Operant Conditioning

Real World Example

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.