For training in behavior modification using Skinner's operant conditioning model in which of the following types of procedures, negative reinforcement is made contingent on making or withholding of a response in the presence or absence of cues?

a) Reward learning

b) Escape learning

c) Punishment learning

d) Active avoidance learning

e) Discriminated operant learning

Choose the most appropriate answer from the options given below:

Operant Conditioning

Operant conditioning, sometimes referred to as instrumental conditioning, is a method of learning that employs rewards and punishments for behavior. Through operant conditioning, an association is made between a behavior and a consequence (whether negative or positive) for that behavior. Reinforcement and punishment are two core tools on which operant conditioning works.  In operant conditioning, a cue is a stimulus that happens just prior to the operant behavior and that signals that performing the behavior may lead to reinforcement.

Several operations are involved in this conditioning. Some of them are:

1. Shaping: It refers to the judicious use of selective reinforcement to bring certain desirable changes in the behavior of the organisms.
2. Reward learning: the concept of reward is central to this theory. Reinforcers are the events that raise the rate of responding.
3. Omission learning: it consists simply of withholding the reinforcers when the appropriate response occurs.
4. Escape learning: In escape behavior, the occurrence of the behavior terminates the aversive stimulus.
5. Active avoidance learning: In avoidance behavior, the occurrence of the behavior prevents the presentation of an aversive stimulus
6. Punishment learning is an alternative paradigm that characterizes phobia as a choice behavior in which fear serves to punish an otherwise adaptive behavior. Punishment learning will follow the procedure  Cue Present → Response Withheld → Negative Reinforcement.

Both escape and avoidance are types of negative reinforcement, both result in an increase of the behavior that terminated or avoided the aversive stimulus.

Conclusion: From the above discussion, it is clear that For training in behavior modification using Skinner's operant conditioning model the following types of procedures, negative reinforcement is made contingent on making or withholding of a response in the presence or absence of cues.

• Escape learning
• Punishment learning
• Active avoidance learning