Comparison Essay

Many have wondered how one’s behavior and learning is shaped threw their environment and experiences. Pavlov has created a solid base on the methods of experimenting, and Skinner continuing the study bringing new ideas to the table. This essay will compare and contrast Ivan Pavlov and B.F. Skinner’s ideas and theories on associated learning.

After a lifelong dedication to experimenting Ivan Pavlov concluded that organisms use an associative learning process called classical conditioning. This process states that stimulus given to an organism will force it to change its environment. The idea of learning by association was discovered when Pavlov took two non-associated items, a bell and dog food, to be exposed to. The bell goes off and the dog

The two psychologists have “different conditioning procedures but one conditioning process” (Danahoe 2014). Skinner’s experiments are caused to have an effect on behavior, while Pavlov’s experiments change the effects of an environment on an organism. Classical and operant are both forma of associated learning. However, classical is a response to a stimulus the organism does not control. Operant learning an organism associates its behavior based on its environment to produce rewarding or punishing stimuli with consequences (Meyers 2014). Pavlov created a control room for his experiments while skinner created a skinner box which took the next step further into changing the environment in a more hands-free way. Pavlov’s theory was a basis for Skinner to follow. According to Some Responses to the Stimulus ‘Pavlov’, written by B.F. Skinner, explains how Pavlov came to America to experiment. Pavlov stayed in Professor Walter B. Cannon’s house , a friend of Pavlov. At this time Cannon had a student under him named B.F. Skinner., naturally Skinner spent a lot of time around Pavlov observing and learning from his techniques (Skinner). In comparing the two theories between Pavlov and Skinner it is clear that they both were intertwined with same basic ideas. In Pavlov and Skinner: Two Lives in Science, tells how B.F. Skinner greatly admired Pavlov, “Pavlov was his hero” (Catania, and Laties 1999). In contrast one cannot credit Skinners findings all because of Pavlov, however, Pavlov was a guiding step for B.F. Skinner’s