Skinner created the thinking behind Operant conditioning. He believed that it was not really necessary to look at internal thoughts and motivations in order to explain behaviour. Instead, he suggested that we should look only at the external, observable causes of human behaviour. Skinner was focussed on how the consequences of peoples actions, influenced their behaviours.

This is a method of learning that employs rewards and punishments for behaviour. Through operant conditioning, an association is made between a behaviour and a consequence (whether negative or positive) for that behavior.

A good example of this is an experiment that was carried out on rats. They found that when lab rats pressed a lever when a green light was on, they received a food pellet as a reward. When they pressed the lever when a red light was on, they received a mild electric shock. As a result, they learned to press the lever when the green light was on and to avoid the red light.

Operant conditioning plays an important part in the role in everyday learning and is not just something that takes place in experimental settings while training lab animals.

Operant conditioning relies on a fairly simple premise: Actions that are followed by reinforcement will be strengthened and more likely to occur again in the future. A good example of this is that if you tell a funny story in class and everybody laughs, you will probably be more likely to tell that story again in the future. you remember the positive feeling from telling that story as it was recevied well.

Skinner identified that there were two types of behaviours

The first one was described as Operant Behaviour: those under our conscious control. Out actions on the environment and the consequences of that action, make up an important part of the learning process. 

The second one was described as Respondent Behaviours: thses occur automatically. One example of this is pulling your hand back from a hot oven. this is something that you dont need to learn, you do them automatically