Conditioning
1.
Classical conditioning is a learning technique that occurs when a potent stimulus like food is paired with a neutral stimulus to elicit a response like salivating. (McLeod, 2014)
When I was in high school, my mother used to cook meat every Friday and it was always ready by the time I got home. Immediately I reach the door of the main house, I could start salivating due to the smell of the meat. The practice continued and whenever I reach the door of the house every Friday, I could start salivating due to the smell of the meat.
On that day, my mother used to organize for a family gathering whereby my uncle could visit for dinner. It became a norm that whenever I see my uncle on Friday evening, it was obvious that meat which was my favorite meal was on the menu. With time, I started to salivate whenever I could see my uncle in the compound before even reaching the main house.
One Friday evening, I got my uncle in the living room. I started salivating knowing that there was meat on the menu as usual .However, my mother fell sick when I left for school. She was overwhelmed by the sickness to an extent that she couldn’t go to the market to buy meat.
In this case, the unconditioned stimulus is the smell of the meat while the unconditioned response is salivating. With time started associating the presence of my uncles with the presence of meat in the menu thus making the presence of my uncle be conditioned stimuli. The conditioned response was salivating on seeing my uncle.
2.
Operant conditioning is a style of learning whereby the strength of a behavior is greatly determined by the consequences such as punishment or reward. Often, the behavior is directed by previous discriminative circumstances which are critical in signaling the consequences of the behavior.
When I was in Grade 8, I was very weak in mathematics. It reached a point when I was almost giving up on the subject. Every day, the teacher used to give ten sums as homework. Despite the fact that I used to fail all the ten sums, my math teacher kept on encouraging me by saying that he is seeing a great potential in me. This is because I used to do all the sums unlike some of my classmates who often failed to hand in their assignments.
One day, I got two sums out of ten. My teacher was so impressed. He praised me for my hard work and encouraged me to even work harder. On the second day, I did a lot of research and managed to get five sums right out of the ten questions. The teacher made an announcement in class that I am poised to be the next mathematics champion in class.
This announcement boosted my morale. I was motivated to even work harder so as to be at the top of my class. During the end year exams, I topped my class in the mathematics context. The teacher bought me a mathematics revision book as an encouragement. With time, I became the best math student in the whole school.
Encouragement and positive comments from the teacher were critical in enhancing positive reinforcement. Also, recognition of my efforts and making an announcement in class about my determination motivated me to even work harder.
Reference
McLeod,S. (2014).Classical conditioning. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/classical-conditioning.html
