Name: 【TED-Ed】The difference between classical and operant conditioning - Peggy Andover
Uploaded: 2015-01-20T15:47:51.000Z
Duration: 4 min 13 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

we often picture students in a classroom or lecture hall,

listening intently to a teacher or professor

But in psychology, learning means something else.

To psychologists, learning is a long-term change in behavior

Two of the main types of learning are called

and operant, or instrumental, conditioning.

Let's talk about classical conditioning first.

In the 1890's, a Russian physiologist named Ivan Pavlov

did some really famous experiments on dogs.

After a while, the dogs would associate the bell with the food.

They would learn that when they heard the bell,

They learned to expect food at the sound of a bell.

the sight and smell of food causes a dog to salivate.

We call the food an unconditioned stimulus,

and we call salivation the unconditioned response.

Nobody trains a dog to salivate over some steak.

However, when we pair an unconditioned stimulus like food

with something that was previously neutral,

that neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus.

And so classical conditioning was discovered.

Let's say that one day you go to the doctor to get a shot.

She says, "Don't worry, this won't hurt a bit,"

and then gives you the most painful shot you've ever had.

A few weeks later you go to the dentist for a check-up.

and he says, "Don't worry, this won't hurt a bit."

Even though you know the mirror won't hurt,

when they were paired with pain of the shot,

which was followed by your conditioned response

Operant conditioning explains how consequences

There are two main components in operant conditioning:

Reinforcement and punishment can be positive or negative,

Positive means the addition of a stimulus,

like getting dessert after you finish your veggies,

and negative means the removal of a stimulus,

Let's look at an example of operant conditioning.

When you're done, your mom gives you a big hug

is positive reinforcement if it makes you more likely

which is to clear the table and wash the dishes.

Operant conditioning is everywhere in our daily lives.

that haven't been influenced at some point

by teaching pigeons to be art connoisseurs.

scientists observed stimulus generalization