The author of your text suggests that operant procedures may be useful not only in treating medical

Creating associations between different events can also modify the retention interval. For example, memory for an imitation task can be retrieved over substantial delays if it is associated with another task that is typically remembered for longer, such as an operant conditioning task. For example, Barr et al. (2001) associated the puppet task with an operant train task where 6-month-old infants learn to press a lever to make a toy train move around a track, a task which can be remembered for two weeks. If infants were allowed to retrieve the memory of the train task first, infants imitated the target actions in the puppet task after 2 weeks, the same duration over which the train task is remembered. Thus, infants had formed an association between the two tasks that allowed memory for the train task to cue memory in the deferred imitation paradigm. This implies that memory for a motor skill, acquired through repeated practice, may facilitate memory for passively observed actions.

Operant conditioning involves changes in a behavior as a result of the consequences that follow the behavior. In general, behaviors increase in frequency when followed by a positive reinforcement or by the removal of an aversive stimulus, or negative reinforcement. Behaviors decrease in frequency when they are followed by the removal of rewards (negative punishment) or the presentation of an aversive event (positive punishment). Experimental evidence also exists for operant conditioning in newborns within a few hours after birth.

Also, check out the extra paper I attached