Classical conditioning and operant conditioning are different learning methods. The two methods have the word conditioning in common. What is conditioning? Conditioning is the acquisition of specific patterns of behavior in the presence of well-defined stimuli. Both classical and operant conditioning are basic forms of learning. Classical conditioning is a type of learning in which an organism learns to transfer a natural response from one stimulus to another, previously neutral stimulus. Manipulating reflexes does this. Operant conditioning is a type of learning in which the likelihood of a behavior is increased or decreased by the use of reinforcement or punishment. Operant conditioning deals with more cognitive thought process.
These two forms of learning have similarities and differences. Their similarities are that they both produce basic phenomena. One such phenomenon is acquisition. Both types of conditioning result in the inheritance of a behavior.
One of the most famous of experiments that illustrates classical conditioning is Pavlov's Dogs. In this experiment, Pavlov sat behind a one-way mirror and controlled the presentation of a bell. The bell was the conditioned stimulus. A conditioned stimulus was an originally neutral stimulus that could eventually produce a desired response when presented alone. Directly after the ringing of the bell, Pavlov gave the dog food. The food was the unconditioned stimulus. This means that the food caused an uncontrollable response whenever it was presented alone. That response would be the salivation of the dog. A tube that was in the dog's mouth then measured the saliva. When the unconditioned stimulus (US) was paired with a conditioned stimulus (CS), it eventually resulted in a conditioned response. Extinction results if there is a decrease in frequency or strength of a learned response due to the failure to continue to pair the US and the CS.
Extinction can also occur in operant conditioning. The key to operant conditioning is reinforcement. Reinforcement is when a stimulus is presented that increases the probability that the preceding response will recur in the future. If reinforcement is withheld, extinction will occur in operant conditioning. Another factor that is involved in conditioning is spontaneous recovery. That is the reappearance of an extinguished response after the passage of time, without further training. If Pavlov's dogs did not hear the bell for a few years, and if when they heard it later they drooled, it would be an example of spontaneous recovery.
Something similar occurs with operant conditioning.
The two main forms of conditioning, are classical conditioning (learning by association), and operant condition (learning from consequences).Classical conditioning, is the learning process in which one is conditioned (learns) to respond to a neutral stimulus as if it were a meaningful stimulus. In operant conditioning, learning occurs through associations made between a behavior and the consequence that follows.
“Operant conditioning is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior. Through operant conditioning, an association is made between a behavior and a consequence for that behavior” (Cherry). Positive reinforcement which is praising a person for doing something good verses negative reinforcement which is an unpleasant remark a punishment. B.F. Skinner did an experiment on a rat, the rat was taught to push two buttons, one to receive food and the other was a light electric shock. The rat tried both buttons and realized which button was good and which one was bad. This experiment goes to show that upon the rewards and punishment system one can learn their rights from their wrongs through a series of lessons. Kincaid and Hemingway both use operant conditioning to show human behavior under stimulus control.
Excitatory conditioning is when the conditioned stimulus (the bell) and the unconditioned stimulus (the food) are paired up, and the dog produces a response by salivating. Conditioned inhibition is the opposite of excitation, instead of trying to train the dog to produce a response, the dog is trained to stop a response. For example, extinction which is to present the bell (CS) alone and to stop bringing the food (US) out that the dog will eventually stop salivating because it realizes there is no food coming anymore will inhibit the dog from salivating. From his study, he believed that learning is the result of association and that the stimulus precedes the
Other than being cruel to animals he would have started to disassemble the conditioning of the dog. When the dog can hear the bell ring and not salivate that is called extinction. Extinction is by definition “the weakening and often eventually disappearance of a learned response.” In classical conditioning the conditioned response is weakened by repeated presentation of the conditioned response without the unconditioned stimulus (World of Psychology pg168) Meaning that Pavlov’s dogs would stop salivating after a while of only hearing the bell and not receiving any food. Just because the conditioned response leaves the dog it’s not gone forever. Pavlov discovered that if he brought the dog home for a while and let it rest then brought it back to the lab the conditioned response would reappear. He named this spontaneous recovery. Although it did come back without actual food to back up ringing the bell the conditioned response disappeared in less time than the before. The next thing that Pavlov wondered about classical conditioning is it generalized or specific? Meaning will the dog salivate to any bell now or just the one in C-tone? This is called
According to Jeffery, (1965), the classical conditioning or known as Pavlovian conditioning is the changes of behaviour that was elicited by the stimulus and involuntary response, while the operant conditioning is the behaviour changes due to the consequences got. The consequences can be in term of reinforcement and punishment.
