| operant | In conditioning, any behaviour or specific response chosen by the experimenter; its frequency is intended to increase or decrease by the judicious pairing with it of a reinforcer when it occurs. Synonym: target behaviour, target response. (05 Mar 2000) |
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| operant behaviour | The behaviour whose continuation and frequency is determined by its consequences on the doer; central element of behavioural conditioning theory. See: conditioning. (05 Mar 2000) |
| operant conditioning | A type of conditioning developed by Skinner in which an experimenter waits for the target response (head scratching) to be conditioned to occur (emitted) spontaneously, immediately after which the organism is given a reinforcer reward; after this procedure is repeated many times, the frequency of emission of the targeted response will have significantly increased over its pre-experiment base rate. See: schedules of reinforcement. Synonym: skinnerian conditioning. (05 Mar 2000) |
| conditioning, operant | Learning situations in which the sequence responses of the subject are instrumental in producing reinforcement. When the correct response occurs, which involves the selection from among a repertoire of responses, the subject is immediately reinforced. (12 Dec 1998) |
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