Operant Conditioning Superstitions

Operant conditioning is the most prominent type of behavioural analysis in modern behavioural theory. Therefore, operant conditioning superstitions hold that most behaviour is controlled by its consequences. Operant conditioning superstitions are often referred to as "stimulus-response" learning; e.g. – If a scholar finds that complaining about the marks given to him/her for an essay results in the mark being raised, he learns to act out his/her superstition as a complainer.

So with regard to operant conditioning superstitions, exactly the same sort of explanation is applied to a host of everyday actions that people perform. To control behaviour, reinforcement must be contingent upon the performance of a desired behaviour. That is, the reinforcement must not be given until the behaviour is performed. Of course, the reinforcement doesn't affect the performance of the particular instance of the behaviour that it follows. Thus operant conditioning superstitions don't explain a particular behaviour by pointing to a specific cause in the way that screaming could be explained by noting that the ‘screamer’ had just been kicked on the shin. Operant conditioning superstitions explain a general tendency to display a type of behaviour by showing that previous instances of that same behaviour have been reinforced.