The 6 Differences Between Classical And Operant Conditioning
When talking about behaviorism, there are two terms that inevitably come to mind: classical conditioning and operant conditioning.
Many people confuse these ideas, sometimes seen as practically the same thing. Naturally, they are not and therefore Let’s delve into the differences between classical and operant conditioning but not before seeing in detail what each one refers to.
How to distinguish between classical and operant conditioning?
Among the most famous currents of thought in psychology we find behaviorism, which takes learning as its main object of study and the reason for its theories. Two of the main forms of associative learning are classical conditioning and operant conditioning, two modalities of learning that are sometimes confused when they are talked about in the form of an inseparable binomial
The most basic of the two is the classic one, which consists of implicit associative learning in which two stimuli are associated, an unconditional stimulus and a conditioned one. The operant, first described by the psychologist E. Thorndike at the beginning of the 20th century and further explored by the radical behaviorist BF Skinner, the individual learns to associate a response to a stimulus that is important to him.
What is classical conditioning?
The story of how classical conditioning was discovered is already well known. It happened at the beginning of the 20th century, in Tsarist Russia. A physiologist named Ivan Pavlov, from the objectivist-reflexological tradition, was researching salivation in animals, wanting to discover its function and composition. He was doing experiments with dogs and, one day, he noticed that the dogs began to salivate before even seeing the food How could dogs know that food was coming without seeing it?
Pavlov realized that dogs behaved like this when they heard his footsteps. The dogs had associated the noise that Pavlov made when he approached them with food, which is why they began to salivate before even seeing it. It was enough for them to hear the steps of the Russian scientist to know that they were soon going to receive a succulent delicacy. This is how Ivan Pavlov discovered classical conditioning, also called associative learning, and, thanks to this, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1904.
An unconditioned stimulus (US) causes an unconditioned response (IR) If a neutral stimulus (EN) is added to this US, after several joint presentations of both stimuli, the US will become a conditioned stimulus (CS), that is, without the need for the US, it will cause the conditioned response to be emitted ( RC).
In the case of Pavlov’s dogs, the EI would be food and the RI would be salivation. The EN/EC would be the sound of Pavlov’s steps that, accompanied by the presentation of food, would cause the dogs to associate both stimuli and the moment would come when hearing such steps would be enough for the dogs to salivate (RC), without the need to see food.
Classical conditioning explains the acquisition of primary behaviors such as fear of pain, hunger when seeing food, salivation when seeing a lemon.
This mechanism explains the acquisition of primary behaviors such as fear of pain, hunger, etc. Its use allows the induction of alarm reactions (cardiac acceleration, activation of the nervous system, etc.) but is inadequate for building articulated behaviors such as the elimination of danger and the prevention of risk.
What is operant conditioning?
Classical conditioning is what causes an organism to associate a response with a stimulus, initially neutral and then conditioned However, this type of conditioning is very basic and primitive, and its main limitation is that the response emitted itself was not new, but was already present before being conditioned to a specific stimulus.
Operant or instrumental conditioning, on the other hand, is the situation in which the organism, when performing a new behavior, receives a different stimulus as a consequence This type of learning refers to the process in which the frequency of a behavior is modified or altered due to the consequences that that behavior produces. Consequences are always the result of a response to a specific stimulus.
A consequence can be positive (reward) or negative (punishment) for the organism that carries out the response. If the consequences are positive, the probability of repeating the behavior that caused them will increase, while if they are negative, this probability will be reduced. Reinforcement is used to induce repetition of the desired behavior while punishment is used to prevent or extinguish unwanted behavior.
Among the fundamental concepts of operant conditioning we have:
Principles of operant conditioning
The most important figure regarding operant conditioning is that of BF Skinner In fact, this behavioral psychologist’s experiments are so important that one of the main elements used to apply operant conditioning is named after him: the Skinner box.
In that box, Skinner put mice that were free to move at random. At one point, the rodent activated a lever designed to drop food. Before long the mice began to repeat that behavior over and over again, learning that if they pressed the lever they would get food, their reinforcement. Learning of this type was called operant by Skinner, since the organism operates on the environment knowing that this will bring a certain consequence.
Thus, in this specific case of operant conditioning we have an animal that, by casually pressing the lever, receives food (positive reinforcement). As you press that lever more and more, you associate that action with receiving something you like and that is why he will not stop doing it.
Main differences between classical and operant conditioning
Now that we better understand what classical conditioning and operant conditioning are, let’s address their main differences:
1. Definition
Classical conditioning is a type of learning that involves the association between two stimuli, one indicating the appearance of the other.
Instead, Operant conditioning involves living organisms learning to behave in a particular way because of the consequences that has caused a certain action done by them in the past.
2. Conditioning process
In the classic, the conditioning process occurs when the experimental organism associates two stimuli, one that provokes an involuntary response and the other that, originally, did not provoke anything. After being exposed to both frequently, he ends up emitting involuntary behavior in response to a stimulus that was previously neutral.
On the other hand, in operant conditioning, the organism’s behavior will be modified depending on the consequences that that same behavior entails.
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3. Behaviors involved
Classical conditioning is based on involuntary or reflexive behaviors (reflexes) as physiological and emotional responses of the organism Also in emotions, thoughts and feelings.
In the case of operant conditioning, this is based on voluntary behavior, active actions of the organism that carries out a behavior to obtain a consequence later.
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4. Control of conditioned responses
In classical conditioning, the organism’s responses are under the control of the stimulus, while In the operant, the control of the responses is exercised by the experimental organism
5. Definition of stimulus
In classical conditioning we talk about conditioned and unconditioned stimuli. In the operant, the conditioned stimulus is not defined, but rather We talk about operant response, reinforcement, punishment, extinction and acquisition of a certain behavior
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6. Role of the organism
The organism plays a passive role in classical conditioning, with the occurrence of the unconditional stimulus being under the control of the researcher.
Contrary to this, in the operant the appearance of reinforcement is under the control of the organism who plays an active role by carrying out a specific behavior that assumes that it will imply some type of consequence.
