Blog Post #8

Classical conditioning is a kind of learning where a person connects two or more stimuli and anticipate events. Behavior can be conditioned by providing an influence that causes a reaction. In classical conditioning, the subject cannot control its response. An example, is when a dog hears a bell and starts to salivate because it knows food is coming. He cannot control his salivation because it is involuntary. Operant conditioning is a kind of learning in which behavior is encouraged when followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher. Reinforcements increase behavior. Punishment decreases behavior. For example, a child who is praised for doing good work will purposely do good work to get the praise. In classical conditioning, the subject cannot control the events and in operate conditioning, the subject can control the behavior and events. In classical conditioning, the response is involuntary and in operate conditioning, it is voluntary. In classical conditioning, conditioning is acquired by associating events. In operate conditioning, the behavior is acquired by associating a response with a consequence.This applies to my life because our animals are conditioned. For example, when my dog or cats pee on the floor they get punished, but when they go outside or in the cat box they get a reward. The punishment may change his behavior.


Positive reinforcement is a way to change behaviors by presenting positive stimuli, such as food, compliments, or desired behavior. It needs to be presented after a response in order to strengthen the response. Negative reinforcement is a way to change behaviors by stopping or reducing negative stimuli. An example of this is, when you pull on a horse's rein, the bit is loosened after the correct stop. Punishment is designed to decrease the frequency of behavior. There can be positive punishment, which is giving an aversive stimulus and negative punishment, which takes away a desirable stimulus.
An example of positve reinforcement in my life is getting a good job and getting the pay for doing a good job, or getting good grades on an assignment that I worked hard on. The intended outcome was to continue doing my homework and chores without complaining.

An example of negative reinforcement is when I constantly get told to do something such as things like scholarships. I realized that if I do them, they will stip nagging about it. The behavior was not doing scholarship applications, the reinforcement was the constant nagging of my parents, and the intended outcome was me doing the applications. An example of punishment in my life was not being able to go on my very first date, because I lied to my mom. The behavior was lying, the punishment was taking away my priviledge of going on my very first date, and the intended outcome was me no longer lying to my mother about boys.



The most interesting thing I learned in this section, is that there are two types of motivation; intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation is the desire to perform a behavior for its own sake. Extrinsic motivation accomplishes a task for external rewards or to avoid punishment. It seems like most education is for extrinsic motivation. Students want to receive good grades as a reward or they want to avoid the punishment of low grades, staying in for recess, or a disappointed parent and teacher. Only when we are allowed to choose can we truly say our learning is from intrinsic motivation.