Any skill that one has acquired through experience whether it be pronouncing words, playing a sport, washing the dishes, or even something as simple as sitting can all be the result of learning. The process of learning is defined as the ability to acquire knowledge or skills in various ways, including studying, teaching, or experiencing. In order to exhibit desired behaviors, we are trained with the use of reinforcers and punishments.
After learning about this learning process, operant conditioning, I reflected on the many skills I have learned with this method. For example, at home, my parents have used both positive and negative reinforcements to make sure I attain the skill of completing my chores. If I completed one of my chores, then I would receive a primary reinforcer such as ice cream for dessert. This reward would motivate me to continue my next chores. However, after a few months, I no longer received the usual reward for my chores. As a result, my parents responded and recovered my behavior by providing negative reinforcement, such as no television for a week. So, at that point, I was forced to complete my chores and continued to do so knowing the consequences.
Through reflecting on the many skills, I have learned through operant conditioning, I am able to easily predict my parents’ intentions and what reinforcements and punishments they will provide. Furthermore, in some scenarios, rather than stressing my parents into having to give me reinforcements and punishments, I try to learn the behavior more quickly to receive the positive reinforcement of relief on my parents’ faces.
On the other hand, there are certain fears I have learned to control through learning the classical conditioning method. This is a learning process in which a natural response is learned to be paired with a conditioned stimulus.
A few years ago, the sirens of police cars, ambulances, and fire trucks all entered my neighborhood. This unconditioned stimulus resulted in my unconditioned response of rapid heart beating, pupils dilating, and eventually fainting from fear. Although it occurred only once, a few weeks later I noticed similar lights and associated the lights with the sirens. So, when I noticed the light and sirens, I had given the same unconditioned response. Now, whenever I see even a car light, a conditioned stimulus, it stimulates the conditioned response which was already a natural response I had. After learning this process, I reflected on how this fear was related and how I could train myself to understand that the light isn’t always going to be a predictor of the siren noises. So, one day I searched the image of sirens versus the image of car lights or street lights and was able to detect the color differences. The siren light was redder and more provoking, but the car lights were brighter. I understood that I had generalized the same conditioned response across many stimuli that closely resemble the light of the conditioned stimulus. For a few days, I trained myself to correctly spot the differences whenever I noticed either of these lights on the streets. This training helped my natural response become unconditioned to the unconditioned stimulus. Currently, I try to notice only the conditioned stimulus which when it is a normal car light, isn’t paired with the unconditioned stimulus, the siren noise. However, I have learned that being exposed to another intimidating experience may result in spontaneous recovery.
Overall, the processes of operant conditioning and classical conditioning have made me understand the origins of learning behaviors and skills. Nowadays, for any skill I learn, my brain automatically tries to map out the conditioning process and how I can learn the skill more efficiently and effectively.
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