Classical Vs. Operant Conditioning: What Is the Difference?

What Is Conditioning?

Conditioning refers to the associations formed between stimuli and responses. In psychology, conditioning can be classical or operant. Understanding conditioning helps understand why people might act in the ways they do and why patterns can exist even without someone’s awareness. Conditioning happens throughout daily life and applies to both humans and animals.

Generalization Vs. Discrimination

Generalization refers to the likelihood and tendency of responding to stimuli that closely resemble the original conditioned stimulus. For example, if you get sick after reading a book in the car, you might reconsider scrolling through your phone while in the car. Even though the situations aren’t identical, they are close enough for you to assess that you might get sick.¹

Discrimination refers to the tendency to respond differently to similar stimuli. In this case, you might get sick in the car after reading a book. But you decide to scroll through your phone the next time (because you know the stimuli are different), and you don’t get sick. At this point, you have made a clear distinction between the two.

Extinction

Extinction is a response decrease when a conditioned stimulus is present without the unconditioned stimulus. For example, a child goes on a roller coaster and hates the experience. They stop going on all rides for a while. But after a few months, they decide to try again and fall back in love with roller coasters.¹

Spontaneous recovery can occur when there’s an increase in responding to the conditional stimuli following a pause after extinction.  A parent might give their potty-training child a small piece of candy every time they use the restroom. The child uses the bathroom to receive the reward. After the parents cease the rewards, the child might resist using the restroom. But after a few days pass, they resume using the toilet.

Classical Conditioning

Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, accidentally discovered classical conditioning while studying digestive behaviors in dogs. He noticed that dogs salivated when placing food in front of them. But they shifted into salivating even before their food arrived. He then experimented with examining if they would salivate in response to a bell ringing before bringing food out, and they eventually salivated at the sound of the bell alone.²

Classical conditioning refers to having an involuntary response to a stimulus. For example, the dogs salivated (involuntary response) to a stimulus (the bell ringing). This applies in many areas of everyday life. You build associations constantly, from instinctively checking your phone when you hear a notification to your heart racing when you stand on a podium.

Classical Conditioning Examples

Most dog owners recognize that their dog gets excited each time they pull out the leash. The dog has associated their dog leash with going out for a walk or outing. Therefore, the scene of their owner holding the leash triggers their excitement. The leash started as a neutral stimulus but evolved into a conditional one.

What Is Operant Conditioning?

B.F. Skinner studied operant conditioning while conducting scientific experiments on various animals. He placed animals in his “Skinner box,’ a chamber that contained a level or disk. Pressing that lever or disk dispensed food, and the animals quickly adjusted to pressing it to receive their edible rewards.³

Operant conditioning is a type of learning in which the motivation to engage in a specific behavior occurs after the behavior is demonstrated. For example, a person claps and gives a treat when a dog sits. If this behavior is reinforced, the dog is more likely to sit when its owner asks.

Operant Conditioning Examples

Positive reinforcement entails adding an attractive stimulus to increase the likelihood of a positive behavior. An owner gives a dog a treat, a desirable stimulus. Negative reinforcement entails using an undesirable stimulus to increase a behavior. For example, your microwave keeps beeping (which can be annoying) until you take out the food.

Positive punishment entails adding an unwanted or maladaptive stimulus to decrease a behavior. For example, a parent requires the child to clean both their bathroom and bedroom after discovering they didn’t clean their room. Negative punishment entails removing an aversive stimulus to reduce or stop behavior. A parent takes a child’s phone away because they didn’t clean their room. Ideally, this motivates the child to clean their room in the future.

Classical Vs. Operant Conditioning

Both classical and operant conditioning focus on the associations between stimulus and behavior. Operant conditioning may be more obvious since the consequences and reinforcement are apparent. Classical conditioning can be more insidious or unknown, so if you want to change certain habits, you may need to be aware of your unconscious associations.

Passive Vs. Active Learning

The learning in classical conditioning is passive. The learner can’t “help” but learn the information via internalizing their natural environment. The learning in operant conditioning is active. The learner obtains the new information via reinforcement, punishment, or both. Over time, this results in them consciously changing their behavior. Research shows that active learning is associated with higher retention and memory recall rates.⁴

Involuntary Changes Vs. Voluntary Behavior

Classical conditioning is associated with involuntary changes. For example, the dogs couldn’t choose to salivate when they heard the bell ring. It happened automatically. However, a child can choose whether he stops hitting his brother because he doesn’t want to get into trouble. In operant conditioning, the changes are voluntary.

Arbitrary Response Vs. Intentional Response

Classical conditioning entails the creation of an association of naturally occurring events. For example, after a car accident, you feel anxious when you drive again for several months. Even just the sight of a car may trigger panic. Operant conditioning entails reinforcement and/or punishment. A parent praises their newly-driving child for cautiously checking all their blind spots before merging. The child is then motivated to continue with this behavior.

How Classical & Operant Conditioning Are Used in Therapy

Therapy can entail both classical and operant conditioning. For example, a client might cry soon after arriving for their session. Over time, simply sitting on their therapist’s couch may trigger tears even if they aren’t thinking about something unfortunate. Operant conditioning can also occur. A therapist may tell their client they feel proud of them, encouraging them to continue engaging in that specific behavioral pattern.

Behavioral therapies are rooted in the premise of both types of conditioning.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) examines how thought patterns trigger unwanted behavioral responses. If a client wanted to stop smoking (unwanted behavior), they might commit to spending the money they would spend on cigarettes toward new clothes (desirable stimulus). This new pattern may encourage them to stop smoking.

Habit reversal training (HRT) helps people change or correct their habitual responses to stimuli, whether the habits came from classical or operant conditioning.

In My Experience

Conditioning is part of the human experience, and we have limitless associations that shape how we make decisions and live our lives. Conditioning isn’t inherently bad or good, but it’s helpful to be aware of its impact and consider how it could adversely affect your mental health. If you feel stuck in negative patterns, it could be due to rigid or intense negative associations, and therapy can help.