Contrasting Principles of Classical and Operant Conditioning Essay

Learning is a very important part of Psychology and it has been defined as ‘any relatively permanent change in behaviour, or behaviour potential, produced by experience’ (Baron, p.169). Learning is a key process in human behaviour; it can play an important role in most of the activities we do. Even though the effects of learning are extremely diverse, most psychologists believe that learning occurs in several basic forms: conditioning – classical and operant and observational learning. Myers defined conditioning as ‘the process of learning associations’. Classical conditioning is where the stimulus serves as a signal for the occurrence of a second stimulus. (Learning to associate two stimuli’s together). In classical conditioning we are able to acquire information about the relations between various stimuli and not just simple associations between them. The most famous research for classical conditioning comes from Ivan Pavlov in 1927. During Pavlov’s research into salivary secretion in dogs he noticed that when he put food into a dog’s mouth it would salivate. He then found that if he worked repeatedly with the same dog it would salivate to stimuli associated with food such as the sight of food, the food dish or the presence of the person who brought the food. Because of what Pavlov found he then chose to study learning, which he hoped might enable him to better understand what was happening. Pavlov and his assistants began work by pairing various neutral stimuli such as sound when food was present in the dog’s mouth to see if the dog would eventually learn to salivate to the just the sound on it’s own. ... ...viour due to a reinforcer and are only likely to show the desired behaviour if it’s reinforced and so this behaviour is unlikely to be a permanent change compared to classical conditioning which has much high chances of remaining. Bibliography Carlson, N. R., Buskist, W., & Martin, G. N. (2000). Psychology: The Science of Behaviour. London: Allyn & Bacon. Myers, D.G. (2003) Psychology. (Seventh Edition). Michigan: Worth Publishers. Ferguson, K. E., O’Donohue, W. (2001). The Psychology of B.F Skinner. London: Sage publications. Bjork, D.W. (1997) Skinner- A Life. London. American Psychological Association. Hall, G. (1983). Behaviour – An introduction to Psychology as a Biological science. London: Academic Press inc. Baron, R. A. (1998) Psychology. (Fourth Edition). London: Allyn & Bacon