Operant Conditioning

Operant Conditioning:

Imagine trying to get your cat to stop scratching the couch. Just as you might learn to associate your cat's scratching with the need to protect your furniture by providing a scratching post, operant conditioning involves learning to associate a behavior with a consequence, like a reward or punishment. In this analogy, the cat's scratching is like a behavior, the scratching post serves as a reward to redirect that behavior, and your efforts to protect the couch represent the process of conditioning, where you are trying to shape the cat's actions by introducing a positive alternative or discouraging a negative one.