The Collaborative International Dictionary
operant conditioning \op"er*ant con*di"tion*ing\, n. (Psychol.) A process for causing animals to behave in a specific manner by rewarding or punishing the animal each time it performs a certain act; after a time, the animal comes to associate the reward or punishment with the act, and will increase or decrease the frequency of performing that act.
Wiktionary
n. (context psychology English) A technique of behavior modification through positive and negative reinforcement and positive and negative punishment
WordNet
n. conditioning in which an operant response is brought under stimulus control by virtue of presenting reinforcement contingent upon the occurrence of the operant response
Wikipedia
Operant conditioning (also called "instrumental conditioning") is a type of learning in which (a) the strength of a behavior is modified by the behavior's consequences, such as reward or punishment, and (b) the behavior is controlled by antecedents called "discriminative stimuli" which come to signal those consequences.
While operant and classical conditioning both involve the presence of environmental stimuli, they differ in nature. In operant conditioning, stimuli present when a behavior is rewarded or punished come to control that behavior. For example, a child may learn to open a box to get the candy inside, or learn to avoid touching a hot stove; the box and the stove are discriminative stimuli. However, in classical conditioning, stimuli that signal significant events produces reflexive behavior. For example, the sight of a colorful wrapper comes to signal "candy", causing a child to salivate, or the sound of a door slam comes to signal an angry parent, causing a child to tremble.
The study of animal learning in the 20th century was dominated by the analysis of these two sorts of learning, and they are still at the core of behavior analysis.
Usage examples of "operant conditioning".
Coming straight after Delphic Biosys-tems' elegant, assured spokespeople (teeth and skin by Masarini of Florence, sincerity by Operant Conditioning pie), it would be like being jolted out of a daydream by a kick in the head.
And she and I would begin operant conditioning of the fetuses in utero, of course, and evaluate preceptorial techniques as we train the infants.
In real life, common examples of operant conditioning would be working for a weekly pay check (5 in Table 4.
This is known, by analogy with, and in distinction from, pavlovian or classical conditioning, as instrumental, or operant conditioning.
Iseman will be given a combination of reinforced operant conditioning and adversive conditioning,”.
The eternal edgy peace between men and women can then be smoothed over, and final treaties signed, if we apply a bit of operant conditioning-- that ugly but useful phrase that comes from Skinner's neoPavlovian work.