Operant Conditioning In The Wild Child

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From Beast to Human The Wild Child, directed by the famous French producer François Truffaut, illustrates the evolution of a beast into a civilized human being. It recounts the story of a little boy who grew up in solitude in nature, having limited human contact (Truffaut, 1970). After being discovered and taken in by hunters, the feral child is sent to an institution and taken under the care by Dr. Itard who eventually names him Victor and educates him about the civilized human life in France. Throughout the film, the theory of innate knowledge and the concepts of operant conditioning and extinction are shown to be present.
To start off, the wild child is shown to have grown up without or very little contact with another human in the forest. Without any influence from the French Parisian society, he was unable to acquire knowledge of their language, thus being incapable of communicating or understanding those who found him. In addition, the boy does not know the society’s ways of acting, thinking and behaving (Truffaut, 1970). Untouched by society, his behaviour …show more content…
Jean Itard begins his education of the laws of the French society (Truffaut, 1970). Dr. Itard primarily adopted the learning process of operant conditioning, using rewards or punishments to teach Victor what is socially acceptable and what is not. For example, after acquiring a likeness to milk, Victor learns appropriate mannerism by asking for milk, which would be the conditioned stimulus, in order to be poured some into his bowl, which would be the conditioned response. Milk is also seen as a positive reinforcer as it is something sought for, which would increase his mannerism behaviour. On the other hand, when Victor retaliates when frustrated by throwing an object on the ground during a lesson, this being the conditioned stimulus, he is locked in a closet as a punishment, which would be the negative

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