operant conditioning

American  

noun

1. conditioning.

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Etymology

Origin of operant conditioning

First recorded in 1940–45

Example Sentences

In operant conditioning, the animal learns to associate a non-voluntary behavior with an unusual stimulus, whereas in classical conditioning, the animal learns to associate a voluntary behavior with its consequences.

From Textbooks • Jun. 9, 2022

Clive Wynne, founding director of the Canine Science Collaboratory at Arizona State University, ascribed the talking dogs’ skills to operant conditioning rather than an understanding of the words they seem to use.

From Seattle Times • Aug. 6, 2021

In our case—other zoos may have better behaved ones—our gibbons are ridiculously smart, and they have not responded as well to the operant conditioning for training voluntary injections.

From Slate • Jul. 28, 2021

The Twittering Machine, as a wholly designed operant conditioning chamber, needs none of the expedients of the casino or opium den.

From The Guardian • Aug. 23, 2019

The experimental psychologists have recently found that visceral organs can be taught to do various things, as easily as a boy learns to ride a bicycle, by the instrumental techniques of operant conditioning.

From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas