Vincent Tung
Psychology 101
Professor Ochoa
June 18, 2014
Essay #2 Learning
Learning is what keeps any living entity today "alive." This phenomenon keeps animals and more specifically humans today alive. It helps us evolve and adapt with the constant change the world endures. To start with, classical conditioning is an essential part of learning. Classical conditioning is defined as a method of learning that involves creating a relationship or association between a conditioned and an unconditioned stimulus. Classical conditioning can be seen in everyday life. To illustrate, my dog has associated the sound of my garage door opening to my mom returning home. Here my dog was classically conditioned to whenever she heard the garage door open, she would believe that my mom was home. In addition, when the garage door is not closed properly and when it is easily opening due to the wind, the door alarm will go off and this will cause my dog to begin whimpering.
English: An example of classical conditioning wher...
English: drug response in classical conditioning
English: The course of classical conditioning.She believes that my mom has returned from work while she didn't. Thus, my dog has successfully associated the sound of the garage door with my mom returning from work.
The next essential concepts of learning are positive and negative reinforcement. Positive reinforcement works by encouraging a certain behavior through the use of a reward system. For example, I have been trying to get my dog to learn basic tricks like playing fetch. When my dog correctly does the activity, I reward her with a treat. By giving her the treat, I am rewarding her good behavior, which makes it more likely for her to do the same action again. The reward in this case is the positive reinforcement, while my dog's action of returning the ball to me is the operant response. Negative reinforcement, on the other...