| Classical Conditioning | Operant Conditioning |
|---|
| Basic idea | Organism associates events | Organism associates behavior and resulting events |
| Response | Involuntary, automatic | Voluntary, operates on environment |
| Acquisition | Associating events; NS is paired with US and becomes CS | Associating response with a consequence (reinforcer or punisher) |
| Extinction | CR decreases when CS is repeatedly presented alone | Responding decreases when reinforcement stops |
| Spontaneous recovery | The reappearance, after a rest period, of an extinguished CR | The reappearance, after a rest period, of an extinguished response |
| Generalization | The tendency to respond to stimuli similar to the CS | Organism’s response to similar stimuli is also reinforced |
| Discrimination | The learned ability to distinguish between a CS and other stimuli that do not signal a US | Organism learns that certain responses, but not others, will be reinforced |