Learning through associations between stimuli

Classical conditioning is a type of associative learning. A previously neutral stimulus begins to elicit a response after it becomes associated with a stimulus that already produces that response. This helps explain why environmental cues can trigger emotional, physiological or reflex-like behaviour.

The process starts with an unconditioned stimulus, which produces a response without prior learning. An unconditioned response is the unlearned reaction elicited by this stimulus. A neutral stimulus, by contrast, does not initially produce the target response.

Imagine that a student repeatedly hears a particular electronic tone just before receiving an unpleasant medical treatment. Here, the treatment is the unconditioned stimulus. The tension it naturally produces is the unconditioned response. Before any learning occurs, the tone is neutral because it does not reliably cause tension.

During acquisition, the initial phase of learning in which an association forms, the tone is repeatedly paired with the treatment. It then becomes a conditioned stimulus: a previously neutral stimulus that elicits a response because of learning. The tension caused by the tone is now a conditioned response, or a learned reaction to the conditioned stimulus. Conditioned and unconditioned responses may look similar, but they have different causes. One depends on learning; the other does not.

The order of the stimuli matters, as does the predictive relationship between them. Conditioning is usually stronger when the neutral stimulus reliably signals that the unconditioned stimulus is about to occur. Two unrelated events happening at roughly the same time won’t necessarily create a strong association.

How conditioned behaviour changes

Extinction is a learning process in which the conditioned response weakens because the conditioned stimulus is presented repeatedly without the unconditioned stimulus. If the student hears the tone many times without receiving an unpleasant treatment, the tension should gradually decrease. The original association hasn’t necessarily been erased, however. After a rest period, the response may briefly return.

Stimulus generalization occurs when stimuli resembling the conditioned stimulus also elicit the conditioned response. As a result, the student might become tense when hearing several similar electronic tones. Learned behaviour can therefore extend to new situations, although excessive generalization may cause reactions to cues that don’t predict danger.

Stimulus discrimination is a learning process in which someone responds differently to stimuli because only some of them predict the unconditioned stimulus. If one tone is consistently followed by the unpleasant treatment while another never is, the student may learn to respond only to the predictive tone.

Its role in behaviour

Classical conditioning is especially useful for explaining behaviour elicited by cues, rather than behaviour deliberately chosen to obtain an outcome. Environmental stimuli may acquire emotional significance. A location, for example, may evoke unease after being associated with a frightening event. A sound may create anticipation after repeatedly occurring before something pleasant.

The explanation is causal only if alternative influences are controlled. Seeing a cue and a response occur together establishes an association, but that alone does not prove conditioning caused the behaviour. What is learned, and how strongly it is expressed, may also be affected by previous experience, biological tendencies and the wider situation.

Classical conditioning can support intentional behaviour change too. Repeated exposure to a conditioned cue without the expected unpleasant event may weaken the learned response through extinction. Behaviour changes because the cue’s learned predictive meaning changes.

Learning from the consequences of behaviour

Operant conditioning is a form of learning where the consequences of a behaviour change how likely it is to happen again. The learner acts on the environment. What follows then makes that action more or less likely in similar circumstances.

The basic sequence consists of an antecedent, a behaviour and a consequence. An antecedent is an event or condition that comes before a behaviour and signals when particular consequences are available. The behaviour produces a consequence, or is followed by one, which affects the probability that the behaviour will be repeated.

A consequence is identified by its effect on behaviour, not by its appearance or the intention behind it. Praise, for instance, is only a reinforcer if the behaviour it follows becomes more likely. Likewise, a harsh consequence isn’t functioning as punishment if the behaviour stays at the same rate or increases.

Reinforcement

Reinforcement is a consequence that increases the future likelihood of the behaviour it follows. “Positive” means that something is added, while “negative” means that something is removed. The terms do not mean good and bad.

• Positive reinforcement is reinforcement in which a desirable stimulus is presented after a behaviour. Suppose a student contributes a thoughtful point in class, receives encouraging feedback and then contributes more often. The feedback has positively reinforced participation.
• Negative reinforcement is reinforcement in which an aversive stimulus is removed or avoided after a behaviour. If fastening a seat belt stops an irritating warning sound and leads to quicker fastening in future, removing the sound has negatively reinforced the behaviour.

Negative reinforcement is not punishment. Both forms of reinforcement increase behaviour. The difference lies in whether the consequence adds a stimulus or removes one.

Punishment

Punishment is a consequence that decreases the future likelihood of the behaviour it follows.

• Positive punishment is punishment in which an aversive stimulus is presented after a behaviour. A corrective task added after someone misuses shared equipment qualifies only if the misuse subsequently becomes less likely.
• Negative punishment is punishment in which a desirable stimulus is removed after a behaviour. Temporarily removing access to a preferred activity may reduce the behaviour that came before the loss.

Punishment may suppress a behaviour without teaching an appropriate alternative. Its effects can depend on timing and consistency, as well as the context. The person may stop the behaviour only when the punishing consequence seems likely. Alternatively, they may avoid whoever delivers it instead of learning the intended response.

Establishing and weakening behaviour

Shaping is a conditioning procedure in which successive actions that increasingly resemble a target behaviour are reinforced. It is useful when the complete behaviour is unlikely to happen straight away. Independent study, for example, could be developed by first reinforcing a prompt start. Reinforcement could then require staying focused for a short period and, eventually, completing a full planned session.

Operant extinction is a process in which a previously reinforced behaviour weakens because reinforcement is no longer provided. When reinforcement first stops, the behaviour may temporarily become more frequent or forceful. A short-term increase, then, doesn’t necessarily show that extinction has failed.

How reliably a behaviour predicts its consequence also affects learning. Immediate, consistent consequences usually make the contingency easier to detect. When consequences are delayed or inconsistent, it becomes harder to work out which action produced the outcome.

Its role in behaviour

Operant conditioning explains how outcomes select and maintain patterns of action. It can account for everyday habits and persistence in learning, along with avoidance behaviour and actions shaped by social approval. The same action might occur frequently in one setting but rarely in another because different consequences are available.

The learner does not need to state the rule consciously. Repeated contact with consequences can change behaviour even if the person cannot clearly explain the contingency. Still, expectations and motivation can affect whether a consequence is valued, while interpretation can influence whether the learning is expressed.

Classical and operant conditioning focus on different relationships. Classical conditioning deals with an association between stimuli, explaining how a cue comes to elicit a response. Operant conditioning deals with an association between behaviour and its consequences, explaining why an action becomes more or less likely. In everyday behaviour, the two processes can operate together rather than compete as mutually exclusive explanations.