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Classical Conditioning and Operant Conditioning

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Classical Conditioning and Operant Conditioning

Conditioning refers to a form of learning that connects some type of stimulus or trigger to

human response or behavior. When psychology was beginning, scientists felt that they could not

describe what was in people’s minds. Nevertheless, they could see behaviors, which showed that

it was what they concentrated on in their experiments. The main models concerning learning

emerged from the conclusions obtained from these experiments. Currently, classical conditioning

and operant conditioning are two essential aspects key to behavioral psychology. The two

concepts have some similarities and differences, indicating that subjects can adapt to their

environments. Generally, classical conditioning and operant conditioning have several

differences although parents and instructors rely on them in their daily lives to adjust their

children’s behavior.

First, classical condition refers to the process that entails making a connection between a

naturally occurring stimulus and a neutral one used in the past. Therefore, such an unconditioned

stimulus automatically or naturally generates salivation as a reaction to the food, which is a

situation referred to as unconditioned response (Akpan, 2020). In most cases, classical

conditioning is a basic word used to explain a learning technique since it can describe how many

behaviors forms can have an influence in daily lives. Secondly, operant conditioning

concentrates on the use of either punishment or reinforcement to reduce or increase a behavior

(Akpan, 2020). This process contributes towards the formation of an interaction between the

behaviors and their effects.

There are several differences between classical conditioning and operant conditioning.

Particularly, classical conditioning entails linking involuntary responses and a stimulus (Zeng et

al., 2020). On the other hand, operant conditioning revolves around connecting a voluntary
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behavior and an effect (Akpan, 2020). Also, learners exposed on operant conditioning tend to

enjoy incentives, which is usually unavailable in classical conditioning. While classical

conditioning is passive, operant conditioning needs learners to actively engage and conduct some

kind of activities to be punished or rewarded. Based on this claim, operant conditioning works

well when subjects initially show behaviors that can either be praised or rebuked.

Finally, Zeng et al. (2020) emphasized that parents and instructors usually rely on

classical conditioning and operant conditioning in their daily lives to adjust their children’s

behavior. Despite this advantage, these two practices have some weaknesses. For instance,

parents who use behaviorism are not fully aware of voluntary and involuntary behaviors. Also,

these actions usually view human beings as entities without considering their internal processing

or mental condition.

In conclusion, there are classical conditioning and operant conditioning that parents,

animal trainers and psychologists use. The two practices have some similarities and differences

based on whether the behavior is involuntary or voluntary. Using operant conditioning shows

that people should get rewards through incitements. In contrast, classical conditioning does not

need the use of incentives. The adoption of classical conditioning makes the target audience to be

passive while operant conditioning inspires them to engage actively and do some kind of actions

for rewards or punishments.

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References

Akpan, B. (2020). Classical and Operant Conditioning—Ivan Pavlov; Burrhus Skinner. Science

Education in Theory and Practice: An Introductory Guide to Learning Theory, 71-84.

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-43620-9_6

Zeng, H., Zhang, H., Ikkala, O., & Priimagi, A. (2020). Associative learning by classical

conditioning in liquid crystal network actuators. Matter, 2(1), 194-206.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matt.2019.10.019