More on the basics of operant conditioning. More on the maintenance of operant conditioning. In operant conditioning, we look for relationships between behavior and the environment in which certain environmental changes reliably follow certain operant performances. This is a pretty formal way of saying that, what's important in operant conditioning is that important changes in the enviroment follow, or are contingent upon , some behavior. In all of the cases we look at in this unit, we look for some behavior, the environmental event that followed, and how that changed the probability of that behavior in the future.
Consequated behavior is behavior which is followed by reinforcement.
The term, which is kind of cumbersome and the sort of thing that would drive a Ph.D. in English up the wall, comes from the idea that behavior has consequences , so when it occurs and a consequence is forthcoming, the response has been consequated. Under the control of environmental contingencies. An organism which has had adequate opportunity to experience what the environment will reinforce and punish eventually comes to behave according to those contingencies. The organism behaves reliably in accordance with those contingencies, producing predictable behavior. When the organism is first starting to come under control of the contingencies, we say that the environment has made contact with the organism.