Compare And Contrast Classical And Instrumental Conditioning

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Classical and instrumental conditioning are both used and applied to gain a desirable response. Whilst both forms show several similarities, the two differ in their respective ways. Both mechanisms show effectiveness in explaining learning to an extent.
Classical conditioning states that there is no requirement for the animal to show a response. Unlike instrumental conditioning, this form is passive. This mechanism is a learning method which was discovered by Ivan Pavlov and since has had tremendous effects within psychology. The process allows animals to acquire knowledge and information between stimuluses such as the environment.
Classical conditioning works by developing a response by creating a bond or link between two different stimuli.
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The outcome of this is producing an appetitive stimulus which is a pleasant event, allowing the rate of response to increase. This positive contingency is demonstrated if an animal pushed down the latch and is rewarded with food. The punishment procedure results in an aversive stimulus, which is the opposite of an appetitive stimulus as this creates an unpleasant event. If the animal shows a response, it is likely to be punished by a shock for example. Thus, decreasing the rate of response as the animal would be less likely to repeat its actions. Negative contingency is where the stimulus is deactivated by the response. Escape avoidance is a procedure that allows the response to present an aversive stimulus, creating an unpleasant environment such that if the response occurs, the stimulus is deactivated and vice versa. This contingency increases the rate of response. The final procedure is omission and this negative contingency allows the response to terminate the event or prevents the presentation of the …show more content…
Within this mechanism, there are three factors that can enable the animal to respond- the instrumental response, the reinforcement consequence of the animal with the environment and the discriminative stimulus- which play a part within Thorndike’s Law of Effect. He observed within his experiments that by adding a reinforcer, the rate of response is likely to increase, while responses that create negative effects are less likely to be recur. It establishes a connection between the situation and response and then allows the animal to respond automatically. The law has played an important role in not only animal’s lives but within the lives of human beings as we all have learnt which actions prove advantageous to us and which actions are disadvantageous to

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