An Operant Opportunity

Question: Can an animal’s behavior be shaped
through the implementation of reinforcement?

Hypothesis: An animal’s behavior can be shaped by applying reinforcement.

Ethical Issues/ Concerns: The pigeons involved in the studies were starved and subjected to below average living conditions in order to increase the effectiveness of using food as positive reinforcement.

Description of Study: Skinner has conducted multiple studies concerning his posed question which he has termed as operant conditioning. Many of his more notable experiments involved pigeons. In these experiments, a pigeon was trained to perform an action by being positively reinforced with food. One of his initial experiments involved a solitary penguin facing a wall with a slot that opened and closed to reveal food. Skinner eventually conditioned the pigeon to turn counter-clockwise in order to receive food. He did this by providing the pigeon with food when it started to turn in the right direction. Eventually the pigeon learned that the food was controlled by its counter-clockwise movement. One of Skinner’s more advanced operant conditioning experiments is pictured above. Here Skinner successfully trained two pigeons to play ping pong with their beaks. He succeeded by giving them food every time they knocked the ball past the other pigeon. As time progressed, the pigeons developed techniques for winning such as producing angled shots. Through multiple experiments such as these, Skinner successfully developed the concept of operant conditioning.

Authors: Matthew Boggess and Christian Meunier