conditioning
November 2nd 2007 07:25
Conditioning
The conditioning is the process by which a response is learned, that is, a response to a stimulus that did not originally evoke it.
In order to survive, animals as much as humans must adapt to their constantly changing environments using classical conditioning which is a learning process that has to do with the formation of new reflexes.
A reflex is an automatic stimulus-response operated by the nervous system.
For example, a tap on a person’s knee will make it jerk, or a bright light in the eye will make it blink. The tap or bright light is the stimulus, the jerk or the blink the response.
Pavlov discovered the conditioned reflex while studying with dogs.
A dog that had been given food with preceding signals, such as a bell sound, on previous occasions would salivate at the sound associated with the delivery, before receiving any food. After a while, the dog would salivate in responses to the bell alone.
Such conditionings have countless examples in every day’s life, such as the sound of the dentist’s drill that would make a person cringes because of its previous painful experiences related to it.
Among others, there is the Skinnerian conditioning, also called the operant conditioning.
It is a process by which a behavior changes due to reinforcing (rewarding) desired behavior and withholding rewards or punishing undesired behavior.
For example giving treats to a dog that does the tricks ordered.
Skinner used a cage, which eventually was called the Skinner box to study operant behavior, meaning any behavioral act that has some effect on the environment.
A rat or pigeon in the cage presses a mechanism which delivers a drop of water or little food. The animal experiences a response and produces an effect, it is an action it can repeat over and over again until satiated.
Skinner used the word reinforcer instead of satisfaction or reward in order to avoid assumptions about anything happening in the mind.
A reinforcer is the delivery of food or water after the animal has pressed the lever.
Stimuli such as food and water for a hungry and thirsty animal are natural reinforcements. Some other stimuli having reinforcing value because of previous learning such as money are referred by Skinner as conditioned reinforcers. People learn what they can do and have with money, and learn to behave according to it.
Operant conditioning without awareness
According to Skinner, all the things that we do, from morning to night are operant responses that occur because of their past reinforcement. We might not be aware of it but it exists.
The conditioning is the process by which a response is learned, that is, a response to a stimulus that did not originally evoke it.
In order to survive, animals as much as humans must adapt to their constantly changing environments using classical conditioning which is a learning process that has to do with the formation of new reflexes.
A reflex is an automatic stimulus-response operated by the nervous system.
For example, a tap on a person’s knee will make it jerk, or a bright light in the eye will make it blink. The tap or bright light is the stimulus, the jerk or the blink the response.
A dog that had been given food with preceding signals, such as a bell sound, on previous occasions would salivate at the sound associated with the delivery, before receiving any food. After a while, the dog would salivate in responses to the bell alone.
Such conditionings have countless examples in every day’s life, such as the sound of the dentist’s drill that would make a person cringes because of its previous painful experiences related to it.
Among others, there is the Skinnerian conditioning, also called the operant conditioning.
It is a process by which a behavior changes due to reinforcing (rewarding) desired behavior and withholding rewards or punishing undesired behavior.
For example giving treats to a dog that does the tricks ordered.
Skinner used a cage, which eventually was called the Skinner box to study operant behavior, meaning any behavioral act that has some effect on the environment.
A rat or pigeon in the cage presses a mechanism which delivers a drop of water or little food. The animal experiences a response and produces an effect, it is an action it can repeat over and over again until satiated.
A reinforcer is the delivery of food or water after the animal has pressed the lever.
Stimuli such as food and water for a hungry and thirsty animal are natural reinforcements. Some other stimuli having reinforcing value because of previous learning such as money are referred by Skinner as conditioned reinforcers. People learn what they can do and have with money, and learn to behave according to it.
Operant conditioning without awareness
According to Skinner, all the things that we do, from morning to night are operant responses that occur because of their past reinforcement. We might not be aware of it but it exists.
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