In: Psychology
What learning principle is applied when an instructor compliments a student? Book: Instructors and their jobs by w.r. miller, 2nd edition
The principle applied by the instructor when the instructor compliments a student is called operant conditioning. The operant conditioning principle is based on the law of effect, which says that the behaviors which have good consequences will be repeated, and the behaviors which have bad consequences will be avoided. B.F skinner studied operant conditioning using the skinner box. The skinner box is a cage in which an animal gets food if it makes the right responses.
An important concept in operant conditioning is reinforcement. The reinforcement is the response which is provided to a human or an animal after a behavior in order to increase or decrease the behavior. There are two kinds of reinforcements, positive and negative. Positive involves presenting a stimulus after the response so that the response will occur more, negative response involves removing a stimulus after the response so that the response will occur more. In this example, the student is getting positive reinforcement, in the form of a compliment, probably after displaying good academic knowledge, so that this students sincere behavior is reinforced.