Reflection Paper On Learning

The video “Learning” discusses some of the processes people go through when learning, as well as, what types of conditioning can lead to effective ways of learning. The learning process starts very early in life; when we are born we learn to use our reflexes, which helps provide us the necessary skills for survival. Learning helps pave the way for the future because we learn from our past experiences and that helps anticipate future experiences. Over time we learn how to control complex situations and ever changing environments. Some reasons we learn so efficiently are because of the different types of conditioning we are exposed to: classical conditioning, operant conditioning and observational learning. The experiments discussed below and in the video help me understand how our conditioning influences our ability to learn.
Ivan Pavlov made huge strides for classical conditioning with his experiment on dogs and their saliva, famously called “Pavlov’s Dogs.” He was able to condition dogs to automatically salivate from a neutral stimulus. Pavlov was doing an experiment on the digestive systems of dogs where he put food on the tongues of dogs to produce saliva. It was then that he noticed the dogs began to be conditioned to
He recognized the dilemma of self-control and the struggles of taking the immediate action for a small reward versus taking the long action for a large reward. Most people struggle with delayed gratification. Rachlin used pigeons in an experiment as well. The experiment had pigeons in a box peck a green or red button to earn a reward, in this case a small or large dispersement of food. The small reward was almost instant and the large reward had a delay in delivering the food. When the dynamics of the experiment changed to an even level, the pigeons choose what benefited them the best. They were clearly thinking about the alternatives and