ABSTRACT
Operant-Respondent Interactions Any given experience is likely to include both respondent and operant conditioning occurring concurrently. Let’s consider Janice’s case. Like all of us, Janice probably had a history of being punished for failing to meet deadlines. Punishment elicits feelings of anxiety, a respondent reaction. As a consequence of prior pairings with punishment, stimuli associated with missing a deadline were likely CSs eliciting anxiety as a CR in Janice. The closer to the deadline, the stronger would be the CSs associated with missing the deadline, and hence the stronger would be the CR of anxiety. What about working on the term paper-how does it fit into this picture? The relevant responses (looking up references, reading background material, taking notes, making an outline, and finally writing the paper) are operant responses. As these responses occurred and Janice began to see that she would meet the deadline, the anxiety decreased. Thus, stimuli associated with the deadline likely caused Janice to feel anxious, a respondent response, and responding to meet the deadline, operant responses, were maintained by the negative reinforcement of the decrease in Janice’s anxiety. While other factors were undoubtedly influencing Janice’s behavior, the preceding analysis illustrates how both operant and respondent conditioning may have occurred concurrently and interacted.
