Discuss how the principals of classical and operant conditioning may be applied to human behaviour. The purpose of this academic essay is to describe and explain the principles of classical and operant conditioning and how it can be applied to human behavior. First we must know the principles of operant and classical conditioning. While these two conditioning techniques share some similarities, it is important to understand the differences between them. One of the major differences involves the types of behaviours that are conditioned.
The theory of classical conditioning was introduced near the turn of the nineteenth century (1900) by Russian scientist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov. Pavlov’s experiment was originally intended to study the physiology of salivation, however it turned out that his experiments led him to the discovery of conditioned reflexes. Pavlov’s experiments involved measuring stomach secretions in dogs as they were introduced to food, meat, meat powder, etc. As Pavlov progressed through his experiments he noticed that the dogs had began to salivate upon seeing the food. Then Pavlov began to notice that the dogs began to salivate when he saw an empty plate, or when he saw the experimenter; the dogs even salivated at the sound of the foot steps from the experimenter as they were about to enter the room.
The Concept and Factors that Affect Classical Conditioning The innovation of classical conditioning is accredited to Ivan Pavlov, who is well-known for the broad research done in this area. This is why classical conditioning is also called Pavlovian conditioning after the way Pavlov trained dogs to drool when they heard a bell. In a normal trial with dogs, Pavlov pose an unbiased aural stimulus like a metronome instantaneously prior to putting sand or food powder to the tongue of the dog. With Pavlov doing this act with the dog, salivation was produced. Classical conditioning functions in this ways as before conditioning occurs the unconditioned stimulus (US) and the conditioned stimulus (CS) function disjointedly.
Ivan Pavlov, a Russian Physiologist and Nobel Prize winner (in recognition of his work on the Physiology of Digestion) discovered classical conditioning, which paved way to better understand the process of learning. Pavlov discovered that organisms respond to certain stimulus through an innate reflex but the response can also be conditioned as well. The Classical conditioning paradigm involves pairing a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus (US) which usually produces an unconditioned response (UR). After repeatedly pairing the neutral stimulus with US, neutral stimulus will become a conditioned stimulus (CS) which will then elicit a conditioned response (CR). Pavlov used dogs to further prove his theory.
Learning is through operant, classical or instrumental conditioning. Behaviourists view instrumental and operant conditioning as having a slight difference on the constructs they observe for each of these. Cognitivists view learning as through classical conditioning, operant (instrumental) conditioning or observational learning. Ivan Pavlov a Russian psychologist studied classical conditioning, which is a valid means of learning to both groups. In his classic studies Pavlov rang a bell each time before giving his dogs food and eventually the dogs were conditioned to salivate when they heard the bell in expectancy of food.
Classical conditioning occurs when a new stimulus becomes capable of evoking a given response when that new stimulus is presented together with a stimulus that already evokes that response. How this occurred with Pavlov’s dogs is that when Pavlov or his assistants (dressed in white coats), would place food in front of the dogs, they would start salivating. What started to happen was that the dogs would begin to
Classical and Operant Conditioning Name Institution Date Classical and Operant Conditioning One of the ways human beings learn is by association. For instance, if an individual associate a given sound with a frightening outcome, hearing the sound might always trigger fear. It is also evident that when people repeat behaviors in a given context, the behaviors become part of the context (Myers, 2008). This aspect of associating behaviors with events has been explored in great depth in the classical and operant condition. In classical conditioning, Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936), conducted an experiment on the eating habits of dogs.
Classical Conditioning Psychology 390 June 3, 2011 Classical Conditioning Often in the scientific world discoveries are made when one is looking for an answer to another question. Such is the case with Ivan Pavlov and his discovery of Classical Conditioning. Ivan Pavlov, a Russian Physiologist, recognized the significance of the theory of classical conditioning while studying the digestive tract of canines. In his experiments he saw that when the canine was presented with food it salivated but when the food was paired with a bell over an extended period of time the same result occurred when the canine was exposed to the sound of the bell. This rather simple concept is now the foundation of Classical Conditioning.
The neutral stimulus turns conditioned and produces the same reaction as the naturally occurring unconditional stimulus. Classical conditioning illustrated by Ivan Pavlov in his classical condition experiment-using dogs as subjects. When presented with meat, that is, unconditional stimulus, the dog salivated, that is, an unconditional stimulus. When he merely rang a bell which is a neutral stimulus it did not salivate. Later he paired the presentation of the meat with ringing of a bell and after several pairings; the sound of the bell alone without presenting the meat caused the dog to salivate.
AGGRESSIVE DOGS 2 Aggressive Dogs The “Big Idea” that I chose to write about is Aggressive Dogs. The thesis statement that I have chosen is “Oweners are responisble for canine aggression, due to the fact of how the train and raise their animal”. I will be mainly focusing on pit bull dogs. We can solve this problem (and raise awarness) through educating pit bull owners. I think the thesis statement works good with the topic due to the research that I have conducted.