\ / Instrumental Conditioning

I Instrumental behavior refers to those actions whose acquisition and mainte­ nance depend on their consequences for the animal or, in others words, on the fact that the action is irzslrumClllal in causing some outcome. The func­ ,t tional significance of the capacity for instrumental action is gO obvious.as to require little comment; it is this capacity that allows us and other animals to learn to control our environment in the service of our needs and desires. Consider a purely Pavlovian animal equipped only with the capacity to detect and learn about the predictive rclations between signals and impor­ tant events in the world, but not about the contingencies between its actions