Critical Thinking On Learning And Conditioning

When Michael smells onions and his girlfriend is not around, he will start searching for her around. This is because the smell of the onions has always been paired with the presence of his girlfriend. This has continued, the stimulus has been learnt, and this is what will makes him search for her around.
Unconditional stimulus occurs naturally without one being used to such stimulus. For example, when one smells oranges, he/she may have a sour taste regardless of the fact that such an individual has never eaten oranges. This means that there might have been no previous experience. Such individuals may experience this from time to time in life. In this case, a natural stimulus is what leads to response. Unconditional response is the result of unconditional stimulus. For example, when one smells oranges, the sour taste that is experienced is unconditioned response. This response occurs without having learnt. There is no learning to make one feel the soar taste whenever there is the smell of oranges.
Conditional stimulus is a learnt stimulus. It is an unconditional stimulus that has been associated with another thing continuously until it has been learnt. For example, if a bell is accompanied by smell of food, an individual may salivate after the sound of a bell even though there is no smell of food because the bell sound is associated with smell of food. Conditional response is a response to a stimulus that has been learnt over time. For example, in the case of bell and smell of food, salivating is response to what has already been learnt.
What differentiates conditional and unconditional stimulus/ response is whether the source of stimulus has been learnt over time. If there is no learning, then the stimulus/response is unconditional. However, learning of unconditional stimulus is what leads to conditional stimulus.
There is a difference between classical and operant conditioning. In classical conditioning, paired involuntary activities create stimulus, which then leads to response. On the other hand, operant conditioning occurs due to voluntary actions, which leads to reward for the act or punishment due to the act. As a result, rewards encourage response while punishment discourages the behavior.
In this case, the behavior of the child is likely to stimulate operant conditioning. To avoid this, the mother shouts at the child. This shouting is what is called negative punishment, which is meant to discourage the bad behavior. When the child starts crying, the mother gives it a sweet to encourage it to stop crying. This positive reinforcement is meant to discourage the behavior of crying when shouted at.