operant

Example Sentences

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

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

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

They decode the operant logic underlying conventional wisdom.

From Slate • Nov. 5, 2018

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