Instrumental Conditioning in Psychology

Instrumental conditioning is another term for operant conditioning, a learning process attributed to B. F. Skinner. In instrumental conditioning, reinforcement and punishment are used to increase or decrease the probability that a behavior will occur again in the future.

Let’s talk about how instrumental conditioning is used in psychology and read some examples of instrumental conditioning.

Examples of Instrumental Conditioning

Here’s an example of instrumental conditioning in the classroom:

Imagine an elementary school student named Sophia. The rule in Sophia's class is that when a student wants to speak, they have to raise their hand first.

Sophia gets rewarded with praise from her teacher every time she raises her hand in class. The praise reinforces the desired behavior (raising her hand before speaking). It’s more likely that Sophia will raise her hand in the future because she associates doing so with a positive outcome (getting praise from her teacher).

What if the teacher scolds Sophia for talking without raising her hand? Sophia will link the unwanted behavior (talking without raising her hand) to a negative consequence (being scolded). In the future, she'll be less likely to speak in class without raising her hand first because she will associate the behavior with being punished.

History of Instrumental Conditioning

Psychologist E.L. Thorndike was one of the first to observe the effect of reinforcement in puzzle box experiments with cats. During the experiments, Thorndike observed a process that he called “trial-and-error” learning.

The experiments involved placing a hungry cat in a puzzle box. To free itself, the cat had to figure out how to escape.

Thorndike noted how long it took the cats to free themselves in each experimental trial. At first, the cats engaged in ineffective escape methods like scratching and digging at the sides or top of the box.

Eventually, trial and error led the cats to successfully push or pull the escape route. After each successive trial, the cats engaged less in the ineffective escape behaviors and more quickly responded with the correct escape actions.

Thorndike referred to his observations as the Law of Effect. According to the law, a response will get stronger if it is immediately followed by a "satisfier" or reinforcer. On the other hand, an action will get weaker if it is immediately followed by unpleasant effects.

In Thorndike's puzzle box experiments, escaping the box was the satisfier. Every time the cats successfully got out of the box, the behavior that immediately came before the escape was reinforced and strengthened.

Thorndike's work had a tremendous effect on B.F. Skinner's later research on operant conditioning. Skinner even created his own version of Thorndike's puzzle boxes, which he called an operant chamber (also known as a Skinner box).

How Instrumental Conditioning Works

Skinner identified two types of behaviors: respondent and operant.

Respondent behaviors are actions that occur reflexively without any learning. For example, if you touch something hot, you will immediately draw your hand back in response to the heat. Classical conditioning focuses on respondent behaviors.

In Pavlov's classic experiments, the dogs salivating at the presentation of the food was respondent behavior. However, Pavlov was able to train the dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell by having them form an association between the bell and the delivery of their meal.

While classical conditioning could explain how respondent behaviors lead to learning, Skinner realized that it did not account for every type of learning. Instead, he proposed that it was the consequences of voluntary actions that led to the most learning.

Skinner described a second type, operant behaviors, as any and every voluntary behavior that acts on the environment to create a response. Voluntary behaviors are under our conscious control and are actions that can be learned. The consequences of our actions play an important role in the learning process.

Reinforcement and Punishment

Skinner identified two key aspects of the operant conditioning process: reinforcement and punishment.

Reinforcement is meant to increase a behavior, while punishment serves to decrease a behavior. There are two different types of reinforcement and two different types of punishment.

• Positive reinforcement: Creating a favorable outcome to reinforce a desired behavior. For example, rewarding a child with their favorite treat after they clean their room. The reward may motivate the child to clean their room again in the future because they associate the task with getting something they like.
• Negative reinforcement: Removing an unpleasant stimulus to reinforce a desired behavior. For example, if your car loudly beeps at you and your seatbelt is unbuckled, you may buckle up to avoid the annoying sound. The outcome, though, is that you are doing the desirable behavior (wearing your seatbelt).
• Positive punishment: Applying an unpleasant event after an unwanted behavior with the goal of reducing how often it happens. For example, someone who is trying to stop biting their nails may use nail polish that leaves a disgusting taste in their mouth. They may stop biting their nails because they are trying to avoid the bad taste of the polish.
• Negative punishment: Taking away something pleasant after an unwanted behavior occurs. The aim is to punish the unwanted behavior by taking away something desirable as a deterrent for doing the behavior again in the future. For example, if a teenager comes home past curfew, their parents may take away their phone. To avoid losing their phone, the teen may make a point to get home before curfew the next time they go out. 

It’s clear that instrumental conditioning has a variety of real-world applications, such as pet training, child-rearing, and helping people change their habits and behaviors. Instrumental conditioning can also be used in other areas, like law enforcement, health, and marketing, as well as in a variety of settings like schools and workplaces.