Contrasting Principles of Classical and Operant Conditioning

Learning is a very important part of Psychology and it has been

defined as ‘any relatively permanent change in behaviour, or behaviour

potential, produced by experience’ (Baron, p.169). Learning is a key

process in human behaviour; it can play an important role in most of

the activities we do.

Even though the effects of learning are extremely diverse, most

psychologists believe that learning occurs in several basic forms:

conditioning – classical and operant and observational learning.

Myers defined conditioning as ‘the process of learning associations’.

Classical conditioning is where the stimulus serves as a signal for

the occurrence of a second stimulus. (Learning to associate two

stimuli’s together). In classical conditioning we are able to acquire

information about the relations between various stimuli and not just

simple associations between them.

The most famous research for classical conditioning comes from Ivan

Pavlov in 1927.

During Pavlov’s research into salivary secretion in dogs he noticed

that when he put food into a dog’s mouth it would salivate. He then

found that if he worked repeatedly with the same dog it would salivate

to stimuli associated with food such as the sight of food, the food

dish or the presence of the person who brought the food.

Because of what Pavlov found he then chose to study learning, which he

hoped might enable him to better understand what was happening.

Pavlov and his assistants began work by pairing various neutral

stimuli such as sound when food was present in the dog’s mouth to see

if the dog would eventually learn to salivate to the just the sound on

it’s own.

...

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...viour due to a reinforcer and

are only likely to show the desired behaviour if it’s reinforced and

so this behaviour is unlikely to be a permanent change compared to

classical conditioning which has much high chances of remaining.

Bibliography

Carlson, N. R., Buskist, W., & Martin, G. N. (2000). Psychology: The

Science of Behaviour. London: Allyn & Bacon.

Myers, D.G. (2003) Psychology. (Seventh Edition). Michigan: Worth

Publishers.

Ferguson, K. E., O’Donohue, W. (2001). The Psychology of B.F Skinner.

London: Sage publications.

Bjork, D.W. (1997) Skinner- A Life. London. American Psychological

Association.

Hall, G. (1983). Behaviour – An introduction to Psychology as a

Biological science. London: Academic Press inc.

Baron, R. A. (1998) Psychology. (Fourth Edition). London: Allyn &

Bacon