Types Of Conditioning, Classical And Operant

The Behaviourist approach believe that human beings are able to learn all types of behaviours through the environment they grow up in, its believes that we learn these behaviours through using theories, such as, Ivan Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning and Burrhus Frederic Skinner’s Operant Conditioning.

Pavlov started out his experiment from his firm belief that there are certain actions a dog does not need to learn to perform. He described the phenomenon in which dogs salivate as soon as they see food as a reflex that is “hard wired” into the dogs. He called this naturally occurring response the unconditioned response because there was a clear connection between a certain stimulus and a response in the behavior of the dogs that did not require learning. Similarly, Pavlov called the food the unconditioned stimulus because it naturally and automatically triggered a response, like salivating. In short, he succeeded in proving that any object or event which the dogs learn to associate with food would more likely to trigger the same response -- he discovered the general principle of the classical conditioning.

Pavlov’s discovery of classical conditioning was a complete accident (Hock, 2009, p. 66). Pavlov was doing physiology research with salvation’s role with digestion when he discovered classical conditioning. In his research, he had dogs with their salvation glands redirected to their cheek in order to test the amount of saliva produced when presented with different foods. Pavlov then noticed that the dogs would salivate before they even got the food. He then discovered that the dogs had associated the worker’s footsteps with the food. So, when the dogs hear the footsteps they know that food is on the way so they begin to salivate.

Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) was a Russian psychologist who inadvertently discovered classical conditioning; a way to view the functioning of the nervous system, this remains his greatest psychological contribution

Pavlov tested out his theory on a dog, which was call Pavlov’s dogs theory. Before Conditioning there would be a unconditioned stimulus which would be food which produces an unconditioned response, this is where the dog would salivate. This stage also includes a neutral stimulus which is the bell does not produce a response. During Conditioning stage the neutral stimulus is associated with the unconditioned stimulus; which now becomes

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

He was born in 1849 in Ryazan, Russian Empire. He graduated and received a degree of Candidate of Natural Sciences from the University of St. Petersburg. Pavlov was interested in how digestion worked in animals. Thus, began to observe and record information on what triggered his dogs to salivate. His research led to the understanding that animals salivate because they use saliva to help them break down the food. Therefore, when food was presented the dogs would drool. However, he made an even deeper discovery, Pavlov noticed that his assistants wore long coats. Every time an assistant would be in the lab even if they did not have food the dogs would salivate. (Pavlov, 1927) Pavlov could not understand why dogs would drool at ordinary lab coats. He decided to run an experiment in which he would ring a bell each time he fed the dogs. After a period of time he would just ring the bell and his dogs would immediately salivate. This experiment is what helped develop his theory of classical conditioning a learning process that occurs when two stimuli are repeatedly paired, a response that is at first caused by the second stimulus is eventually produced by the first stimulus alone. Pavlov explained classical conditioning; there is a neutral stimulus (bell) by itself, it will not produce a response, like salivation. There is another stimulus (food), which produces an unconditioned response

He first started his research on the dog’s digestion but he then started to notice that when the dog’s mouth started watering whenever they were presented with food. This could be considered a UCS because it’s a natural response to food. He also noticed that the dog’s mouth would water when someone with a lab coat walked in the room. Pavlov later discovered that this is due to classical conditioning. This is considered a conditioned response (CR). The dogs had to learn to associate the food with the people giving them the food. He then decided to start studying the conditioned response to the people in lab coats and the dogs drooling. Pavlov decided to start fresh. He introduced a bell to the dogs. At first the bell was not paired with the food. This was considered a neutral stimulus. Before it was paired with the food it didn’t mean anything to the dogs, just an extra noise. He started to condition the dogs by ringing the bell first and then right afterwards gives the dogs food. He had to make sure to give the dog’s food right after the bell was rung or it wouldn’t have made a difference. If the food was not given right after the bell was rung the dogs would not have associated the bell with getting food. After a while of conditioning Pavlov was able to just ring the bell and the dogs would promptly begin to salivate. This step is called the acquisition step; it’s when the animal or person has finally learned the

In classical conditioning, a physical event (stimulus) that initially does not evoke a particular response gradually acquires the capacity to evoke that response as a result of repeated pairing with a stimulus that can evoke a response. Learning of this type is quite common and seems to play a role in such varied reactions as strong fears, taste aversions and even racial or ethnic prejudice. Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov discovered this method of learning while he was experimenting on the digestive systems of dogs. He noted that the dogs would naturally salivate after seeing the food, but that eventually the dogs also began to salivate whenever they saw the experimenter’s white lab coat.

