Classical Conditioning
Is the process of associating a neutral stimulus with an involuntary response until the stimulus triggers the response. A neutral stimulus is something that doesn’t mean anything. The canine does not associate anything with it. An involuntary response is something that an animal does naturally, without thinking. For example, if a dog sees food, he will start to salivate. This is an involuntary response. The dog doesn’t think about salivating, he just does it.
Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist was the first to note the phenomenon of classical conditioning. He was studying digestion in canines when he discovered that the dogs would start to salivate when his assistant entered the room. The dogs hadn’t been given food at that point, but they were still salivating. He theorized that salivating had become a learned response rather than an involuntary one. The dogs were salivating when they saw the assistant, with whom they had come to be associate food.
Pavlov then experimented with other neutral stimuli. He would activate a metronome right before presenting food to the dogs. The metronome right before presenting food to the dogs. The metronome meant nothing to the dogs but after several repetitions of sounding the metronome right before the dogs received the food, the dogs began to salivate at the sound of the metronome. The dogs had learned that the sound of the metronome meant food was coming. The stimulus was no longer neutral; it became what is called a “conditioned stimulus”.
The conditioned stimulus now produced a conditioned response- salivation.
You've probably done a lot of classical conditioning without even realizing it. The first time your dog saw a leash it didn't mean anything to him. He may have sniffed it or been curious about it, but he was just investigating it. It was a neutral stimulus. Separately, your dog would get excited when you took him outside for a walk. His excitement was an involuntary response.
After you took him out on his leash several times, the association with that leash changed. After time, when he saw the leash he may have bounced with excitement or started barking. He came to associate the leash with walks. The leash was now a conditioned stimulus, and his excitement was now a conditioned response to seeing the leash. The leash meant walks.
Operant Conditioning
Is the process of changing an animals response to a certain stimulus by manipulating the consequences that follow right after the response. Behavior is either rewarded or punished. Behavior that is rewarded increases. Behavior that is punished decreases.
There are four main quadrants of operant conditioning : positive reinforcement, positive punishment, negative reinforcement, negative punishment. These are scientific terms and there are meanings to "positive" & "negative". In this case they don't mean good or bad. Instead, positive means to add and negative means to take away.
Positive Reinforcement
Something favorable is added after a behavior, which causes the behavior to increase
Positive Punishment
Something unpleasant is added after a behavior which causes the behavior to decrease
Negative Reinforcement
Something unpleasant is removed after a behavior, which makes the behavior increase
Negative Punishment
Something pleasant is removed after a behavior, and the behavior decreases
Reinforcement, whether it's added or taken away (positive or negative), always increases behavior. Punishment, whether it is added or taken away (positive or negative) always decreases behavior.
In our next post we will cover; Luring/Targeting, Shaping, Capturing & Modeling, Compulsion based training & Reward based training & Incentive based training.
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