What is the main difference between classical and operant conditioning

Sana loves animals but she keeps her distance from dogs. She’d been bitten by her neighbor’s bulldog as a child and has been scared of dogs since. Every time Sana sees a dog, she’s reminded of that painful experience. This is a case of classical conditioning.

Arjun spends the night watching a football match instead of studying for his history exam the next day. He tries to smuggle his notes into the exam hall to cheat off them. But he’s caught, reprimanded and barred from the exam. Shocked and embarrassed, Arjun vows to never cheat in an exam again. This is a case of operant conditioning.

Two fundamental theories of conditioning learning, classical and operant conditioning, differ in multiple aspects. But before we explore the difference between classical conditioning and operant conditioning, let’s understand the two concepts first.

The classical conditioning theory says learning develops through associations between a natural stimulus and a neutral stimulus. The two stimuli are paired together to elicit a response in an organism. This theory was first proposed by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov.

Pavlov conducted an experiment where he paired a ringing bell with a dog’s food. Eventually, the dog learned to associate the sound of the bell with food and began salivating as soon as it heard the bell, even in the absence of food.

The operant conditioning theory says learning develops when organisms associate a particular behavior with its consequence. Rewards reinforce a specific behavior, while punishments reduce the frequency of or eliminate a particular behavior. American psychologist B.F. Skinner is known as the father of operant conditioning. He based his work on Edward Thorndike’s law of effect.

Skinner’s experiment with a rat in a Skinner box demonstrates his theory. The Skinner box had a lever that released food when pressed. The rat chanced upon this lever and eventually learned to press it to receive food. The food was the reward that reinforced the rat’s pressing of the lever.

Now that we know what is meant by classical and operant conditioning, let’s look at a few significant differences between the two.

1. Principle Of Learning

In classical conditioning, learning develops through an association between two different stimuli, the natural or the unconditioned stimulus and the neutral or the conditioned stimulus. In Pavlov’s experiment, the dog’s food is the unconditioned stimulus that elicits a natural response from the dog, while the bell is the conditioned stimulus that evokes a response only after being paired with the unconditioned stimulus. In operant conditioning, learning develops through an association between a behavior and its outcome. In Skinner’s experiment, the rat learns to press the lever only when he realizes that his pressing the lever results in food being dropped.

2. Nature Of Behavior

A significant difference between classical and operant conditioning is the type of behavior it involves. Classical conditioning is based on involuntary or reflexive behavior. The dog in Pavlov’s experiment involuntarily salivates on seeing the food and then on associating the bell with food. However, in operant conditioning, the behavior involved is voluntary. The rat in Skinner’s experiment presses the lever voluntarily to receive the food.

3. Type Of Learning

Classical and operant conditioning differ by the kind of learning they entail. Classical conditioning involves passive learning. The organism can’t choose to participate in the learning process—it happens naturally. Operant conditioning entails active learning, where the organism is required to actively participate in the learning process to be either rewarded or punished.

4. Sequence Of Events

In classical conditioning, the natural response or behavior comes after the stimulus. There’s no way the dog in Pavlov’s experiment salivates before being triggered by the unconditioned or conditioned stimulus. In operant conditioning, the behavior comes before the reward or punishment. The reward or punishment only serves to reinforce or discourage the behavior.

Both classical conditioning and operant conditioning find widespread use in everyday life. You might involuntarily check your phone on hearing a similar ringtone elsewhere as a result of classical conditioning. On the other hand, when you’re offered an incentive in the workplace for excellent performance, your employer is using operant conditioning to encourage you to keep up the good work!

Both classical conditioning and operant conditioning are parts of behavioral psychology. They tell us learning isn’t just about acquiring new knowledge, it’s also about unlearning and relearning from life’s experiences. Harappa’s Learning Expertly course can be your guide to becoming a self-motivated and agile learner. It comes with frameworks such as Kolb’s Learning Cycle, Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle and Growth Mindset. You’ll learn to embrace flexibility, take on challenges at work without overwhelming yourself and quickly bounce back from work-related setbacks.

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Explore Harappa Diaries to learn more about topics such as What Is Conditioning Theory, Elements of Classical Conditioning Theory, B.F. Skinner’s Operant Conditioning Theory and Brainwriting Technique to upgrade your knowledge and skills.

