Classicalvs Operant
Classicalvs Operant
Classicalvs Operant
Operant conditioning is a form of learning in which responses that are usually voluntary (and thus emitted) come to be controlled by their consequences. It is also called Skinnerian conditioning after B.F. Skinner, who worked out its fundamental principles. Another name is instrumental conditioning, since the learned responses, which operate on the environment, are instrumental in either attaining some subsequent desirable reward or avoiding-escaping some subsequent aversive/punishing event. Thorndike coined the name instrumental conditioning as a result of his research with cats, which were placed in puzzle boxes that they gradually learned to escape to obtain food. His research preceded Skinners work on operant conditioning using rats and pigeons that were rewarded, respectively, for pressing bars or pecking at visual stimuli while inside what came to be called a Skinner Box. Thorndike formulated the Law of Effect as a result of his research: If a response in the presence of a stimulus leads to satisfying effects, then the association between the stimulus and response will be strengthened, and vice versa. This law was later elaborated in Skinners Principles of Reinforcement. Classical conditioning, in contrast to operant conditioning, is where responses that are usually reflexive (and thus elicited) are brought under the control of stimulus events that precede the response. This is also called Pavlovian conditioning after Ivan Pavlov, who worked out its fundamental principles through his studies of salivation in dogs, which he found could be elicited by neutral stimuli, such as a tone, that had been repeatedly presented before the presentation of food. Another name for this form of learning is respondent conditioning.