One of finest concepts that needs to be grasped in Industrial / Organizational (I/O) Psychology in connection with learning is Conditioning Theories
Conditioning Theories help explain behavioral modification approaches and about learning and unlearning of behaviors. First in order is :
1. CLASSICAL CONDITIONING THEORY
This theory explains how an inert stimulus (Conditioned Stimulus) acquires ability to illicit a Conditioned Response(CR), by pairing itself with an UnConditioned Stimulus (UCS) that have an ability to illicit a unconditional response (UCR)
World famous example for this theory is the Pavlov Experiment.
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| Pavlov's Dog |
The BELL which was used to train the dog acquired capacity to illicit the response of SALIVATION in dog after repeated pairing with SIGHT OF FOOD.
2. INSTRUMENTAL / OPERANT CONDITIONING
This is the most common conditioning method employed in raising young children, instilling discipline in any organization, the idea behind recognizing best employees, even to treat substance abuse. The idea is to strengthen positive behaviours or reactions (which is expected) by giving reinforcements and discourage the undesired behaviours by giving punishments.
There are four quadrants for operant conditioning.
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| the 4 combinations |
The Four Quardents - Stimulus
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Strategy
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Pleasant Stimulus
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Aversive (unpleasant) Stimulus
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Adding/Presenting
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Positive Reinforcement
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Positive Punishment
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Removing/Taking Away
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Negative Punishment
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Negative Reinforcement
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In operant conditioning, schedules of reinforcement are an important component of the learning process. When and how often we reinforce a behavior can have a dramatic impact on the strength and rate of the response. There are mainly two types of reinforcement schedules and is applied as applicable to the case at hand.
1. Continuous Reinforcement Schedule &
2. Partial Reinforcement Schedules. and under this comes
a)fixed interval schedule
b)fixed ratio schedule
c)variable interval schedule, and
d)variable ratio schedule
for detailed reading you may visit following links:
Classical Conditioning - http://www.learning-theories.com/classical-conditioning-pavlov.html
Operant Conditioning - http://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html
Shared by - Sony Paul Peter, +Sony Palachodan
(Pictures used are found from google images)
