Name: Brittney Ramdeen
Subject: Principles and applications of behavioral theory
Teacher: Miss Wendy Jeremie
Question: Three kinds of learning are of particular importance to psychologists, classical conditioning, operant conditioning and observational learning. Discuss these using appropriate examples.

Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs as a result of experience. During the first half of the twentieth century, the school of thought also known as behaviorism came to dominate psychology and sought to explain the process of learning. Behaviorism was a school of thought in psychology that sought to measure only observable behaviors. It was founded by John B. Watson. The behaviorist view held that psychology was an experimental and objective science and that the internal mental processes should not be taken into consideration because they could not be directly observed and measured. The three major types of learning described by behavioral psychologists are classical conditioning, operant conditioning and observational learning. Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, posited the theory of classical conditioning. This is a learning process that occurs through associations between an environmental stimulus and a naturally occurring stimulus. It involves placing a completely neutral signal or stimulus before a naturally occurring reflex. In Pavlov's classic experiment with dogs, the neutral stimulus was the sound of a tone or bell and the naturally occurring reflex was the salivating of the dogs in response to food. By associating the neutral stimulus with the environmental stimulus, which was the presentation of food, the sound of the tone alone could produce the salivation response in the dogs. The unconditioned stimulus in classical conditioning is a stimulus that automatically triggers a response. In Pavlov’s experiments, this was the food. The unconditioned response is the unlearned, naturally occurring response to the unconditioned stimulus which in the experiment, was the salivation of the dogs. The conditioned stimulus is an initially unrelated stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus, comes to elicit a conditioned response, which in this case is the bell. The conditioned response is a learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus which is the salivating of the dogs. Acquisition is a process in classical conditioning. This is when a response is first established and then it is gradually strengthened. For example, with the dogs, they are trained to salivate at the sound of the bell and the sight of the food. This response is then gradually strengthened even without the presence of the food. Extinction occurs when the effects of the conditioned stimulus wares off. This happens after a time when the conditioned stimulus is no longer paired with an unconditioned stimulus. Therefore, the response in the dogs dies after a period of time. Spontaneous recovery is the recurrence of a conditioned response after a rest period or period of lessened response. This occurs for example is the dogs randomly heard a bell at any point in time and they then begin to salivate. If however, the conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus are no longer associated, extinction will occur very rapidly after a spontaneous recovery. Stimulus generalization is the tendency for the conditioned stimulus to create a similar response after the response has been conditioned. For example, the dogs salivate when they hear a particular bell, but with stimulus generalization, they begin to salivate at the sound of any bell. Discrimination is the ability to make a distinction between a conditioned stimulus and other stimuli that have not been previously paired with an unconditioned stimulus. For example, if the bell tone was the conditioned stimulus for the dogs, discrimination would involve being able to tell the difference between the bell tone and other similar sounds. Pavlov’s classical conditioning can be applied to human health and conditioning, for example, it can be used in aversion therapy. This is where a therapist will add a substance to something that someone is addicted to, for example, alcohol. This substance will make the person sick on the first drink and eventually they will associate getting sick with drinking and eventually stop. Operant conditioning is a learning process that involves an increase or decrease in the likelihood of a behavior as a result of the consequences that follow it. Operant conditioning was first studied by Edward Thorndike and later by B.F. Skinner. The underlying idea behind operant conditioning is that the consequences of our actions shape voluntary behavior. There are four types of learning processes in operant conditioning; these include positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment. Reinforcement is any occurrence that strengthens or increases the behavior it follows. Positive reinforcers are encouraging outcomes that are presented after the behavior occurs. In situations that reflect positive reinforcement, a behavior is strengthened by the addition of something, such as praise or a direct reward. Negative reinforcers involve the removal of an unfavorable event after a behavior has occurred. In these situations, a response is strengthened by the removal of something that is considered unpleasant. Punishment is the presentation of an unfavorable event that causes a decrease in the behavior it follows. Positive punishment, involves the presentation of an adverse event in order to weaken the response that it follows. Negative punishment, which is also known as punishment by removal, occurs when a favorable event is removed after a behavior has occurred. In operant conditioning, schedules of reinforcement are a important part of the process of learning. Depending on the time and how we reinforce the behavior, it can strengthen and increase the rate of response. There are two types of reinforcement schedules, continuous reinforcement and partial reinforcement. With continuous reinforcement, the desired behavior is reinforced each time that it occurs. This schedule is best used during the first stages of learning in order to create a strong association between the behavior and the response. Once the response if firmly attached, reinforcement is usually switched to a partial reinforcement schedule. Partial reinforcement is reinforcing a response only part of the time. It results in slower acquisition of a response but has a much greater resistance to extinction than continuous reinforcement. Skinner talked about four schedules of partial reinforcement, fixed ratio schedules, variable ratio schedules, fixed interval schedules and variable interval schedules. A fixed ratio schedule is a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified number of times that the response occurs. A variable ratio schedule is a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses. A fixed interval schedule reinforces a response only after a specified amount of time has passed. Variable interval schedule reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals. Operant conditioning can be used in everyday life. It can be used in school to reinforce a child’s behavior of getting good grades. It can be used in the work place where employers give their employees the pay check or a raise after a certain period of time. It can also be used in sports to motivate an athlete to perform well. Observational learning is one type of learning where a person learns new information and behaviors by observing the behaviors of others. Observational learning is also known as the social learning theory. It states that we learn all kinds of specific behaviors by observing and imitating models through a process called modeling. It was developed by Albert Bandura. A person is more likely to imitate a behavior if the consequences are positive. Bandura came up with an experiment called the Bobo doll experiment. He placed a child in a room to draw and he places and adult in another part of the room. The child watches the adult get up and acts violently towards a bobo doll. He then places the child in another room with toys and eventually tells the child he is saving these toys for the other children.He then takes the child into a room with other toys and a bobo doll. The child then acts violently towards the bobo doll. Bandura identified three basic models for observational learning, a live model, a verbal instructional model and a symbolic model. A live model involves an actual individual demonstrating a behavior. A verbal instructional model involves descriptions and explanations of a behavior. A symbolic model involves a real or fictional character displaying behaviors in books, film and tv. There are four steps to ensure that a behavior is learnt and carried out. These are, attention, which is paying attention too the behavior, retention which is the ability to store the information, reproduction, which is being able to actually perform the behavior and, motivation which being motivated to imitate the behavior that has been modeled. Observational learning can be used in many ways. It can be used to train business organizations by using behavior modeling to train communications, sales and customer service skills. Employees gain skills faster not only when they are told they need to have it, but also when they see the behavior being modeled or carried out. We learn dance through observational learning as well. Throughout psychology, it can be seen that the different types of learning are very important in order for people to acquire some forms of behavior. Without these learning processes, we would not be where we are today.

Bibliography
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