Classical Conditioning Examples

Operant conditioning applies to many areas in both everyday life and in the criminal justice system. If you are late to work every day to work or you don’t complete work that is assigned to you than you can be demoted, have a decrease in pay or possibly lose your job. All of these are consequences to behaviors that have been displayed over time.

The question being investigated is, what impact does classical conditioning have on animal or human life? Classical conditioning is the theory of learning that we will be using to investigate this question. The three aspects of the learning process that were evaluated is acquisition, extinction, and spontaneous recovery. During the acquisition, extinction, and spontaneous recovery trials there were different stimulus presented. In the acquisition trial, the US and NS were presented. In the extinction and spontaneous recovery trial, the US were only presented. There were five analysis conducted. In the first analysis it was expected for Sniffy to freeze more frequently in the post-acquisition trial than in the pre-acquisition trial. Second, it was expected for Sniffy to stop and freeze immediately when the light was presented, in extinction trial

We can find examples of operant conditioning at work all around us. Consider the case of children completing homework to earn a reward from a parent or teacher, or employees finishing projects to receive praise or promotions.

Our understanding of classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning has allowed us to unlock many of the answers we sought to learn about human behavior. Classical conditioning is a technique of behavioral training, coined by Ivan Pavlov, which basically states that an organism learns through establishing associations between different events and stimuli. This helps us understand human behavior in an assortment of ways. It makes it clear that almost everything we do is based on patterns of stimulus and response. For example, if you were bitten aggressively by a dog as a child, you may be still scared of dogs today. That is because the dog caused you pain, which in turn caused you have anxiety towards dogs.

While learning to drive a car, I have experienced the elements of classical conditioning. Conditioned stimulus was a car that rapidly stopped in front of me.

Classical conditioning is a form of learning that is taught to us through experiences we encounter in our lives. It involves outside stimuli to trigger the condition we have learned to expect. For example, the sound of a lunch bell would trigger our stomach to start growling soon after hearing the bell ring. The expectation of food to come soon after hearing the bell and satisfy our hunger is what makes our stomach growl. This is something learned over time. Expectations can be both good and bad. Sometimes these negative experiences cause us to have certain behaviors when we are reminded of such an event.

In this paper there will be an examination of the Operant Conditioning theory. It will describe the theory, and compare and contrast the positive and negative reinforcement. It will determine which form of reinforcement is the most effective, and will give an explanation of the reasoning behind that choice. It will also give a scenario in which operant conditioning is applied and how it shapes behavior. It will show a schedule that could be used in the reinforcement of the selected behavior in the scenario.

The theory of Classical Conditioning is one based on the idea that an individual can learn a new form of behavior simply from the process of association. Or simply put according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, “Classical Conditioning occurs when two stimuli are linked together to produce a new learned response” (“Classical,” 2015, para.2). In order to better understand Classical Conditioning, it is important to first define several key terms. A stimulus is any feature of the environment that affects behavior. A response is the behavior elicited by the stimulus (“Stimulus,” 2015, para.1).

Operant conditioning can occur in a setting with children, especially in a school setting where there is an abundance of operant conditioning taking place. In the school setting, I have witnessed many instances of operant conditioning learning. For example, many schools have a positive reinforcement program (PBIS), and also have a behavior management plan. These are prime examples of operant conditioning learning.

And example of operant conditioning is the training of rats to press a lever in order to obtain a food reward. The pressing of the lever (conditioned response) is associated with the food reward (unconditioned stimulus). After a training period, the rat will show the conditioned response of pressing the lever even without the presence of the unconditioned stimulus of the food.

The first real-life instance of a psychological concept during my break was during the drive to Missouri to see family. We always bring our dog, who loves to ride in the car. Normally on this road trip, my dog drools a lot when we stop for food. In order to minimize the the drool, my brother thought it would be a good idea to pack dog treats. This time, we would give the dog a treat when we stopped the car to get food. After a few stops, my dog began to get excited and drool when we stopped the car. This is definitely an example of classical conditioning. Classical conditioning is learning to connect two (or more) events, as well as learning to anticipate events (Myers, 2014). This definitely occurred with my brother and dog during our road trip; My dog began to anticipate the treat he would get when we stopped, so

Consider you decided to join the military. You depart for Marine Corps Recruit Depot (MCRD) Parris Island. You get off the bus and there is screaming and yelling and chaos is unleashed. Two weeks in you begin basic martial arts training. You don protective, given a pugil stick, and instructed to go through a tunnel and go head to head with another recruit. You move through the tunnel and, without warning, you are knocked to the ground. Your initial response is to place the stick between your body and the opponent and attempt to flee the situation. This is a natural response to the stimulus, someone trying to knock you out. The situation is simple, no training, little instructions, hurt them before they hurt you.

When I was younger I had a tendency to lie to my teachers and my parents about my homework and my mom would make me write 500 times that I would not tell a lie. Every time I would lie about my homework after that she would raise the amount of lines I had to do until finally I started doing my homework instead of lying about where it was. This is an example of operant conditioning because I learned through negative reinforcement that I should just do my homework instead of lying about what happened to it. A good example of classical conditioning would be fire alarms because when it goes off everyone is trained to get up and exit the building in an orderly fashion. I don’t have any college experience yet but the biggest thing that has altered

Classical conditioning is a process in which individuals learn to associate stimuli and, consequently to anticipate events. The story of the child, Antonio who used a false illness to get the attention and love from his parents is a great example of how an individual can use conditioned stimulus by associating the state of not feeling well with the love and affections from his parents. Due to the initial illness, which can be an unconditioned stimulus the child learned that the reaction of love and adornment he was experiencing was a conditioned response.

Operant conditioning is a type of learning which occurs through either receiving reinforcement or punishment for a behavior. This type of learning creates an association between a behavior and consequence for that behavior. The four types of operant conditioning are positive reinforcement, positive punishment, negative reinforcement, and negative punishment. If operant conditioning was used properly it could be used to solve a variety of social and resource dilemmas; especially in the case of the cattle ranchers and overgrazing.