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Compare And Contrast Classical Conditioning And Operant Conditioning

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Sometimes, people wonder if they can control behavior and its occurence. The answer is yes, thanks to Ivan Pavlov and B.F. Skinner. Ivan Pavlov was the founder of classical conditioning, while B.F. Skinner founded operant conditioning; these are two very different methods of learning. Classical conditioning is a type of learning in which a neutral stimulus is conditioned to be paired with an innate behavior when, originally, the neutral stimulus did not elicit a response. On the other hand, operant conditioning is a type of learning where one uses rewards or consequences to increase/decrease the likelihood of a behavior being repeated (Laura, 2016, p. 211). Every day, one of the two methods is used in many, various types of settings. In some cases, people who are being conditioned will not notice it at all. However, classical and operant conditioning is not only applied to human beings, animals can be conditioned as well. As mentioned before, Ivan Pavlov founded classical conditioning. What is interesting is he founded this type of learning by accident while experimenting with a dog and how the body goes through digestion. During his experiment on the dog, he noticed something unusual that triggered the dog causing it to salivate. A natural behavior humans and animals possess is salivating when food is seen, but the dog did not only salivate at the sight of food, it also salivated at the sight and sound of the things that are associated with the food, such as the food

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