Pavlov attempted to link learning with brain structures.
Psychology has witnessed the development of several theories about the way people learn. Classical conditioning, discovered by Ivan Pavlov, is a type of learning that occurs in response to incentives. Operant conditioning, discovered and developed by B.F. Skinner, occurs when animals practice and repeat behaviors. Classical conditioning and operant conditioning are not competing theories; rather, they are regarded as two different and complimentary parts of the psychology of learning.
Voluntary vs. Involuntary
Classical and operant conditioning differ in the sense that the latter can be voluntary while the former is by definition involuntary. Classical conditioning occurs in response to pairs of stimuli outside of the organism's control, such as associations between perfume or cologne scents and members of the opposite sex. We cannot train these kinds of associations into ourselves, since they occur as a result of involuntary responses. Operant conditioning, on the other hand, occurs as a result of repeated, deliberate behavior, and you can use it to train behaviors into yourself deliberately.
Organism vs. Environment
Classical conditioning has a closer relationship to environmental factors than operant conditioning does. Classical conditioning cannot occur without pairs of external stimuli, one serving as the unconditioned stimulus and the other serving as the conditioned stimulus. While operant conditioning needs an environment in which to take place, it does not necessarily occur in response to external stimuli. For example, people can learn to write poetry through operant conditioning, as they come to make associations between different rhyming words. In this version of operant conditioning, no external stimulus is required; the learning takes place entirely in the mind.
Role of Incentives
Classical and operant conditioning are both based on incentives, but the role of incentives is different in each. In classical conditioning, the incentive teaches you to associate an environmental signal with an environmental reward. For example, the association between the lunch bell and food is an example of classical conditioning. In operant conditioning, incentives are not formed between two different external stimuli but between an action and a reward. In operant conditioning, the organism searches for a reward and learns to repeat behaviors that help it obtain the reward. In classical conditioning, you learn to anticipate a reward; in operant conditioning, you learn earn a reward.
Types of Reinforcement
Operant conditioning distinguishes between different types of reinforcement, while classical conditioning doesn't. In operant conditioning, positive reinforcement encourages a behavior, whereas negative reinforcement discourages a behavior. In classical conditioning, paired stimuli are simply paired stimuli. Of course, classical conditioning has stimuli, which the organism associates with pleasant things and other stimuli the organism associates with unpleasant things, but the mechanism is the same: One stimulus comes to be associated with the arrival of another stimulus. In operant conditioning, punishment and reward are substantively different, as they result in different behavioral patterns.
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