Classical and operant conditioning article

What is conditioning?

Conditioning is a type of learning that links some sort of trigger or stimulus to a human behavior or response. When psychology was first starting as a field, scientists felt they couldn’t objectively describe what was going on in people’s heads. However, they could observe behaviors so that’s what they focused on in their experiments. The major theories about learning come from the conclusions drawn from these experiments. 

Operant Conditioning

Behaviorism: Emphasizes the study of observable behaviors and events and the predictable role of environment in causing behavior
Type of learning in which a person repeats a behavior that has been reinforced or ceases a behavior that has punished.

Operant Conditioning
Reinforcement: stimulus followed by behavior that increases the probability the behavior will be repeated. – Positive – Negative
Punishment: stimulus followed by behavior which decreases the probability that the behavior will be repeated. – Positive : Introducing an aversive event – Negative: Withdrawing a positive event