Who expanded operant conditioning by focusing on reinforcement and the environment?

• A. Thorndike
• B. Watson
• C. Skinner
• D. Bandura

Answer: (C)

Reinforcement and the environment shaping behavior is the central idea. Skinner expanded operant conditioning by showing that a behavior’s likelihood of repeating depends on the consequences it produces in the surrounding environment. He demonstrated how reinforcement—positive reinforcement adds a pleasant outcome, while negative reinforcement removes a bothersome one—strengthens a behavior, and how different reinforcement schedules affect how quickly and how well learning occurs. This focus on how environmental consequences govern learning, through systematic methods like shaping and varied reinforcement schedules, is what sets Skinner apart. For instance, praising a student after a correct answer or removing an extra task when they complete work both increase the chance those behaviors will recur, because the environment returns a reinforcing signal. By contrast, Bandura emphasizes learning through modeling, Watson centers on observable behavior without internal processes, and Thorndike laid groundwork with the law of effect before Skinner formalized reinforcement-based learning.