Classical and Operant Conditioning Essay

1. Operant conditioning is a type of behavioral learning developed by made famous by psychoanalysis B.F. Skinner in the late 1930’s. Operant conditioning is the act of learned behavior through consequences. Types of operant conditioning are positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment.

According to Kail and Cavanaugh the theory established by Skinner known as operant conditioning is a “learning paradigm in which the consequences of a behavior determine whether a behavior is repeated in the future” (p. 13). This theory to an extent, parallels the previous theory of operant conditioning but is also important in trying to understand why one makes the decisions they do as well as how often they partake in certain behaviors. Through his theory Skinner displayed that there are two types of consequences, reinforcement and punishment, in which one increases the chances of repeated behavior and the other vice versa. Reinforcement is the component that increases the likeliness of repeated behavior and includes two divisions, negative and positive. Negative reinforcement is that in which a person’s

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.

Operant conditioning is a way of learning by rewarding positive behavior and punishing negative. If anyone on the team was late for practice, Coach Carter made them run. That was a punishment so that they would learn to be on time. Classical conditioning is an involuntary way of learning from preceding events. When the team started playing for Carter, the sound of a whistle, known as a conditioned stimulus, meant nothing to them. After a while, Carter trained them to respond to the sound of his whistle instantly by doing whatever he was asking of them, this is known as the conditioned response. This is an excellent example of how classical conditioning works to help us learn.

Classical and operant conditioning are two important concepts central to behavioral psychology. While both result in learning, the processes are quite different. In order to understand how each of these behavior modification techniques can be used, it is also essential to understand how classical conditioning and operant conditioning differ from one another. Both classical and operant learning are psychological processes that lead to learning. Here learning refers to the process by which changes in behavior, including actions, emotions, thoughts, and the responses of muscles and glands,

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.

Operant conditioning comes with four types of consequences: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment. Positive and negative reinforcement has shown to increase associated behaviors while positive and negative punishment has shown to decrease associated behaviors. For example, positive reinforcement could be giving an autistic child candy when they are taught new things. Negative reinforcement could be placing a rat in a box to try and teach it to press the bar to release food but instead sends an electric shock. As for positive punishment, we could use the same rat and after repeated shocks he understand that when he presses the bar he will get shocked. For negative punishment, if the rat continues to press the bar his food will disappear. Non-associative learning changes the size of responses to a single stimulus rather than form a connection between stimuli. Non-associative learning is split into two subcategories: habituation and sensitization. Habituation lessens our reactions to repeated experiences while sensitization enlarges our reactions to a range of stimuli following exposure to one strong

Learning is the act of changing an organism’s behavior in response to an experience. Associative learning is when an organism links two events that occur close in time. When an organism learns to make associations, it is being conditioned. There are two types of conditioning. Operant conditioning is when an organism associates an action and the consequence of that action. It results in the organism adapting its behavior to maximize rewards and minimize punishment (Skinner). On the other hand, classical conditioning is a type of learning where an organism associates a certain stimulus and the response to it with a different stimulus. A neutral stimulus is associated with an unconditioned response to an unconditioned

Classical conditioning refers to the learning through association. It involves learning a new behavior through the process of association

The principle of operant conditioning and reinforcement is to repeat a response to a given stimulus. For the behavior modification to be successful, it is important to select a reinforcement that will strengthen the desired behavior (Rasnake, 1993).

     Classical conditioning refers to a simple form of learning, which occurs through the repeated association of two or more different stimuli. Learning is

“‘Conditioning’ simply means learning, and the term ‘operant’ refers to something that acts upon something else. Operant conditioning, then, is a form of testing in which an animal learns that a response, such as pressing a lever, results in a consequence, such as a food pellet being delivered to the animal (Pritchett & Mulder, 2004).” In operant conditioning, there are two categories: reinforcement and punishment. Both can be utilized using either positive or negative strategies. In reinforcement tactics, the behavior is attempted to be increased. A positive example of this would be praising a child if they say something that resembles mama or dada for their first words. A negative example would be the parents not responding or even chiding the child for mumbling or not being very coherent. Each action is strengthened by the parents reinforcement of praise when saying the correct words or their disregard when the child does not sound coherent. In the positive example, praise is being offered so the child is receiving something, therefore making the reinforcement positive. When the parents ignore the wrong words that the child speaks, we describe

Classical conditioning, also known as Pavlovian conditioning (Davis, S. F., & Buskist, W. (2008). 21st century psychology: a reference handbook Page 312 (Vol. 1). Sage.) states our behaviours are instigated by associating certain stimuli with other behaviours which involves four main learning principles known as acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery and stimulus generalisation and discrimination. (Martin, G.N., Carlson, N.R., and Buskist, W. (2013). Psychology. (5th ed.). Page 228 Harlow, Essex: Pearson Education. Chapter 7). Acquisition refers to the learning phase in classical conditioning when the conditioned stimulus increases in strength, extinction refers to when the conditioned stimulus is no longer linked with the unconditioned stimulus. Spontaneous recover refers to the resurfacing of the conditioned response after a period in which the response has been less apparent. Finally, stimulus generalisation and discrimination refers to when a conditioned response applies to similar stimuli, for example, being conditioned to fear a stuffed white rabbit the same behaviour will apply to an object of the same variety

Learning theories are the structural foundation used to label how information is processed, stored and encoded during learning. Retention of knowledge is subjective and influenced by outside factors such as, an individual’s cognitive ability to process or retain information. Other influences are environmental, emotional or preexisting experiences or associations (Andreassi, 2000). To gain a better understanding of behaviorism in correlation to learning theories it is crucial to understand and grasp the meaning of associative learning. This process involves the association between two stimuli or a behavior and a learned stimulus. Associative learning is divided in to two central techniques, classical conditioning and operant condition. Classical and operant conditioning are basic methods of learning and conditioning is used to adapt a behavior or association through a stimuli or consequence (Ciccarelli, 2012). While classical conditioning and operant conditioning are key elements in associative learning, they have significant differences. A clear contrast between the two theories is whether the behavior or response produced is considered to be voluntary or involuntary.

     Classical conditioning is a process of learning associations between stimuli used by Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist. In