Classical and Operant Conditioning

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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. In the experiment, Pavlov rang a bell whenever he gave his dog food. After repeating this procedure several times, he realized than whenever the bell rang, the dog could start salivating. The dog had associated food with the sound of the bell. Pavlov concluded that the dogs demonstrated classical condition, whereby the bell was a neutral stimulus and by itself could not produce a response such as salivating (Coon, Mitterer, Talbot & Vanchella, 2010). The food acted as an unconditioned stimulus, which could produce an unconditioned response (salivation of the dog). However, after presenting the unconditioned stimulus together with the neutral stimulus, the dog learned to associate the two. As a result, ringing of the bell could make the dog to salivate. He called this conditioned response (Myers, 2008). In the operant conditioning, living organisms associate their actions with a certain outcome. As a result, actions that are followed by reinforcers tend to increase, while those followed by punishers usually decrease (Davis, 2008). Skinner showed this by placing a hungry rat in a skinner box that had a lever. Whenever the rat knocked the lever, a food pellet dropped into a container next to the lever. The consequence of getting a food

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