Operant Conditioning (originally posted 12/17)

     Hi Bloggers! Recently, I reconstructed an experiment from my advanced placement Psychology class.  The experiment tested operant conditioning.  Operant Conditioning is defined as a conditioned response (behavior) because of a positive or negative response.  Everyone in the world has been conditioned this way.  You don’t swear at your teachers because you got in trouble when you did.   We are conditioned every day to modify our behavior.
The experiment that I conducted was very interesting.  I gave students a skittle every time they touched their hair.  I didn’t tell them that I was giving it to them for that.  They had to figure that out on their own.  Learning what got them a skittle took most people about 15 minutes.  After that, they repeated the pattern to receive more skittles.  The results of the experiment were incredible.  Once people realized how to receive a skittle, they continuously repeated the behavior until they didn’t receive one for doing it.
The next step to this experiment tested how fast they stopped the behavior when they didn’t receive a treat.  This part of the experiment was easy; stop giving them skittles.  Within one minute, 1/15th of the time it took to learn the behavior, the people stopped their behavior.  They no longer touched their hair because they didn’t receive a treat for the behavior.
The final step to this experiment was to test how fast rapid recovery would happen.  Rapid recovery is defined as how fast one reverts back to a conditioned behavior or response due to re-exposure.  When I started to give skittles again, the people immediately started the behavior again.  This showed that it didn’t take any time at all for the brains to recondition themselves.  Students reverted back to previous behaviors for treats.
We are conditioned every day.  Our behaviors are changed due to positive and negative consequences.  Take one day and look around to see how many times you have been conditioned.  How many times have you restrained from action or behavior because you had been conditioned to.  You will be very shocked, I guarantee it.

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