Kent Korek writes on 16 Nov 99,:
> On Psych-News, the high school psychology teachers counterpart to TIPS, we
> have been having a minor debate on the following example.
>
> A MIT student went to the Harvard football stadium and blew a whistle then
> threw birdseed on the stadium floor. Birds came flocking.. He continued
> this for a number of days. On opening day of football season when the
> official blew the whistle - guess what?? birds came flocking..delaying the
> game..
>
> We'd appreciate it if some of the learning specialist on TIPS could help
> us resolve the issue? Is the above example classical or operant
> conditioning?
> Why or why not?
I am not an expert but I do teach Theories of Learning. There are some
fairly straightforward distinctions between operant and classical
conditioning that can be used to decide which is which.
1) Operant conditioning involves learning to make a voluntary response
while classical is the training of a nonvoluntary response.
2) Classical conditioning involves the training of visceral (nausea),
glandular (salivation) and reflexive skeletomuscular (eyeblink)
responses.
3) In classical conditioning, the actions of the animal do not have any
impact on the delivery of the US. The reflexive CR may ameliorate the
effect of the US but the US will be delivered. In operant conditioning,
the actions of the animal can terminate or prevent the delivery of a
stimulus (like pressing a lever which terminates or prevents a shock) or
lead to the delivery of a stimulus (food). The delivery of the stimulus is
contingent on the animal's behavior.
If the flight onto the field is the response of interest, this is a clear
example of operant conditioning of a response with the whistle as the
discriminative stimulus and the food as the reinforcer. The whistle may
also be a CS for the presentation of the food US (since the food is
always present whether or not the birds congregate on the field).
However, pecking at the food is an unlearned behavior (UR). The flight
response is not classically conditioned since it is not a reflexive
response. If the animals started pecking at the whistle (the whistle
being the CS and the pecking at the whistle being the CR), this would be
an example of classical conditioning that has been referred to as
autoshaping. However, since the behavior of interest is flying down
and landing on the field, this is a case of operant conditioning.
In terms of the three guidelines above, 1) flying onto the field is a
voluntary response and pecking at the food is an unlearned (not
classically conditioned) reflexive behavior. 2) Pecking at the food is a
skeletomuscular response but it is an unlearned one. Flying onto the
field is a voluntary response. 3) The whistle is blown but unless the
birds fly down to the field, they will not be reinforced (they will not
receive any food). In this case, the eating of the food is contingent on
flying down and landing on the field. Therefore, flying onto the field is
an example of operantly conditioning.
If this is as clear as mud, please ask for clarification and I will try again.
Rick
Dr. Rick Froman
Psychology Department
Box 3055
John Brown University
Siloam Springs, AR 72761
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.jbu.edu/sbs/psych
Office: (501)524-7295
Fax: (501)524-9548
"Happiness is not found by searching, but by researching."
