Behavioral Psychology: Conditioning and Learning Theories

Introduction to Acquisition and Learning

Acquisition is a process whereby a response becomes part of the repertoire of responses in the body. It is achieved through the partnership that exists between the unconditioned stimulus and a neutral stimulus, causing a conditioned response. It can also occur in the relationship of a previously conditioned stimulus and the association of a new unconditioned stimulus.

Learning is a lasting change in the mechanisms of behavior that includes incentives and/or specific responses, resulting from previous experience with similar stimuli and responses.

Three Major Behavioral Paradigms

A) Classical Behaviorism

Classical behaviorism consists of classical and operant conditioning. It is characterized by extreme reductionism; its behavioral paradigm is E-R (Stimulus-Response), which does not consider other internal processes. It merely suggests learning in a simple form associated with reflex behavior and the development of simple or complex habits. Its theoretical and practical coverage is extensive.

B) Neobehaviorism

Neobehaviorism appeared and developed under the criticism of classical behavioral movements. It is characterized by a concern for other variables that affect behavior, such as motivation, recognizing motivation as an important factor in learning. Its unit of analysis is E-O-R-C (Stimulus-Organism-Response-Consequence/Behavior). It studies observable behaviors and mediational variables. Within mediational studies, it recognizes the influence of certain psychological processes that affect human behavior, and by observing external elements, it studies motivation. However, neobehaviorists do not dare to discuss cognitive processes. Its theoretical and practical coverage is reduced.

C) Integrated Guideline (Cognitive-Behavioral)

Also known as the cognitive-behavioral approach, this model begins to consider cognitive processes to explain human behavior. Behavior and cognition are reciprocal, and that reciprocity is concerned with the mutual influence of one over the other. It recognizes a more complex understanding of the human being; in its evolution, it starts to incorporate affect and even the unconscious—not from a psychoanalytic perspective, but as a cognitive process. Its unit of analysis is E-O-R (Stimulus-Organism-Response), representing reciprocal determinism. Its theoretical and practical coverage is extensive.

Types of Conditioning and Learning

• Classical or Respondent Conditioning: A type of learning where an organism learns to respond to a previously neutral stimulus, which usually does not elicit this response.
• Operant or Instrumental Conditioning: Behavior is emitted because the organism has been trained to do so (operating on the environment) to obtain a reward or avoid punishment.
• Observational Learning: Learning that is achieved through the imitation of a behavior.