| 2010 | | |

[Behavioural Science ] | The thinking and creative mind- Behavior Modification Experimental report |
Creating a behaviour using operant conditioning
Creating a behaviour using operant conditioning

ABSTRACT
The study aims to increase a desired behavior using operant conditioning. The subject of this study is a female American staffy, four years of age and the desired behavior is sitting unasked when entering or leaving a house, when entering a car and before crossing roads. The subject was involved in a three-week study, one week observing the usual behavior and two weeks of reinforcing the desired behavior. The desired behavior was achieved before the two weeks of reinforcing were completed. It shows that the study was successful, although the subject cannot give feedback or rate their mood towards the succession.

Introduction: Operant conditioning is a kind of learning in which an animal or human performs some behavior, and the following consequence (reward or punishment) increases or decreases the chance that the same behavior will be performed again. Enforcing operant conditioning takes learning and memory, Learning is defined as ‘the cognitive process of acquiring skills or knowledge’ such as learning how to sit or walk, memory is defined as ‘an organism's ability to store, retain, and recall information’ such as remembering the consequence of a behaviour. A previous case of conditioning is the case of Little Albert conducted by john Watson in which a nine month old infant was confronted by a series of objects (teddy bears, a rat, a dog, a white rabbit) and then the infant was confronted by the same series of objects, but a loud bang would accompany them, which caused the infant to cry even when confronted by the objects without the bang. Using operant conditioning to change or modify a behavior, my dog will learn