Learning Classical and Operant Conditioning Are Both Essay

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Classical and operant conditioning are both types of learning. In particular, classical conditioning and operant conditioning are both types of learning by association. Classical and operant conditioning are called learning by association because both types of learning involve the subject associating a stimulus with a response, or a behavior with a consequence. Ivan Pavlov, a Russian scientist, first studied classical conditioning in earnest. Pavlov showed that it was possible to make a dog associate a bell with meal times. To help the dog learn to associate the bell with mealtime, the dog had to be learn that the bell meant that food was coming. Pavlov started with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) and an unconditioned response (UCR). In the experiment with the dog, the unconditioned stimulus was meat powder, and the unconditioned response was salivation. The stimulus and response are unconditioned because it does not require conditioning, or training, to make the dog associate meat powder with salivation. The biological processes of a dog, and his natural physiological responses that are due to his genetic makeup, cause the dog to salivate when meat is present.

For the dog to learn to associate a bell with salivation, another step must be taken. This is when Pavlov introduced the neutral stimulus (NS). The neutral stimulus in the experiment with the dog was the sound of a bell. A bell was rung at the same time that the meat powder was given.

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After several times of hearing the bell at the same time as it received the meat powder, the dog started to associate the sound of the bell with the meat powder. It still salivated because of the meat powder, but after enough times of repeating the associated stimuli (bell + meat powder), the dog would salivate even without the meat powder. The dog had learned that bell means mealtime. Thus, the dog learned by association. The bell can now be called the conditioned stimulus, because the dog was conditioned to believe that the bell means it is time to eat. Salivation to a bell is called the conditioned response (CR).

Learning by association can also occur with operant conditioning. Operant conditioning does not involve a specific stimulus. Instead, operant conditioning refers more to the subject's behavior. The behavior that the subject would have performed naturally becomes associated with a reward, or a punishment. In operant conditioning, the reward or punishment are called the reinforcer, or reinforcing stimulus. As Boerce (2009) points out, "a behavior followed by a reinforcing stimulus results in an increased probability of that behavior occurring in the future." The same can be said for the probability of that behavior not occurring in the future, when the reinforcing stimulus is a punishment. B.F. Skinner studied operant conditioning in earnest at first, but many other psychologists have since performed experiments that show how organisms learn by association.….....

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