Reinforcement tends to strengthen the behavior and raise the probability of the event happing again whereas consequences reduce the probability of the event occurring again. Reinforcement is usually used

Behaviourism is a theory of learning based upon the idea that all behaviours are attained through conditioning. Behaviourists believe conditioning occurs when we interact with the environment and that the environment we are in determines the way we respond to a stimulus. The behaviourist approach believes we learn behaviours through association between response and consequence. For instance, by touching a hot iron you will feel pain. Therefore, we learn from this, and know not to touch a hot iron as we associate feeling pain as a consequence of this action. There are two forms of conditioning within the behaviourist approach; classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Behaviourists believe that individuals are born without built-in mental content, known as a ‘blank slate’ and that all behaviours arise from experience or perception.

The founder and main contributor in the development of classical conditioning is Russian psychologists Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov, is an acclaimed man of science, who is prominently known for his investigations and experimental findings known as Pavlov’s dogs. While further exploring the canine digestive system, he

Ivan Pavlov, a physician, preformed many experiments concerning the physiology of digestion, by accident he discovered what is now known as classical conditioning or Pavlovian conditioning (Wood, Wood, and Boyd 137). Classical conditioning is “a type of learning through which an organism learns to associate one stimulus with another” (Wood, Wood, and Boyd 137). Learning implies that there is at least a semi-permanent change, this change could be demonstrated through behavior for example. In classical conditioning two stimuli are paired together multiple times. A stimulus is “any event or object in the environment to which an organism responds” (Wood, Wood, and Boyd 137). Pavlov, the father of classical conditioning, found that dogs’ natural response to food is salivation. Therefore, whenever the dogs were presented with food they salivated. Salivation is an unlearned behavior, this is referred to as the unconditioned response. He observed that a large portion of the dogs would begin salivating before the food was even presented. For example, the dogs would begin to salivate when they saw the attendant, whom was responsible for feeding them or when they heard the sound of their feeding dishes rattling (Wood, Wood, and Boyd 137). The dogs associated the cues of the attendant and the rattling of the bowls with the unconditioned stimulus, food. An unconditioned stimulus is “a stimulus that elicits a specific unconditioned response without prior learning” (Wood, Wood, and Boyd

What is learning? The text defines learning as “a process that produces a relatively enduring change in behavior or knowledge as a result of an individual’s experience (Hockenbury, page 182).” Much of chapter five of our text discusses “conditioning”, which is “the process of learning associations between environmental events and behavioral responses (Hockenbury, page 183).” One of the forms of conditioning is called “classical conditioning”. Classical conditioning is defined as “the basic learning process that involves repeatedly pairing a neutral stimulus with a response-producing stimulus until the neutral stimulus elicits the sameresponse (Hockenbury, page 184).” Ivan Pavlov was a Russian physiologist that largely contributed to learning by conducting his classical conditioning experiment observing the use of saliva in digestion in dogs. In his experiment, food was placed on the dog’s tongue to produce salivation. After several days of testing Pavlov noticed that the dog began to salivate as soon as he entered the room or even presented the food. According to the text, the food is considered the“unconditioned stimulus” or “the neutral stimulus that reflexively produces a response without prior learning (Hockenbury, page 184).” The dog’s salivation is called the “unconditionedresponse” which is “the unlearned, reflexive response (Hockenbury, page 184).” Pavlov wanted to learn about his discovery, so he sounded a bell preceding the presentation of food. After doing this

Classical conditioning is a type of learning process which occurs through associations between an environmental and natural stimulus. Classical Conditioning was discovered by Ivan Pavlov who was a Russian physiologist. Pavlov was initially studying the digestive process of dogs when he accidentally observed a gripping behavioural phenomenon. Pavlov noticed that the dogs started salivating as soon as it saw the technicians who fed it entering the room, even though there was no food in sight. This response demonstrated the basic principle of classical conditioning which made Pavlov question why the dogs reacted in this way, therefore he decided to research the concept in depth.