A look at psychological conditioning.

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Conditioning is learning associations between environmental stimuli and behavioral responses.

There are two types of conditioning.

Classical conditioning is defined as when your learning occurs when a neutral stimulus becomes associated with an unconditioned stimulus to yield a conditioned response. It is also known as Pavlovian conditioning, or respondent conditioning. A good example would be the scenario we covered in class, with Pavlow and the dog. At first, the unconditioned stimulus was the food, and the unconditioned response was the dog's salvation. Pavlow's contribution to psychology was finding that learning occurred when a neutral stimulus is paired with a conditioned stimulus, which provokes a conditioned response. Another good example is Watson's experiment, where he taught the baby to fear mice.

Operant conditioning is learning in which voluntary responses are controlled by their consequences. Reinforcement strengthens a response and makes it more likely to reoccur, where punishment weakens a response and makes it less likely to reoccur.

Positive is where something is given, either punishment or reward, and negative is where something is taken away either as a punishment or reward.