ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Operant conditioning

Operant conditioning is a way that we learn by receiving rewards or punishments for our actions.

Let's imagine you have a puppy. When you are training your puppy, you can use treats as a reward for when it does something you like, such as sitting when you ask it to. When your puppy receives this reward, it will be more likely to sit when you ask it to again. This is because it knows that if it performs the desired behavior, it will get a treat!

On the other hand, if your puppy does something you don't like, you might give it a punishment, such as a firm "no" or a time-out. This tells the puppy that the behavior it just did is not okay, and it will be less likely to do that behavior again in the future.

Humans can also be trained using operant conditioning! At school, you might get a gold star for doing well on a test, which tells you that doing well on a test is a good thing that should be repeated. Or, if you forget to do your homework, your parents might give you a punishment like taking away your phone or grounding you, which tells you that forgetting to do your homework is not okay and should be avoided in the future.

Overall, operant conditioning is a way that we can learn through rewards and punishments, and it helps us to understand what behaviors are good or bad.