Conditioning
Classical and operant conditioning are types of behavioral learning. Subsets of behavioral psychology, classical and operant conditioning show how a subject (animal or human) can exhibit relatively permanent changes in behavior due to certain types of experiences. According to Cryver (2000), learning is a "fundamental process" in all animals.
Classical conditioning is also known as "learning by association." Association in this sense refers to the association of a behavior with a stimulus: otherwise known as the stimulus-response effect. Pavlovian learning is the core of classical conditioning, or learning by association. The stimulus can be, for example, a dog treat. The response is salivation. The dog treat is an unconditioned stimulus. In other words, the dog needs no conditioning to start salivating at the smell of meat. Its biology, genetics, and physiology makes it so that the smell of meat automatically and innately evokes the unconditioned response (reflex) of salivation.
If a bell is rung at the same time that the treat is delivered, the bell is called a neutral stimulus. The bell ringing is a neutral event, something that the dog does not necessarily associate with food, water, affection, or anything else. However, if the bell is rung in accordance with the delivery of the treat, then the dog starts to associate the sound of the bell with the presence of a meat treat. As Boerce (2009) puts it, "at first the bell is a neutral stimulus, but after conditioning, it becomes a conditioned stimulus and salivation becomes...
The subject associates two otherwise unrelated events, because they happen at the same time.
Learning by association is the root of the types of learning that lead to the irrational association of certain stimuli with emotions like fear. As Beorce (2009) notes, learning by association can explain aversions to certain foods as well. Using classical conditioning, a person can learn to associate a neutral stimulus with a response in the central nervous system: such as the startle reflex (Boerce, 2009). The subject generalizes the stimulus, too. For example, researcher John Watson built upon the experiments performed by Ivan Pavlov. In 1920, Watson observed a child who was conditioned to fear a cute white rabbit because the sight of the rabbit corresponded with the presence of a loud, undesirable noise. After the conditioning became a learned response, the child started to generalize the stimulus from white rabbits to all fuzzy things: even cotton (Boerce, 2009). The subject has ceased to discriminate or differentiate between stimuli, instead associating all white fuzzy things with loud noises.
A process of de-conditioning shows how learning can un-do the associations created between rationally disparate events. However, the same techniques of classical conditioning are used to create another type of learning by association. Instead…
