Your assignment is to prepare and submit a paper on learning and behaviour—contrast operant conditioning with classical conditioning . highlight similarities and differences, providing real-world examples to illustrate key points. Operant conditioning holds that individuals learn through consequences while modelling is a theory that holds that people learn through observation. The objective of this paper is to contrast operant conditioning and classical conditioning.

Classical conditioning is one of the major types of learning formulated by Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) during an experiment aimed at understanding the pattern of digestion in dogs (Coon and Mitterer 2008, p.227). Classical conditioning holds that learning takes places when two or more interrelated stimuli are repeated. In this regard, learning is only said to occur if the stimulus triggers a response which it had not produced before. Coon and Mitterer (2008, p.226) reveal that classical conditioning pertains to a conditioned stimulus and response as well as an unconditioned stimulus and responses. The conditioned stimulus (CS), according to classical conditioning (CC), is a stimulus that becomes neutral at the beginning of the conditioning processes and does not produce unconditioned response. Nevertheless, the same conditioned stimulus is capable of producing a similar response similar to the unconditioned stimulus (US) through repeated collaboration with conditioned stimulus. The resultant response brought about by conditioned stimulus is the learned process. However, what is noted is that the conditioned response only occurs when both conditioned and unconditioned stimuli are linked (Coon and Mitterer 2008, p.226).

The unconditioned stimulus, on the other hand, is a type of stimulus whose reaction results in a natural response. The resultant unconditioned response in this case is an involuntary response produced by unconditioned stimulus, according to Hellriegel and Slocum (2007, p.97).