Classical and Operant Conditioning

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Recommended: Compare And Contrast Between Classical And Operant Conditioning

While many people may believe that learning is just a natural response that all animals are capable of, there is actually a more complex explanation on how we learn the things we do in order to survive in the world. Classical conditioning and operant conditioning are both basic forms of learning, they have the word conditioning in common. Conditioning is the acquisition of specific patterns of behavior in the presence of well-defined stimuli.

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. Classical conditioning is achieved by manipulating reflexes. 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 involves learning a link between a response and its consequences-a contingency" (Howard, 1995, p. 43). Operant conditioning deals with the cognitive thought process and many everyday activities are made possible through the act of operant conditioning.

In classical conditioning responses are largely controlled by stimuli that precede the response. For example, in the experiment held by Pavlov (1906) it was demonstrated that a dog would salivate after being presented with meat powder. As a result of conditioning Pavlov discovered that he could make the dog salivate after hearing the sound of a bell if the bell was presented prior to the meat powder for a certain amount of time. The results of this experiment indicates that the CR (salivation) is controlled by the stimuli that came before it, the CS (sound of the bell). In contrast, operant conditioning results from stimuli that follow the response...

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...e same behavior being caused by the new stimulus. Both learning methods are reliable, and are implemented in the day-to-day lives of every living organism.

References

Hintzman, D.L. (1978). The psychology of learning and memory. USA: W . H. Freeman and company.

Howard, R.W., (1995). Learning and memory: major ideas, principles, issues and applications. USA: Praeger Publishers.

Kintsch, W., (1970). Learning, memory, and conceptual processes. Colarado: John Wiley & sons, Inc.

Weiten, W., (2001). Psychology: Themes and variations (5th ed). Pacific grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.

Baldwin, J.D., & Baldwin, J.I., (1988). Behavior principles in everyday life (3rd ed). New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc.

Cooper, J.O., (1987). Applied behavior analysis. Columbus, OH: Merill Publishing.

Rachlin, H., (1976). Introduction to modern behaviorism (2nd ed). San Franci

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