Classical and Operant conditioning

Good morning, gentlemen and ladies.
Today, we are going to talk about conditioning.

According to Oxford Advance Learner's Dictionary, conditioning means the training or experience that an animal or a person has that makes them behave in a particular way in a particular situation. We learn about the world through perceptions, store the associated knowledge, and then apply what we remembered in different situations, for example, through assimilation of ideas, and use it in similar situations. There are two types of conditioning which we would cover today, ie. Classical conditioning and Operant conditioning.

Classical conditioning is performed by Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist on a dog. The experiments goes well, and he proved that classical conditioning does exist.

Well, get the cue? I didn't tell you about classical conditioning yet, did I? Haha. Give you an image:

Supposedly there was a little boy who named Albert never sees a mouse, so he doesn't know what or how a mouse is like. One day Albert is asked to lie down on the ground, and a mice is let loose and crawled on his body. Little Albert doesn't feel anything awkward, and he feels fun playing with the mouse. After a few moment, the mouse is removed from Albert.

However, a few minutes later, the same mouse is brought to Albert. He let it play with him again. When the mouse is crawling on Albert, suddenly Albert is frightened by a loud bang. He jumped up and evaded. The mouse slowly approached Albert, and he welcomed it.

As it moved closer to Albert, suddenly the loud bang roared again. Little Albert jumped up frightened. Anytime the mouse approached Albert, the loud bang repeatedly frightens Albert. Soon, whenever Albert sees a mice, he fears it. Later, Albert's fear broadens until he starts to fear similar animals such as rabbits.

The above example is recreated from John B. Watson's experiment on Little Albert. The stream of events occurred on Albert is as follows:

1. The mouse poses no threat to Albert. It's a Normal Stimulus (NS).
2. Little Albert is frightened by the loud bang. The loud bang, which is the Unconditioned Stimulus (US), results in a fright, the Unconditioned Response (UR).
3. Little Albert associated the fright due to the loud bang with the mouse. As a result, he fears the mouse as well.
4. The mouse becomes a Conditioned Stimulus (CS). And whenever Albert sees a mouse, he fears it, in which this fear is a Conditioned Response (CR). It became a phobia.
5. Later, when Albert sees the rabbit, he fears it too. This is called Generalization.

The other one, Operant conditioning, is considered a normal subject in our daily life. I have a doubt whether it applies to our perceptions towards ethics and moral values. For example, we are rewarded (positive reinforcement) whenever we did something good, for example, helping others. We feel better whenever we pray during illness (negative reinforcement). However, we are fined for throwing rubbish on the ground (Positive punishment). The parents don't allow their kids to watch television when the kids didn't finish their chores (negative punishment). In short, Operant conditioning is a learning based on the result obtained.

So, tell me, are you an ethical person? Or are you told to be ethical?

For reference of Classical conditioning, please refer to Ivan Pavlov and John B. Watson. For reference of Operant conditioning, please refer to Edward Thorndike and B. F. Skinner.





(p/s: J is blessed with bliss (: )