If I were to explain the differences to a parent I would explain that operant conditioning is typically a type of learning where behavior is controlled by consequences (Miller, 2011). Then I will further explain that
He discovered classical conditioning after seeing how the dogs were stimulated to respond to their food and anything related to food such as the noise of the door or person coming towards them (King, 2016). He eventually conditioned the dogs to respond to a bell as it did when it was exposed to the food (King, 2016). Pavlov accomplished this by introducing a neutral stimulus, the bell, which is a stimulus that doesn’t result in a response like conditioned or unconditioned stimuli (King, 2016). Initially, in this experiment salivation was an innate response to food, but after the introduction of the bell, it became a conditioned response because the dog learned that every time the bell rang, its food came along with it (King, 2016). Consequently, making the bell a conditioned stimulus which is a stimulus that resulted in a response after many times that the neutral stimulus was presented with the food (King,
Therefore, a human or animal will forget about the old stimulus and become attached to the new stimulus. The terms: Unconditioned Stimulus, Unconditioned Response, Neutral Stimulus, Conditioned Stimulus, and Conditioned Response are key when explaining the process of Classical Conditioning. A Unconditioned Stimulus is when a stimulus will lead to a natural response without any training needed. A Unconditioned Response is a natural and automatic response brought up by the Unconditioned Stimulus. A Neutral Stimulus is when something elicits no response at first. For example, a specific object will have no meaning before the experiment but once the experiment is undergo, the object will take on a different role than before. A Conditioned Stimulus is a stimulus that at first had no meaning, but when associated with the Unconditioned Stimulus it will eventually generate a Conditioned Response. A Conditioned Response will cause a natural and automatic response towards the Neutral Stimulus because the person was trained to react that
The other aspect in classical conditioning is extinction, which occurs when a conditioned stimulus is no longer paired with an unconditioned stimulus. For example, when the smell of tobacco that was initially paired with having a few puffs is now present, but the individual is not provided with the cigarette to get the puffs, when this is done for a long time the smell no longer produce the craving in the individual to have the puff. The extinction of the learnt behavior of smoking can be said to have occurred (Cherry, 2011).
Between classical, operant conditioning, and observational learning, there are many differences. The classical learning is tied with stimulus. Operant learning is when behaviors are reinforcement, or punishment. Observational learning is learning by watching things, and the way things are done by others.
The strength of classical conditioning is that it can help to explain all aspects of human behavior. Any of behavior can broke down into stimulus-response association, so that according to the classical conditioning, conditioned stimulus will lead conditioned response to occur, then the scientist can observe and determine the behavior (McLeod, 2014). In the case of Pavlovian conditioning, he found that when the conditioned stimulus (bell) was paired with an unconditioned stimulus (food) was presented to the dog, it would start to salivate. After a number of repeated this procedures, Pavlov tried to ring his bell by its own...
It also has to be involuntary. The unconditioned stimulus (US) has no prior learning involved, but still yields a reaction. It is followed by an unconditioned response (UR) that is inevitably produced from the original stimulus. The conditioned stimulus (CS) is a previously neutral stimulus that eventually causes a response after being associated with the unconditioned stimulus. Finally, the conditioned response (CR) is the learned response to the conditioned stimulus once there is a connection between the conditioned and unconditioned stimulus (King, 2014). In Pavlov’s experiment, the food was the unconditioned stimulus with salivation as the unconditioned response. Over time, the dogs made the connection with the bell, which became conditioned stimulus. The saliva then became the conditioned response. Although this happened in the early twentieth centuary, is Pavlov’s dog experiment still relevant to today’s
Contrasting the two, operant was first described by an American psychologist while classical conditioning was described by a Russian psychologist. Another key dissimilarity involves the kinds of behaviors that are conditional (Weseley, McEntarffer, & McEntarffer, 2010). Whilst classical conditioning is based on automatic and involuntary behaviors, operant conditioning focuses on intentional behaviors. Operant conditioning focuses on strengthening or weakening voluntary behaviors while classical conditioning specializes on involuntary and automatic behaviors. Classical conditioning involves placing a conditional stimulus which is a impartial signal prior to a reflex whi...
There are many differences and similarities between each of these learning processes. For example, classical conditioning involves only involuntary or reflex responses where as operant conditioning involves both involuntary and voluntary reflexes. These different learning processes can be used independently in many different situations. Where Classical conditioning may be more effective in one situation it may be useless in another. For this reason each of these learning processes, Classical and operant conditioning, and observational and insight learning are each as important and effective as the other.
2011, p281). Regardless of their differences or similarities however, both have played an important part in the study of learning. With operant conditioning allowing to condition more complex behaviours that can be done with classical conditioning, and with classical conditioning being what helped discover operant conditioning in the first place, it can be argued here that the two are complementary. Indeed, one cannot speak of operant conditioning without mentioning classical conditioning, and vice