operant behavior

n. Any behavior which brings about a defined effect in the world. Thus pressing a lever which allows a food pellet to drop into a feeding tray is an operant behavior. The lever may be pressed in many different ways, and so it is the effect of the lever's being pressed and releasing a food pellet which makes it an operant behavior rather than a description of the behavior itself, which, in another situation, would not be an operant behavior if it did not produce the effect.