Depending on the contingencies or relationships programmed by the experimenter, lever-press responding can result in either the delivery of food (i.e., positive reinforcement) or the removal or prevention of shock (i.e., negative reinforcement), as well as in the delivery of shock (i.e., positive punishment) or the removal or prevention of food (i.e., negative punishment). In this preparation, lever-pressing is the standard operant response that the animal can produce in order to interact with, or operate upon, the environment. In a standard operant conditioning chamber for rodents, the chamber also has a lever protruding from the wall, which can be depressed (operant conditioning chambers for pigeons will instead have keys that can be pecked). This apparatus basically consists of a chamber with light bulbs and speakers mounted on the walls in order to provide visual and auditory stimuli a food dispenser connected to a magazine or hopper, which can deliver food pellets Footnote 1 and a metal grid floor, which can deliver mild electric foot shocks. Skinner (1904–1990)-is still today the standard apparatus for the experimental study of animal behavior in psychology and behavioral neuroscience (see Skinner, 1938). The operant conditioning chamber-most commonly known as the “Skinner box” after its inventor, the great American behaviorist B.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |