Glossary O

Glossary O

Operant means producing an effect; the initially voluntary act that becomes more or less probable of occurring depending on the consequence that it produces.

Operant behavior is defined as a behavior that is emitted by an organism rather than elicited by a known stimulus; a class of emitted responses that result in certain consequences; these consequences, in turn, affect the future probability or strength of those responses. Moreover, Operant behavior is a behavior emitted spontaneously or voluntarily that operates on the environment to change it

Operant Conditioning refers to B.F. Skinner's learning paradigm in which the consequences of a behavior determine whether a behavior is repeated in the future.

- Operant conditioning chamber (Skinner box) : Operant conditioning chamber also called Skinner box refers to an apparatus designed to study Operant conditioning in animals

Operant extinction refers to the weakening or disappearance of a non-reinforced operant response.

Operant reinforcer refers to any event that reliably increases the probability or frequency of responses it follows.

Operant speech training refers to the strategy used to help children use language more appropriately which involves a step-by-step approach that successively increases the child’s vocalizations, teaches the child to imitate sounds and words, teaches the meanings of words, and express desires.

- Operant stimulus discrimination : Operant stimulus discrimination refers to the tendency to make an operant response when stimuli previously associated with reward are present and to withhold the response when stimuli associated with non-reward are present.