which he called as respondent /reflective behavior and the other emitted by the unknown stimulai which he called as operant behavior.

                            Respondent behavior is learnt according to Pavolovian model of conditioning . Since it is known as ‘s –type’ conditioning . Skinner attaches greater importance to operant behavior  which is primarly concerned with response rather than stimulai it is known as ‘R-type’ conditioning . Out of many response which an organism is capable of giving the problem with the experimenters to evoke only the appropriate response and fix them properly . Thus skinner changed the usual S-R formula into R-s formula .

Procedural Variations

                            Four different  types of instrumental conditioning may be distinguished according to the kind of consequences that typically follows a given response;

1) Reward Training ; A reward is given after the response usually increasing the likelihood that the same response will occur again.

2) Punishment Training ; An aversive / painful stimulus is given after the response generally decreasing the likely that it will be happen again .

3) Escape Training  After the response is given the animal is permitted  to escape from an aversive / painful stimulus . Escape from such a stimulus typically increases the likelihood that the response leading to escape will be given again when the painful stimulus recurs .

4) Omission Training :

                 A reward is not given after the response that had produced it before. The omission of such a reward usually decreases the likelihood that the response will happen again ie , omission training leads to extinction .

Operations Involved In Operant Conditioning

1.Shaping ;There are situations especially in case of the acquisition of complex behavior and learning of difficult  skills in which there may be a  very remote chance of random occurance of the responses in a specific or natural way. In such cases waiting for an organism to behave  in a specific way at random (the matural  occurance ) may take a life time. For eg; the chances of a pigeon to dance in a particular manner are extremely  remote . The same holds true for a child learning a foreign language or even table manner . In these situations where the desired response do not occur at random efforts are directed at a eliciting the appropriate responses through a step by step process called shaping. Shaping can be used as a successful technique for training individuals to learn difficult and complex behavior and also for introducing desirable modifications in their behavior .            

2) Chaining; It refers to a process in the shaping of behavior and the learning of a task where the required behavior or task is brocken down into small steps for its effective learning and subsequent reinforcement.

3) Discrimination And Cueing ;Discrimination in Skinner’s theory can be defined as a process of using cues ,signals or information to determine when behavior is likely to be reinforced or punished. The process of discrimination has a wide applications in the field of instructions and behavior modifications.

4)Generalization ;It refers to the ability of an organism dealing with the perception of and response to similar stimulai.

APPLICATION OF PRINCIPLES OF OPERANT CONDITIONING IN EDUCATION

1) In Programmed Instruction : It is based on the principle of operand conditioning . Skinner and his associates observed under controlled laboratory  conditions pigeon and rat in what is popularly known as ‘Skinner Box’ . The term operant suggests that a given response affects some part of the environment he operates on it . When responses are initiated by pupil they are called ‘Operants’ because they represents manipulations or operations which change the pupils environment  even if only in minute ways .

                                               Reinforcement of an operant increases the probability of repletion of operations of the same class When a boy has answered a question (emitted an operant ) appropriately the probability increases for his repeating the same kind of behavior when faced with similar conditions One of the great value of programmed instruction is that it allows the learner to move at his pace and still get immediate reinforcement of his responses .

2) In Teaching Machine: Programmed learning material is fed into a machine called ‘Teaching Machine’ which is used by the learner with out the intervention of the teacher. The machine used by Skinner in 1954 was a box – shaped container with a window through which the learner could see the matter printed on a paper tape . The learner would write  his response on a paper tape in a separate window on the face of the machine . The learner will have to move a lever or knob to advance the tape and bring into view the correct response for comparison with his own and also the next unit of information.

Educational Implications

1. A response or behavior is not necessairly dependent upon a specific  known stimulus . It is more correct to think that a behavior or response is depend up on its concequences . For training an organism to learn a particular behavior or response an organism to learn a particular behavior or response an organism to respond in such away as to produce the reinforcing stimulus.

2. The principle of operant conditioning may be successfully applied in behavior modification.

3. The development of human personality can be successfully manipulated through operant conditioning.

4. Operant conditioning emphasizes the importance of schedule in the process of reinforcement of behavior .

5. The theory advocated the avoidance of punishment for unlearning the undesirable behavior and for shaping the desirable behavior.

6.The theory operant conditioning has contributed a lot of the development of teaching machines and programmed learning.