Operant Conditioning Chamber

An operant conditioning chamber for rats.

The operant chamber or "Skinner box" was invented by American psychologist B. F. Skinner during the early 1930s. It is used in psychological laboratories to study in a controlled situation the effects of environmental variables on the probability of a relatively simple response known as operant. In a simple arrangement, operant learning can be studied by presenting a reinforcing event (e.g., food or water) every time a rat presses a metal lever. In these particular chambers, rats can also be trained to press the lever only when a stimulus (e.g., a light) is presented. Numerous principles of behavior have been discovered in the operant chamber. Many of these are the basis for behavioral psychotherapy.

These inexpensive 3D-printed operant chambers are used as teaching tools during the undergraduate courses of Learning and Behavior Analysis imparted by Dr. Rogelio Escobar at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

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