How to Apply Operant Conditioning in the Preschool Classroom

Operant conditioning can work on young children.

Operant conditioning is the name coined by psychologist B.F. Skinner to a method of behavioral modification. Operant behavior is so named because Skinner felt the environment influences behavior and consequences of the behavior reinforces the continued behavior. Some refer to this idea as positive and negative reinforcement. There are four contexts of operant conditioning, including positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment and negative punishment. Each procedure uses the addition or subtraction of stimulus meant to modify behavior.

Instructions

1. Praise the child when desired behavior is exhibited. Reinforce the behavior you want out of the child with praise or a prize. Skinner's theory of operant behavior states that a behavior that is rewarded increases in frequency. The words "positive" and "negative" are not used in their usual sense here. Rather, positive refers to an addition of stimulus and negative refers to the subtraction of stimulus. When the child exhibits behavior you want him to repeat, use positive reinforcement by adding a desired stimulus.

2. Punish students who engage in behavior that is undesirable. Skinner called this positive punishment, which appears to be a misnomer. Positive punishment involves adding an aversive stimulation to get a desired response, at which point the aversive stimulation is removed. For the rowdy classroom with children who won't stop yelling, an air horn will be the aversive stimulation. When the classroom quiets down -- the desired response -- the air horn is silenced. This context is also called "punishment by contingent stimulation."

3. Use an aversive stimulus to prompt a desired behavior. This is negative reinforcement, which means that the aversive stimulus continues until the desired behavior is exhibited, at which point the aversive stimulus ceases. Whereas positive punishment seeks to stop an undesired behavior that is already occurring, negative reinforcement seeks to initiate desired behavior by the removal of the aversive stimulus when the behavior is exhibited.

   For example, the air horn used to quiet a rowdy classroom was positive punishment. For negative reinforcement the use of the air horn would be to prompt a desired response -- lining up for lunch or dismissal, say -- at which point the aversive stimulus is removed. This context is also referred to as the "escape" method.

4. Remove stimulus to modify behavior using the negative punishment context. Negative punishment occurs when an undesired behavior or response is followed by the removal of a stimulus. When a child misbehaves and the teacher removes his toy, the behavior that prompted the removal of the toy should result in a decrease of that behavior. This context is also called "punishment by contingent withdrawal." The promise of the return of the removed stimulus, the toy, is contingent on the change in the undesired behavior.

5. Combine the use of all four contexts to shape the behavior of the pre-school students. An important key is to remain consistent in the rewarding of desired behavior and in the punishing of undesired behavior. Part of Skinner's theory includes the concept of "extinction," in which a behavior that was previously reinforced is no longer present when the stimulus ceases.

References

• Maricopa Center for Learning and Instruction: Operant Conditioning
• Educational Psychology Interactive: An Introduction to Operant (Instrumental) Conditioning