Operant conditioning was first described by E. L. Thorndike (Thorndike, 1911). By watching cats trying to escape from puzzle boxes, he devised the law of effect. The law of effect states that behaviors that are followed by "satisfiers," or something pleasant, tend to be repeated ("stamped in"), but behaviors that are followed by "annoyers," or something unpleasant, tend to disappear (they get "stamped out"). To apply the law of effect, one must wait for a certain behavior to occur. If the behavior is desired, then it should be reinforced (rewarded; followed by a satisfier). If the behavior is undesirable, it should be punished (followed by an annoyer). Let's examine how this works.
