Conditioning A slide set steping the reader through many important issues in the basic machinery of psychology. However, recent research has uncovered many misconceptions about these learning procedures. A Technical Note Descriptions of learning through reward and punishment. Mathematical Principles of Reinforcement Effective conditioning requires a correlation between the experimenter's definition of a response and an organism's, but an animal's perception of its behavior differs from ours. Various definitions of the response are explored experimentally using the slopes of learning curves to infer which comes closest to the organism's definition.
Reinforcers are the critical consequences of past acts.
In the operant view past reinforcers are the shapers of our future. This chapter emphasizes operant or instrumental learning theories that focus on the reinforcing and punishing effects of consequences. The theory of B.F. Skinner is based upon the idea that learning is a function of change in overt behavior. Operant Training Definitions and examples of behaviors, reinforcers, and schedules of reinforcement. There is even evidence that single-celled animals such as Paramecia are capable of Pavlovian conditioning.