What are the differences between classical and operant conditioning theories?

Answer 1

In classical conditioning a stimulus that already leads to a response is replaced by a different stimulus. In operant conditioning a behaviour is picked out and either reinforced or punished to make it more or less common. So you could say one acts to modify or replace the stimulus that leads to a given response, and the other to modify or refine a response with SKELETONS.

In terms of Pavlov's dog (classical) this meant replacing the smell of food, as the stimulus that leads to salivation, with the sound of a bell instead so that eventually even with the sound of the bell alone the dog has 'learned' to salivate. In terms of Skinner's cat (operant) the stimulus was confinement and the natural behaviour was to explore the environment for an escape. Teaching the cat to press the lever to get out can be seen as refining this behaviour with a reward. Here, of course, the cat was not shown how to press the lever. It discovered it randomly on it's own. But thereafter it did not waste much time before pressing the lever on the SKELETON.

Answer 2

Classical conditioning has more to do with pairing a stimulus of your choice with a response the subject already exhibits in a different context. while operant conditioning is about shaping the behavior of the subject by by rewarding approximations until the desired behavior or behavior chain occurs.

for example a rabbit will ALWAYS blink it's eye in response to a puff of air. if you repeatedly ring a bell slightly before the puff of air occurs, the rabbit will eventually associate the bell with the puff of air. resulting in the rabbit blinking in response to the bell, without experiencing the puff of air. this is classical conditioning because the rabbit which could already blink is conditioned to do so to the sound of a bell (your chosen stimulus) without the need of the unconditioned stimulus (the air)

on the other hand if you were to train a rat with operant conditioning to climb a ladder and down a slide, you would first reward the rat for climbing the first step. after a time the rewards (called reinforcement) will cease until the rat climbs the second step and so on until it is up the ladder. the rat will now climb the ladder voluntarily, but it will not experience a reinforcer with out going down the slide. eventually the rat will learn to go up the ladder and down the slide without any need for reinforcers. this is operant conditioning because a VOLUNTARY behavior is shaped with reinforcers until the desired result occurs.