Behavioral Learning Theory

Unconditioned responses are biological responses to stimulus. Dogs salivate when they see or smell their food. When a stimulus produces an unconventional response, this is classical conditioning. Classical conditioning occurs when a neutral, unrelated stimulus is associated with a response or behavior. In the video the dogs were conditioned to salivate, not just when they could smell or see their food, but with the ringing of a bell. Gradually, the ringing of a bell on its own would be enough to get the dogs to salivate. The video left off with the question of whether we have been conditioned to produce responses without understanding what stimuli actually results in.

To psychologists, learning is a long-term change in behavior. These changes can occur through Classical Conditioning (explained above) or Operant Conditioning. Operant Conditioning increases or decreases the chances of a behavior reoccurring. There are two main components in Operant Conditioning, reinforcement and punishment. Reinforcement makes it more likely that you'll do something again, punishment makes it more likely that you'll NOT do something again. Take for example a student that does well on a test and is awarded with extra recess time (positive reinforcement). In the future, that student will strive to do well on more tests so that they get extra recess time. On the other hand, a student who did not do so well and gets recess time taken away (punishment) will likely want to do better in the future.

Learning Theory Defined

Association Theory (Classical Conditioning)

Is Captain Hook terrified of clocks? No! He's terrified of a crocodile that has a clock ticking inside of him. Captain Hook has associated the sound of a ticking clock (neutral stimulus) with the fear (behavior) of a terrifying crocodile who wants to eat him.

Reinforcement Theory (Operant Conditioning)

The young lady in the video has learned in the past that her screaming, yelling, and bad behavior usually leads to her getting something she desires perhaps even when told "no" initially. However, maybe after falling through the egg shoot (negative punishment), she will associate screaming, yelling, and bad behavior as not an effective way to get what she wants.

What I Learned

To psychologists, learning occurs because of a long-term change in behavior.
Classical conditioning associates a neutral stimulus with a previous response or behavior.
Operant conditioning either increases or decreases the chances of a behavior reoccurring based on reinforcement or punishment associated with it.
Should we really be afraid of sharks, or have we just been conditioned to fear them? There are a lot of things in the world that can harm us, but we are not conditioned to fear everything.
I wonder now if some children are culturally conditioned to either fear or have a negative behavior toward school and how teachers can help reverse this conditioning... perhaps with Operant conditioning tactics like positive and negative reinforcement.