Anyone who is studying behavioral psychology should know the terms classical and operant conditioning. Most of the people think of both of these processes to be the same, whereas they aren’t.

Classical Conditioning vs Operant Conditioning

The main difference between Classical Conditioning and Operant Conditioning is that classical conditioning is concerned with the involuntary behaviors of an individual. However, operant conditioning is responsible for making voluntary action weak or strong.

Classical conditioning is known to link a response that is involuntary in nature with a stimulus. On the other hand, operant conditioning connects a voluntary action with a consequence.

No individual can choose to be or not be a part of new behavior, in the case of classical conditioning.

However, in operant conditioning, it is the individual who decides to receive a punishment or reinforcement by choosing to be or not to be a part of it. Parents and teachers mostly use operant conditioning to teach kids about certain behavioral aspects.

Classical conditioning is first introduced by a Russian physiologist, named Ivan Pavlov. This had a significant impact on the behaviorism branch of psychology entirely.

Pavlov noticed that his dogs start to salivate as he serves food to them. He paired the serving of the food with a tone, and in response to that tone, the dogs started to salivate after a while.

This made him experiment further with the process of conditioning.

In the process of classical conditioning, the unconditioned stimulus, which was naturally there is linked with a stimulus that was neutral before.

In this case, the taste of the food is the unconditioned stimulus, whereas the tone or sound of the bell is a neutral stimulus.

An unconditioned response that is salivating, in this case, gets triggered by the unconditioned stimulus. After both, the unconditioned stimulus and neutral stimulus is linked successfully. Only the tone will be ample to make the dogs salivate.

Now, the tone will be known as the conditioned stimulus, and the response to it will be called a conditioned response.

Observing the process of classical conditioning will also help you to know how most of the bad habits are formed.

Operant conditioning promotes the increment or decrement in a particular behavior by the use of reinforcement and punishment. Operant conditioning is also known as instrumental conditioning.

In order to understand this better, let’s take this example. In order to teach a dog to fetch a ball, the trainer rewards him with a treat every time he performs well. But when the dog fails to fetch the ball, the trainer holds the reward.

This forms a link between the behavior of the dog fetching the ball and the reward received. Various factors are responsible here for how fast a behavior can be learned.

To make a behavior learned fast, you need to reinforce the response quite often. This is majorly used by parents and teachers, all the time, in order to teach kids. People also use operant conditioning to get rid of their bad habits.

Reinforcements are of two kinds: positive and negative. People often confuse negative reinforcement with punishment. However, both of them are different. In negative reinforcement, the negative outcome is to be removed.

1. Classical conditioning is responsible for linking an involuntary response with a previously neutral stimulus. However, operant conditioning establishes the link between voluntary response and its consequence.
2. In classical conditioning, the change happens in involuntary behavior, whereas the change in operant conditioning occurs in voluntary behavior.
3. Classical conditioning is a passive process meaning an individual can’t choose to be part of new behavior.
   On the other hand, operant conditioning is an active process in which one can choose whether one is willing to be a part of it or not.
4. In classical conditioning, the neutral stimulus gets turned into a conditional stimulus that extracts a conditioned response.
   On the other hand, in operant conditioning, a behavior gets weak or strong by the use of either a punishment or reinforcement.
5. Classical conditioning is also known as respondent conditioning. The other name of operant conditioning is instrumental conditioning.

In classical conditioning, two stimuli are combined in order to form a behavior. Here a link gets created between the unconditioned stimulus and neutral stimulus.

In operant conditioning, a behavior becomes weak or strong by the use of either reinforcement or punishment. Classical conditioning brings a change in involuntary behavior.

However, operant conditioning is responsible for the change in voluntary behavior. It is an active process, meaning one can choose whether to be a part of it or not.

On the other hand, classical conditioning is a passive process. You cannot control if you want to be a part of a new behavior or not. Here, a previously neutral stimulus gets turned into a conditioned stimulus.

This conditioned stimulus results in causing a conditioned response. The respondent conditioning is another name for the classical conditioning, whereas operant conditioning is also known as instrumental conditioning.

Both these terms play a significant role in the world of psychology, and it is quite essential to study them in order to understand behavioral psychology.

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