Operant conditioning is B.F. Skinner’s name for instrumental learning: learning by consequences. Not a new idea, of course. Humanity has always known how to teach children and animals by means of ...

Why it works: Dogs repeat behaviors that lead to pleasant outcomes. Positive reinforcement uses rewards to make good habits stick. Trust over dominance: Modern training rejects intimidation, focusing ...

Karen Pryor is a behavioral biologist, a pioneering dolphin trainer, and an authority on applied operant conditioning—the art and science of changing behavior with positive reinforcement. Her book, ...

From Pavlov’s dogs to genetic switches in our brains, fear learning is shaped by a dance between experience and biology. Classical and operant conditioning explain how fears can form and stick, while ...

Operant conditioning is B.F. Skinner’s name for instrumental learning: learning by consequences. Not a new idea, of course. Humanity has always known how to teach children and animals by means of ...