operant

[ op-er-uhnt ]

adjective

1. operating; operating; producing effects.

noun

1. a person or thing that operates.

operant

/ ˈɒpərənt /

adjective

1. producing effects; operating

noun

1. a person or thing that operates
2. psychol any response by an organism that is not directly caused by a stimulus

Word History and Origins

Origin of operant¹

1595–1605; < Late Latin operant- (stem of operāns, present participle of operārī; operate ); -ant

Example Sentences

It knows how to use operant conditioning — the same techniques used to train a dog — to turn young men and women into efficient killers.

From Salon

Verbal and operant responses of young children to vocal versus instrumental song performances.

From Literature

Clive Wynne, founding director of the Canine Science Collaboratory at Arizona State University, ascribed the talking dogs’ skills to operant conditioning rather than an understanding of the words they seem to use.

From Seattle Times

In our case—other zoos may have better behaved ones—our gibbons are ridiculously smart, and they have not responded as well to the operant conditioning for training voluntary injections.

From Slate

My feelings about the camp are well-defined: They have performed a kind of operant conditioning on my son, teaching him that if he is in a new or uncomfortable situation, he can just act up and people will give up on him and he won’t have to do the new and uncomfortable thing.

From Slate

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