Operant and Classical Conditioning

Learning is involved in almost every
phenomenon psychologists study and
occurs in many different ways.

Every person uses learning techniques
and processes to perform day-to-day
functions.


Operant conditioning is a method of learning
that occurs through rewards and
punishments for behavior.
Through operant conditioning, an association
is made between a behavior and a
consequence for that behavior.


Operant conditioning was coined by behaviorist
B.F. Skinner. As a behaviorist, Skinner believed
that internal thoughts and motivations could not
be used to explain behavior. Instead, he
suggested, we should look only at the external,
observable causes of human behavior.
Skinner used the term operant to refer to any
"active behavior that operates upon the
environment to generate consequences" (1953).
In other words, Skinner's theory explained how
we acquire the range of learned behaviors we
exhibit each and every day.
Rewards can increase a behavior:
 Your mom pays you 20$ for every ‘A’ you get on
your report card.
 Your teacher brings your class donuts because
your class has had perfect attendance this
month.
Punishment can decrease a behavior:
 You swear at your teacher and have to go to see
the principal.
 You come home past your curfew and get your
car taken away.

A Punishment is the presentation of an
adverse event or outcome that causes a
decrease in the behavior it follows

A reinforcer is any event that strengthens or
increases the behavior it follows


Positive Punishment: the addition of
something unpleasant to make a behavior
less likely. I want you to stop talking in class,
so I flick you with a rubber band every time
you open your mouth.
Negative Punishment: the removal of
something pleasant to decrease a
behavior. Your Mom does not let you watch
Gray's Anatomy because you swore at the
dinner table.
Positive Reinforcement: the addition of something
pleasant to increase a behavior. If I want you to study
more and give you chocolate for studying, the
chocolate is the positive reinforcement because it is
pleasant and meant to increase your behavior.
 Negative Reinforcement: the removal of something
unpleasant to increase a behavior. If you have a
headache and I want you to study, I may give you a
Advil. The Advil is the negative reinforcement
because it is removal something unpleasant
(headache) and increasing your behavior (studying).


A Skinner box is used to train animals and
usually has a way to deliver food to an animal
and a lever to press or disk to peck in order to
get the food. The food is called a reinforcer,
and the process of giving the food is called
reinforcement. Remember: A reinforcer is
anything likely to increase a behavior.

BF Skinner used positive and negative
reinforcements to change the behavior of rats He
changed behavior in is small successive steps that
he called shaping. For example, let’s say you want
to teach your dog to go fetch your slippers from
the closet and you wanted to use positive
reinforcement to do so. You would first give your
dog a treat when he goes to your closet (that may
take a couple of days). Then you would reinforce
him again when he picks up your slippers. Then
you give him a treat once again when he brings
them to your feet.

Operant Conditioning Video

Classical conditioning is a technique used in
behavioral training. A naturally occurring
stimulus is paired with a response. Then, a
previously neutral stimulus is paired with the
naturally occurring stimulus. Eventually, the
previously neutral stimulus comes to evoke
the response without the presence of the
naturally occurring stimulus. The two
elements are then known as the conditioned
stimulus and the conditioned response.



Tomato soup is your favorite food. One night
you eat a bowl of tomato soup then later that
night you wake up with the stomach flu and
start vomiting.
Now a few weeks later you have noticed that
whenever you smell tomato soup it makes you
feel nauseous.
You have developed a conditioned response to
tomato soup.

The unconditioned stimulus is one that
unconditionally, naturally, and automatically
triggers a response. For example, when you
smell one of your favorite foods, you may
immediately feel very hungry. In this
example, the smell of the food is the
unconditioned stimulus.
The conditioned stimulus is previously neutral stimulus
that, after becoming associated with the unconditioned
stimulus, eventually comes to trigger a conditioned
response.
 For example, suppose that the smell of food is an
unconditioned stimulus and a feeling of hunger is the
unconditioned response. Now, imagine that when you
smelled your favorite food, you also heard the sound of a
whistle. While the whistle is unrelated to the smell of the
food, if the sound of the whistle was paired multiple times
with the smell, the sound would eventually trigger the
conditioned response. In this case, the sound of the
whistle is the conditioned stimulus.


In classical conditioning, the conditioned
response is the learned response to the
previously neutral stimulus. For example, let's
suppose that the smell of food is an
unconditioned stimulus, a feeling of hunger in
response the smell is a unconditioned
response, and a the sound of a whistle is the
conditioned stimulus. The conditioned
response would be feeling hungry when you
heard the sound of the whistle.

Classical Conditioning Video

Classical Conditioning Video # 2