Extinction results if there is a decrease in frequency or strength of a learned response due to the failure to continue to pair the US and the CS. Extinction can also occur in operant conditioning. The key to operant conditioning is reinforcement. Reinforcement is when a stimulus is presented that increases the probability that the preceding response will recur in the future. If reinforcement is withheld, extinction will occur in operant conditioning.
Another factor that is involved in conditioning is spontaneous recovery. That is the reappearance of an extinguished response after the passage of time, without further training. If Pavlov's dogs did not hear the bell for a few years, and if when they heard it later they drooled, it would be an example of spontaneous recovery. Something similar occurs with operant conditioning. If an animal was conditioned to behave in a certain manor, but then their reinforcement was stopped, that animal may still have a reaction to the stimulus at a much later date.
Organisms that are being conditioned through operant or classical conditioning can go through something that is known as stimulus generalization. This is when there is a transfer of a learned response to different, but similar stimuli. An example would be if one of Pavlov's dogs salivated to the sound of a bell that was different from the one that they were originally conditioned with. Stimulus discrimination is another phenomena that occurs with classical and operant conditioning. Discrimination is when an organism learns to respond to only one stimulus and inhibit the response to all other stimuli. It is the reverse of generalization. If an organism hears many different sounds, but is only given reinforcement for responding to only one of the sounds, it learns to discriminate between the sounds.
Some of the differences between operant and classical conditioning lie in the extent to which reinforcement depends on the behavior of the learner. In classical conditioning, the learner is automatically reinforced. That is how it learns to respond to a once neutral stimulus. In operant conditioning, the learner must provide a correct response in order to receive the reinforcement. Another difference between the two forms of conditioning is the type of behavior to which each method applies. Classical conditioning applies to a behavior that is always wanted. It was Pavlov's purpose to have the dogs salivate on command. In operant conditioning, a behavior can be learned or extinguished. If you wanted to train a dog not to do something, you would use a form of punishment.
Both classical and operant conditionings are visible in many ways throughout our everyday life. However, it may take some close observation in order to recognize their presence. As I was preparing to write my paper by processing the information that I had read in the text, a prime example of classical conditioning became extremely apparent to me one morning.
My car had recently broken down. This forced me to use public transit, which I was not previously familiar with. As I stood at the bus stop for my first few trips, I was always looking for the bus to come down the street and into my vision before I became aware that it was getting near. The sight of the bus was the US. As the bus would draw near to my stop, my reaction was to get out my bus ticket. My retrieval of the bus ticket was the UR. After a couple of days had passed, I became more familiar with cues that the bus would be rounding the corner, without having view of the bus in my sight. The most apparent signal was the sound of the engine, which stands out above the rest of the street traffic. I began to stop looking for the bus as a cue to get out my bus ticket. The mere sound of the bus had mentally trained me to retrieve it. Thus, the sound of the bus rumbling down the street a couple of blocks away, once being a neutral stimulus, became the CS. My automatic response to get my bus ticket out became a CR to the CS of the sound of the bus.
Classical and operant conditioning are similar, but they do differ in a couple of ways. Both are fairly reliable ways to teach an organism to act in a specific manor. If we were to examine our actions and reactions to situations in everyday life, we would find many ways that we have been conditioned both manners. Drawing on a specific situation in my life helped me to understand this in a way that I believe will make it easier for me to notice these occurrences more frequently.
