Classical Conditioning vs. Operant Conditioning

981 Words4 Pages
Classical conditioning and operant conditioning are very different and alike at the same time. People acquire certain behaviors through classical conditioning, a learning process in which associations are made between an unconditioned stimulus and a neutral stimulus. Operant conditioning occurs when the consequences that follow a behavior increase or decrease the likelihood of that particular behavior occurring again. Classical and operant conditioning are very alike and different. Classical conditioning always has a specific stimulus that elicits the desired response where operant conditioning has no stimulus and the learner must respond, then behavior is reinforced. Also, in classical conditioning the unconditioned stimulus does not depend on the learner’s response. In operant conditioning reinforcement depends on the learner’s behavior. A learner actively operates on its environment in operant conditioning, but in classical conditioning the learner responds to its environment. A Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov called what was taking place in similar situations conditioning. Classical conditioning is one example of learning. Learning can be defined as a relatively permanent change in behavior that results from experience. Pavlov discovered this type of learning on accident. It was around the turn of the century and Pavlov had been studying the process of digestion. He noticed that when a hungry dog got the smell or sight of food that it would began to salivate. He then changed his motive from digestion to how the dog anticipated the food before the food was presented, so he decided to make an experiment out of it. When he first began his experiments he got a tuning fork and meat powder to get the dog to salivate. First he would ring the tuning fork then directly after put the meat powder on the dog’s tongue. He chose the tuning for because it had nothing to do

More about Classical Conditioning vs. Operant Conditioning

Open Document