What is operant behaviour

Operant behavior is a term first used by B. F. Skinner who was one of the best-known psychologists in the behaviorism school. In his many years of work, Skinner theorized that organisms were often influenced in behavior by consequences, and that previous consequences would have an affect on future behavior. Consequences could be either natural or contrived, and were often contrived in the types of studies on operant behavior practices on animals.

Operant behavior (which goes along with operant conditioning) refers to behavior that "operates" on the environment or is controllable by the individual. Operant behavior is done because it produces some type of consequence.