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Psychology - Conditioning
Classical Conditioning
Classical conditioning is a field pioneered by Ivan Pavlov.
- We'll demonstrate his famous salivating dog experiment.
- First, establish what is called the conditioned stimulus (CS), which in this case is a bell.
- Show that the conditioned stimulus, alone, produces no response (NR).
- Next, show that the unconditioned stimulus, in this case meat (or meat powder), causes the dog to salivate; the unconditioned stimulus is one that naturally produces an involuntary response in the subject.
- Now, show that when the conditioned stimulus (the bell) and the unconditioned stimulus (the meat) are presented together, of course, the dog still salivates (there is a response).
- But show that after the conditioned and unconditioned stimuli are presented simultaneously for a period of time, the conditioned stimulus is now able to produce a response on its own – when the dog hears a bell, it salivates.
Operant Conditioning
Operant conditioning is a field pioneered by BF Skinner.
- First, along the side, indicate that we divide operant conditioning into measures to increase a certain behavior through reinforcement and measures to decrease a behavior through punishment.
- Indicate that for we can give/add something wanted or unwanted or take away/remove something wanted or unwanted via both reinforcement or punishment.
Reinforcement
- Positive reinforcement: we can give a prize to reinforce good behavior.
- Negative reinforcement: we remove a chore to reinforce good behavior.
Punishment
- We give a verbal reprimand to punish bad behavior.
- We take away a toy to punish bad behavior.
Comparison
- Let's recap with a table to compare the two forms of conditioning.
Classical conditioning
- For classical conditioning:
- the nature of the response is involuntary;
- the stimulus is presented prior to the response (the meat is the stimulus and it triggers salivation, the response);
- and the learner's role (the dog's role) is passive.
Operant conditioning
- In comparison, indicate that:
- the nature of operant conditioning involves voluntary actions – non-automated;
- the reinforcing or punishing stimulus is enacted after the participant's activity;
- and the learner takes an active role in the process.
- For instance, if operant conditioning is being used to promote good study habits, the learner will always have the choice whether or not to enact those habits (the behavior is volitional); the reinforcement or punishment comes after the learner done the behavior (after the learner has studied); and the learner must actively engage with the behavior, itself (the learner has to actually study – not just drool over a textbook!).
Extinction
- As a final component of conditioning, let's address extinction.
- Draw a graph and label the X-axis as Time and the Y-axis as Response (strong vs none).
- Show that during the acquisition phase, Pavlov's dog went from not responding to the bell, over time, with the association of the meat powder (the unconditioned stimulus), salivating to the sound of the bell in the absence of the meat powder.
- However, extinction to this conditioning was also observed. It was observed that if the bell was rung in the absence of the meat powder enough times, eventually, the salivation reflex to the conditioned stimulus went away.
- Note that the extinction curve exists for operant conditioning, as well; we use classical conditioning only as an example. As we might imagine, tremendous work has gone into understanding the best methods for conditioning and ways to mitigate extinction.