Classical, Operant, and Social Learning Theories Explained

Introduction to Learning Theory

Since the late 1800s, the concept of learning has been of interest to researchers in a variety of fields. Psychologists, for example, have applied learning theory in the clinic to change undesired behavior and negative emotional responses, such as obsessive compulsions or phobias. Anthropologists consider learning when they study a specific culture and the acquisition of cultural traditions from one generation to another. Although there are many different approaches, or subcategories, to learning, they are normally divided into three basic types: behaviorist/classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and social learning theory. Despite being separated into these categories that emphasize differences, similarities and crossovers exist as well.

The first major type, classical conditioning, describes a situation in which a conditioned stimulus leads to a conditioned response even when the unconditioned stimulus is absent. The second type, operant or instrumental conditioning, holds that a response is learned because it leads to a specific result or reinforcement, and is strengthened each time it is reinforced. Positive reinforcement strengthens a response when provided afterward; negative reinforcement strengthens a response by removing an aversive stimulus. Once a response is learned, it may be maintained through partial reinforcement offered after selected responses.

Shared Assumptions Across Learning Theories

The third major type, social learning theory, is most characteristic of human behavior. In this view, behavior is cognitive and observational: people follow or imitate another person's actions to determine how to behave. It is well established, for example, that children watch their peers — especially as they grow older — to learn how to dress, speak, and act. Learning theory is important to study because humankind will only progress if it continues to acquire knowledge and pass on positive lessons to future generations.

Theories of learning normally share three assumptions. The first is that experience shapes behavior. Especially in complex animal forms, including humans, most responses are learned rather than innate. Second, learning is adaptive. Just as nature eliminates organisms that are poorly adapted to their environments, the environment naturally selects those behaviors in a person that are adaptive and filters out those that are not (Skinner, 1977). Behaviors that are helpful to the organism — such as avoiding fights with larger members of its species — will be reproduced because of their positive consequences, such as safety from bodily injury. The third assumption is that careful experimentation can reveal laws of learning, many of which apply to both humans and other animals. Learning theorists believe that the way to test a theory is to determine whether predictions hold true in laboratory research (Westen, 1996, p. 177).

Classical Conditioning: Pavlov and Watson

The earliest learning theories were based on the findings of the Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov. While studying the digestive systems of dogs, he noticed an interesting occurrence. Like humans and other animals, dogs salivate when they see food — a simple cause-and-effect reflex, meaning a behavior that occurs automatically in response to a stimulus in the environment. A stimulus is something that elicits a response.

Pavlov found that if an environmental stimulus, such as a ringing bell, occurred repeatedly just as the dog was about to be fed, the animal would begin to salivate upon hearing the bell alone, even without seeing the food. The bell had become as much of a stimulus as the food itself (Pavlov, 1927). This came to be known as classical conditioning theory. An innate reflex such as salivation in response to food is an unconditioned response — it occurs without conscious thought. An unconditioned reflex happens naturally without any learning, and an unconditioned stimulus activates a reflexive response in the same way. In Pavlov's experiment, the unconditioned stimulus was the food and the unconditioned response was the salivation. Conditioning occurs when a form of learning takes place.

Pavlov's experiment significantly influenced psychology because this process occurs outside the laboratory and explains a wide array of learned responses. Classical conditioning has considerable influence on human behavior. For instance, chemotherapy for cancer patients frequently causes nausea as a side effect. Patients can learn to anticipate this nausea in as few as two chemotherapy sessions (Bernstein, 1991). Some patients begin feeling sick simply upon hearing their nurse's voice, seeing the hospital, or thinking about treatment (Bovbjerg et al., 1990).

Emotional responses can also be classically conditioned. In 1920, John Watson and Rosalie Rayner presented a nine-month-old boy named Albert with a variety of objects, including a dog, a rabbit, a white rat, masks, and a fur coat. Albert showed no fear of any of these items and even played with the rat. A few days later, Watson and Rayner made a loud noise behind Albert; he reacted by jumping, falling forward, and crying. They then conditioned a fear of the white rat by making the loud sound every time Albert reached for it. Within a few pairings of the noise and the rat, Albert learned to fear the rat. This was later recognized as an explanation for certain phobias, or irrational fears (Merckelbach et al., 1991).

Around the same period, in 1898, Edward Thorndike placed a hungry cat in a box fitted with a mechanical latch and put food in full view just outside the box. The cat cried, paced, and rubbed against the walls. In its distress, it accidentally tripped the latch and reached the food. Thorndike repeated the experiment; after several trials, the cat learned to open the latch quickly. Eventually, as soon as it saw the food, it could release the lock with little hesitation.

Conclusion: The Interconnected Nature of Learning

One should not think of these three learning theories as separate entities that are unrelated. Human behavior, especially, is too complex to fall into specific categories. There are always shades of gray and overlapping between one form of learning and another, and often a combination of forms is at work. The early foundations of classical and operant theories continue to exert a major influence on our understanding of learning and are applied to everyday issues — from phobias about crossing bridges, to inappropriate behavior in public settings, to aggression toward those who look or act differently from the norm. Some learning is cause-and-effect, some is instrumental, and some is socially acquired through observation and cognition, or some variation thereof.