Module 22 Introduction
Operant Conditioning
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It’s one thing to classically condition a dog to salivate at the sound of a tone, or a child to fear moving cars. To teach an elephant to learn to walk on its hind legs or a child to say please, we turn to operant conditioning.
Classical conditioning and operant conditioning are both forms of associative learning, yet their differences are straightforward:
- Classical conditioning forms associations between stimuli (a conditioned stimulus, or CS, and the unconditioned stimulus, or US, it signals). It also involves respondent behavior—actions that are automatic responses to a stimulus (such as salivating in response to meat powder and later in response to a tone).
- In operant conditioning, organisms associate their own actions with consequences. Actions followed by reinforcers increase; those followed by punishments often decrease. Behavior that operates on the environment to produce rewarding or punishing stimuli is called operant behavior.
RETRIEVAL PRACTICE
- With __________ conditioning, we learn associations between events we do not control. With __________ conditioning, we learn associations between our behavior and resulting events.
classical; operant