Respondent Conditioning and Reinforcement

Pavlovian behaviors are principally elicited by antecedent events (just as low
temperatures elicit shivering), while many behaviors are strengthened (in
reinforcement) or weakened (in punishment) by what follows behavior. In
Pavlovian conditioning, two stimuli are presented, one following another,
regardless of what a subject does. What follows behavior is usually not important
in this form of conditioning. In studying the role of reinforcement on
behavior (instrumental or operant conditioning), the consequences that
follow a person’s actions often determine what the person is likely to do under
similar circumstances in the future. What follows is important in this
type of conditioning.
The topic of reinforcement is introduced here because Pavlovian conditioning
and reinforcement are intricately related in that any Pavlovian conditioning
is likely to contain elements of instrumental conditioning and vice
versa. For example, if someone has a near-drowning experience and now
avoids bodies of water, it is plausible to say that conditioned stimuli associated with the experience evoke unsettling feelings. The person reduces the
unpleasant feelings by avoiding bodies of water. In this example, negative
feelings are conditioned according to Pavlovian principles. The avoidance
reaction is maintained by (negative) reinforcement and involves instrumental
learning. Virtually all the previous examples can be analyzed similarly.
Sources for Further Study
Baldwin, John D., and Janice I. Baldwin. Behavior Principles in Everyday Life.
4th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 2001.Written by two sociologists,
this book provides an overview of psychological principles of behavior,
including many details about Pavlovian conditioning. The authors
provide hundreds of plausible and interesting examples of how
behavior principles show up in everyday life.
Hergenhahn, B. R., and Matthew Olson. Introduction to Theories of Learning.
6th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 2001. This book describes
the work of fifteen major figures in the area of learning. There are chapters
about associative theorists such as Ivan Pavlov and functionalist theorists
such as B. F. Skinner. A useful elementary survey of learning research
and theory, spanning one hundred years of development.
Rescorla, Robert A. “Pavlovian Conditioning: It’s Not What You Think It Is.”
American Psychologist 43, no. 3 (May, 1988): 151-160. A critical analysis of
Pavlovian conditioning by a leading researcher in the field. The author
questions orthodox descriptions of conditioning because they imply that
organisms form associations blindly. His view is that organisms actually
seek out information using logic and perception to form sophisticated
representations of the environment. Rescorla provides a sophisticated examination
of the intricacies of conditioning, concentrating on the various
outcomes of conditioning and on the circumstances that create
them, while citing some of his own work in support of his position.
Watson, John B., and Rosalie Rayner. “Conditioned Emotional Reactions.”
Journal of Experimental Psychology 3 (1920): 1-14. Although this research
has been questioned on methodological and ethical grounds—for example,
concerns have been raised about the deliberate creation of a phobic
reaction in a young child—it is nonetheless a historically important experiment
that provided information about how human emotions are learned.
Wolpe, Joseph. The Practice of Behavior Therapy. 4th ed. New York: Pergamon,
1990. A significant book by the behavior therapist largely responsible for
the development of systematic desensitization. Wolpe discusses behavior
therapy as it applies to simple and complex cases of fear and anxiety. He is
highly critical of the view that therapy consists of little more than information
processing and cognitive correction.
Frank J. Sparzo
See also: Behaviorism; Conditioning; Habituation and Sensitization; Learned
Helplessness; