Examples Of Operant Conditioning

Classical conditioning and operant conditioning are two of the most common techniques when trying to persuade or influencing any complex organism. Classical conditioning is the process of using stimuli to create a response. There are many examples of classical conditioning but advertising has the most adverse effect on humans. For example: a car company wants to sell a their product to males and they use attractive women to do so. The women are the unconditioned stimulus and the feelings men get when they see the women is the unconditioned response. After repeatedly pairing the women with the car the men begin to affiliate the same feelings that they get with women to cars. Operant conditioning is the process of using reinforcement or punishment

Pavlov was studying dog’s digestive tracks when he discovered something interesting. When he opened the cabinet storing the food the creek from the hinge caused the dog to salivate. The dog had learned that whenever the cabinet squeaks he receives food. He preformed follow up experiments involving meat powder and a bell. Every time he repeated the experiment the results ended up being the same. With this discovery he devoted the rest of his live to the study of classical conditioning. A psychologist named John B. Watson had been heavily influenced by Pavlov’s work and decided to test it on humans. His experiment would have been very controversial today because of the psychological effects that he caused his subject. In his experiment he conditioned a toddler named “Little Albert” to fear anything white and furry. First, Albert was introduced to a white rat and he showed no fear at all. The next time he was introduced to the rat a loud cymbal was played which, scared Albert. After multiple times pairing the rat with the loud sound Albert became afraid of the rat regardless of the sound being played or not. Later he was presented with other objects such as furry stuffed animals and was still afraid of those. During the experiment Albert had generalized his fear from a furry white rat to anything furry. Watson concluded that phobias could be instilled into humans as well as

Since Skinner was a behaviorist he wanted to discover why animals preformed actions in certain ways. So he created a contraption that would preform two tasks: release a food pellet and a red light before the electric floor of the box shocks the rat. Skinner hoped that with the use of this box he could connect it to the behavior of humans. The lever inside the box dispensed a food pellet when pressed on by the rat, which causes positive reinforcement. Skinner wanted the rat to repeatedly press the button so he added an electric current. A red light would flash on when prior to the activation of the electric current. The only way to stop the rat from being shocked was to press the lever. After many times being shocked the rat quickly learned that pressing the lever stopped the electric current from shocking him. By using negative reinforcement the rat had discovered that to prevent himself from being shocked he would have to press the lever when the red light came on. After many successful experiments he invented the term operant conditioning. His studies are still used in some similar ways today. Skinner had also experimented with a pigeon (but wasn’t as famous as the rat) to play Ping-Pong. He used the same box as the rat except with a few minor adjustments to teach it Ping-Pong instead of pushing a