Classical Conditioning vs. Operant Conditioning
Learning is the process through which experience causes permanent change in behavior or knowledge (Woolfolk,2007). Behavioral theorists view learning, as an event that occurs outside of the individual that cause a change in behavior, the result of this change is learning. Two major behaviorist views of learning are Operant and Classical Conditioning. Classical Conditioning is the association of automatic responses with new stimuli. Operant Conditioning is learning in which voluntary behavior is strengthened or weakened by consequences or antecedents (Woolfolk,2007)
Discovered in the 1920’s by Ivan Pavlov, classical conditioning the process in which and unconditioned stimulus, a stimulus that automatically produces an emotional or physiological response, elicited an unconditioned response, naturally occurring emotional or physiological response. After conditioning, a neutral stimulus becomes connected to a response and becomes a conditioned stimulus, which is a stimulus that evokes an emotional or physiological response after conditioning. (Woolfolk,2007) The response to the conditioned stimulus is a conditioned response, which is a learned response to a previously neutral stimulus. An example of this is the classic Pavlovian Dog, Ivan Pavlov began sounding a tuning fork in the presence of his dog, the tuning fork at this point is the neutral stimulus, which is a stimulus not connected to a response. After ringing the tuning fork, Pavlov fed the dog, the food is the unconditioned stimulus, the natural response to the food was salivation, and the salivation is the unconditioned response. Using each of the elements, food, tuning fork and salivation, Pavlov began to pair the sound of the fork with feeding the dog, each time he sounded the fork he immediately fed the dog. Naturally, the dog began to salivate after hearing the sound of the fork and not at the presence of food. The sound of the tuning for became the...