December 22 classical and operant conditioning

I really enjoyed learning about behaviorism. I took a psychology course my Freshman year where I had first read about Pavlov’s dogs, so this section on behaviorism was a nice refresher. According to Berger the goal for behaviorists is to find out how actions and environmental influences shape actions in people like reading a book or making dinner (39). Pavlov focused on classical conditioning, a learning process that connects a meaningful stimulus with a neutral stimulus.  B.F. Skinner was a behaviorist who agreed with Pavlov that classical conditioning explained some behavior but argued that operant conditioning, animals behave in some way and a response occurs, was more crucial (39). I have 5 cats and 2 dogs and I’ve noticed some forms of both classical and operant conditioning in my own home. For instance my cat, Milo, likes to drink from the sink. He hears the sound of running water and immediately comes running to the kitchen. My dad plays ball with my dogs every day at 3 o clock. If he’s running late they still go to the door at 3. And lastly one of my other cats, Lulu, gets fed special food because she’s sick. Every time my mom puts the food in the bowl she hits the spoon against the bowl to get the excess food off of it. The cat comes running out to the kitchen every time she hits the spoon to the bowl. So as you can see classical and operant conditioning are everywhere.