Editing Operant conditioning (section)

===Military psychology===
{{Main|Military psychology}}

Human beings have an innate resistance to killing and are reluctant to act in a direct, aggressive way towards members of their own species, even to save life.  This resistance to killing has caused infantry to be remarkably inefficient throughout the history of military warfare.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=On Killing: the Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society|last=Grossman|first=Dave|publisher=Little Brown|year=1995|isbn=978-0316040938|location=Boston}}</ref>

This phenomenon was not understood until [[S.L.A. Marshall]] (Brigadier General and military historian) undertook interview studies of WWII infantry immediately following combat engagement. Marshall's well-known and controversial book, Men Against Fire, revealed that only 15% of soldiers fired their rifles with the purpose of killing in combat.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Men Against Fire: the Problem of Battle Command in Future War|last=Marshall|first=S.L.A.|publisher=Infantry Journal|year=1947|isbn=978-0-8061-3280-8|location=Washington}}</ref> Following acceptance of Marshall's research by the US Army in 1946, the Human Resources Research Office of the US Army began implementing new training protocols which resemble operant conditioning methods.  Subsequent applications of such methods increased the percentage of soldiers able to kill to around 50% in Korea and over 90% in Vietnam.<ref name=":1" />  Revolutions in training included replacing traditional pop-up firing ranges with three-dimensional, man-shaped, pop-up targets which collapsed when hit.  This provided immediate feedback and acted as positive reinforcement for a soldier's behavior.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://www.killology.com/behavioral-psychology|title=Behavioral Psychology |vauthors=Murray KA, Grossman D, Kentridge RW |date=21 October 2018|website=killology.com/behavioral-psychology}}</ref> Other improvements to military training methods have included the timed firing course; more realistic training; high repetitions; praise from superiors; marksmanship rewards; and group recognition. Negative reinforcement includes peer accountability or the requirement to retake courses.  Modern military training conditions [[Midbrain|mid-brain]] response to combat pressure by closely simulating actual combat, using mainly Pavlovian [[classical conditioning]] and [[B. F. Skinner|Skinnerian]] operant conditioning (both forms of [[behaviorism]]).<ref name=":1" /><blockquote>Modern marksmanship training is such an excellent example of behaviorism that it has been used for years in the introductory psychology course taught to all cadets at the US Military Academy at West Point as a classic example of operant conditioning. In the 1980s, during a visit to West Point, B.F. Skinner identified modern military marksmanship training as a near-perfect application of operant conditioning.<ref name=":2"/></blockquote>[[Dave Grossman (author)|Lt. Col. Dave Grossman]] states about operant conditioning and US Military training that:<blockquote>It is entirely possible that no one intentionally sat down to use operant conditioning or behavior modification techniques to train soldiers in this area…But from the standpoint of a psychologist who is also a historian and a career soldier, it has become increasingly obvious to me that this is exactly what has been achieved.<ref name=":1" /></blockquote>