Operant conditioning is another form of associative learning model through which our behaviour is shaped by reward (“reinforcement”) or punishment.
Reinforcement/reward encourages a good behavior. There are two types of reinforcement, positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement.
Punishment discourages a bad behavior. There are two types of punishment, positive punishment and negative punishment.
In dog training, what kind of interaction want to work happily for you? For the next few Units, we will be using positive reinforcement to increase a behavior. It is the most modern and humane method of dog training.
Overall, the four quadrants give us a useful guide on the options we have to approach a behavioral issue.
Part of the research also studied the schedule (frequency) to how we give rewards. During early stages of learning a new behavior, we may use the following schedules: continuous schedule, fixed interval schedule, fixed ratio schedule. Eventually we want to progress to variable interval schedule and variable ratio schedule because response rate is high and extinction rate is low.
Some may ask what is the difference between Classical and Operant conditioning. They are both proven theories of learning but Classical conditioning is more focused towards a conditioned involuntary response, whereas Operant condition is modeled on the voluntary behaviour choices.
Video on difference between classical and operant conditioning:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRdCowYEtAg]
Video on difference between classical and operant conditioning:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRdCowYEtAg]