OC definition

**Ricko** · 11-02-2011, 10:08 AM

Is there an official definition for OC? I might be using some of these techniques (OC) already and not even realizing it.

**Saluqi** · 11-02-2011, 10:37 AM

Here you go:

http://psychology.about.com/od/behav...ntroopcond.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operant_conditioning

**andy hall** · 11-02-2011, 10:43 AM

and to respond to your comment...you are using it (and responding to it) almost every waking second of your day

it's kinda like gravity in that sense.

Andy Hall

**goshawkr** · 11-02-2011, 02:47 PM

Originally Posted by andy hall

and to respond to your comment...you are using it (and responding to it) almost every waking second of your day

it's kinda like gravity in that sense.

Andy Hall

I'd like to clarify this a little.

OC encompasses some very technical concepts, terminologies, and techniques. Those are pretty cut and dried - either you know or you dont. Either you use it or you dont. Simple. (ok, not really, but lets leave it simple for now).

However, OC was developed by studying very carefully how animals learn and what motivates them. Its underlying theory primarily focuses on reward based methods, but certainly examines the effects of punishment based methods as well (and discounts them as being counter productive).

So, while you may not know and use OC, if your teaching using reward based methods you are using some of the basic biological principals that OC takes advantage of.

And this is where my "simple" statement above falls apart. If someone using OC conciously is working off of the same biological principals as someone who is NOT using OC, is there a real difference in the training methods used? I would submit that there is not, with the exception that the guy using OC can articulate and understand what is going on in ways that the other fella cannot.

I can take OC terminology and apply it to anyone who is using reward based training, and describe what they are doing in OC jargon. Well, maybe not me because I am not really all that well studied in it - I just study it enough to use it to make my training more productive. But someone could.