Classical and Operant Conditioning

Classical and operant conditioning are major theories that lead to learning. These important concepts are essential to behavioral psychology today. Let’s begin by understanding conditioning. Conditioning leads to learning by association of a stimulus (prompt) to a behavior (response). The important concepts of conditioning were born from experiments conducted by great psychologists.

Classical conditioning

Almost everyone is familiar with Ivan Pavlov’s, a Russian physiologist, classical conditioning experiment, where he used dogs to study the concept. Pavlov was able to conditioned the dogs to begin to salivate in response to a sound of a bell that had frequently been paired with the offering of food. Classical conditioning is a method that involves generating a link between a naturally existing stimulus and a formerly neutral one. Such as when Pavlov paired the neutral stimulus of the sound of a bell, with the unconditioned stimulus of the delicious taste of food. Resulting in an unconditioned response from the dogs where the unconditioned stimulus (the food) naturally and inevitably activated salivating as a response to the food.

Once the dogs made a link or association between the neutral stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus, the sound of the bell on its own would provoke a response; salivating. The conditioned stimulus is the bell sound and the conditioned response is the salivating.

Operant Conditioning

The American psychologist who was known as the father of operant conditioning, B.F. Skinner was who began to study operant conditioning by leading experiments using animals which he placed in a 'Skinner Box'. Operant conditioning focuses on the use of reinforcement or punishment to increase or decrease a behavior. This is where a link is made between the behavior and the consequences of that behavior. This method is often used to train dogs. For example, when we are attempting to teach our dog to give the paw or to give high five. When the dog does it successfully, the dog gets a treat as a reward. Of course, the dog does not get a treat when is unable to give the paw successfully. The dog will then have formed an association between his behavior of giving his paw or high five and receiving a treat as a reward for doing so. That is how operant conditioning works.

References:

Clark, R. E. (2004). The classical origins of Pavlov’s conditioning. Integrative Physiological & Behavioral Science, 39(4), 279-294. doi:10.1007/BF02734167

Fiske, S.T. (2014). Social beings: Core motives in social psychology (Third ed.). Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database.