Examples Of Operant Conditioning

Classical conditioning refers to the involuntary responses that result from experiences that occur before a response. It occurs when you learn to associate two different stimuli. It involves a stimulus which has no affect and it is called the neutral stimulus. The neutral stimulus can be a person, place, or thing. The neutral stimulus, in classical conditioning, does not produce a response until it is paired with the unconditioned stimulus.
For example, by shining a light into a person’s eye; the pupil will constrict (Goldman, 2012). Another example is Pavlov’s dog experiment. He noticed the dogs would salivate before the delivery of food. Pavlov caused a variety of stimuli before the presentation of food, eventually discovering that, after repeated association, a dog would salivate to the presence of a stimulus other than food (Goldman, 2012).
Operant conditioning is voluntary responses. Operant conditioning involves changing behaviors by reinforcement or punishment. Reinforcement increases the occurrence of the response. Punishment decreases the occurrence of the response.
An example of operant conditioning is negative reinforcement, such as, a teacher excuses a student from the final test if they have perfect attendance. The teacher is taking away something unpleasant to increase behavior. Another example of operant conditioning is positive reinforcement where you have a job and receive a paycheck for the work you did. Finally, when these learning theories are applied, we see how behaviors change with positive and negative