Conditioning

There are two types of conditioning - classical and operant. The following text describes each in more detail.

Merriam-Webster 2022 defines classical conditioning as “conditioning in which the conditioned stimulus (such as the sound of a bell) is paired with and precedes the unconditioned stimulus (such as the sight of food) until the conditioned stimulus alone is sufficient to elicit the response (such as salivation in a dog).”

Ivan Pavlov

Ivan Pavlov was a well-known Russian physiologist (believe it or not, he was not a psychologist) that carried out experiments involving classical conditioning.

Pavlov was well known for his experiments with studying the digestive process in dogs. During his research, he and his lab assistants would introduce different edible and non-edible foods to the dogs. While doing this, Pavlov noticed that the dogs began to salivate at the sight of the lab assistants - before any food was introduced or brought into the room. He saw that when the dog salivates, it is more of a reflex response to a stimulus than a response within its control. With this initial experiment, Pavlov realized that the food was the unconditioned stimulus. The lab assistants and their white coats were the conditioned stimulus, and the salivating was the conditioned response. Because of this, Pavlov decided to do more psychological experimental research on this theory (beyond the scope of his physiological research).

Fg. 1 Brown dog sitting, conditioning, Pixabay.com

Next, Pavlov decided to bring in a metronome as a neutral stimulus. They began to play the metronome sound, and then they would bring in the food for the dogs. After doing this several times, the researcher and his assistants discovered that the sound of the metronome began to make the dogs salivate before the food was introduced. In this experiment, the food was the unconditioned stimulus, the metronome became the conditioned stimulus, and the dogs salivating was the conditioned response. Pavlov is noted for the discovery of classical conditioning.

Classical Conditioning is essential for behavioral psychology. It is used to treat various disorders, such as OCD, anxiety, phobias, etc.

Burrhus Frederic Skinner (more commonly known as B.F. Skinner) was an American psychologist who believed there was more to why people do certain things and exhibit certain behaviors. His research focused on what causes specific actions and what rewards or consequences were associated with those actions. Skinner himself called this approach to human behavior operant conditioning.

Edward Thorndike’s law of effect from 1898 deepened the view of operant conditioning. This law of effect states that when a person gets a positive response for a particular behavior, they are more likely to perform it again and vice versa. This law was the base for Skinner's operant conditioning.

Skinner decided to introduce a new term to the law of effect - reinforcement. He found that a reinforced behavior is more likely to be repeated. With this research on reinforcement, he discovered three different responses to reinforcement.

Fg. 2 Skinner introduced his theory of reinforcement, unsplash.com

The three main components of operant conditioning are positive and negative reinforcement and punishment. Let’s look at each component individually.

Positive reinforcement means giving a reward for a good or desired behavior. For example, this could be giving a child a sticker or verbal praise for staying seated. This type of reinforcement leads to repeated behavior to achieve a desirable outcome. Positive reinforcement still provides a consequence; only, in this case, it is a desirable one.

Negative Reinforcement

Negative reinforcement has a negative consequence for the action. For example, a parent constantly nags their child to clean up their toys. The child doesn’t like this, so they clean up. This reinforcement leads to the child cleaning up their toys to avoid their parents nagging at them.

Punishment

Punishment is the opposite of reinforcement because it aims to stop or prevent a behavior. It is given right after the behavior to try and stop the behavior from occurring in the future. However, there are some downsides to punishment. One is that once the punishment stops, the behavior may start again. Another problem is that, unlike reinforcement, it may prevent the behavior, but it doesn’t teach a new, better behavior.

While there are many different types, parts, and components to conditioning, they all work towards getting a desired behavior.