Operant conditioning is a design principle used to motivate desired behaviors by rewarding or punishing the users based on their actions. This is a popular technique and can easily be seen in our daily life, e.g., marketing campaign, reward program, and company bonus scheme. There are similarities between operant conditioning and gamification, and these two principles are often used interchangeably. However, gamification is a broader discipline that covers other game mechanics such us badges, goals, level-up, competition, etc.
Lidwell, William, Kritina Holden, and Jill Butler. Universal principles of design. Gloucester, MA: Rockport, 2010.
Example from original source
Video game (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man#/media/File:Pac-man.png)
Example not cited by original source
Fred Perry Sale – FOMO is also a type of operant conditioning. (https://thestylishcity.com/fred-perry-black-friday-overstock-sale)
Example from real life
Point card from my favorite coffee shop. These cards make me want to go back!
This is a bit tricky to distinguish from gamification. Thanks for clarifying that in your description, Jeff. The rewards and punishment part reminds me of those Tomogatchies/Nanopets/ Gigapets from way back. If you neglected them, your pet suffered, but if you interacted with it, it would do cool stuff.
I agree with you that it is an excellent strategy to appeal to the design. To Induce behavioral changes is effective using the rewards and punishment; it also works in the real world as well. I think describing the similarities and differences with Gamification is an excellent way of presentation; It helped to understand quickly and precisely.
An example that I would like to share with you is a Cash Slide app made in Korea. After viewing the advertisement on the lock screen, users can earn cash by unlocking screen. It is an advertisement platform, the number of downloads on android market is much. Thus, it seems to work well.
Cash Slide app in mobile:
http://www.venturesquare.net/3686
The examples you chose do a great job of illustrating the operant conditioning concept in the way that it applies to design and they do a great job of differentiating the concept from the original concept in psychology. The coffee card example is something I can really identify with, I have similar cards from coffee shops and i am more apt to go back to those shops because I know I am getting close to getting a free coffee once the card is full. Another example I thought of, is the daily discount site woot, a sister site to amazon.com, that offers limited, daily deals that are only available in a limited quantity for that day only.
One last example is the way that the cassette community in music creates releases in limited quantities of small batches of tapes, sometimes as few as 10 or 15 for a single release. For collectors, this makes them feel pressure to buy the tape before it sells out. Geographic factors are also included in this as well since it can be difficult to ship tapes to different countries. Many of my friends that are musicians or run labels are excited to get their tapes into a store in Japan called Waltz, because it is the only way for their fans there to purchase their tapes. http://waltz-store.co.jp/