Variable reinforcement schedules can produce behaviors foreign to an animal’s natural repertoire

Evidence

His early research broke new ground as he engineered variable “schedules of reinforcement” to produce detailed patterns of activity that were foreign to an animal’s original behavioral repertoire, work that he called “operant conditioning.” — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1145

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘operant conditioning’ and ‘schedules of reinforcement’ as the mechanism that reshapes behavior beyond natural repertoire.
• XREF: connects to: Skinner’s reinforcement schedules replace simple stimulus-response with engineered behavior shaping. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 924; Skinner showed animal behavior is conditioned by variable rewards and punishments — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 652; Intermittent reward schedules produce more persistent behavior than consistent rewards do — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 654 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Skinner showed animal behavior is conditioned by variable rewards and punishments #expands (0.85) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 652
• Intermittent reward schedules produce more persistent behavior than consistent rewards do #corroborates (0.80) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 654
• B.F. Skinner extrapolated laboratory animal behavior into grand theories of social organization #expands (0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1147