Instrumental Conditioning Essay

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Instrumental Conditioning University of Phoenix Psych 550 Professor Maya Aleksic Conditioning involves learning association between an individual and events that occur in his or her environment. Two important theories of learning by conditioning are Classical and Operant conditioning. Classical conditioning involves the pairing of some neutral (conditioned) stimulus (e.g. tone, sound) with an unconditioned stimulus (e.g. light) to naturally evoke a learning response (Bradizza, C.M., Stasiewkz, 2009). Operant conditioning is a process of changing behaviors by rewarding or punishing subjects in which an application is performed until the subject associates the action with pleasure or distress. In their study, Capaldi & Martins (2010) used a mode of operant conditioning to show how individuals used memory reinforcement to learn specific rules. Operant condition is often referred to as instrumental learning. Describe your selected learning situation An example of operant conditioning in a selected learning situation would be that of behavior modification for drug use. For instance, a form of operant conditioning, in which a person who drives (although somewhat ineffectively) under the influence of alcohol can drive home, because he or she is familiar with the environment. However, as Bradizza & Staiewkz (2009) point out, alcohol abuse is a very serious problem that have societal (e.g., drunk driving accidents and deaths, and individual psychological consequences (e.g., addiction, death). Thus, behavior modification has been the focus of many studies to deter alcohol and/or drug abuse Explain the role of reward and punishment in your selected learning situation. Reward and punishment has to do with the processes of reinforcement. Reinforcement is a process of increasing the frequency or rate of a behavior by means of presenting a stimulus shortly after

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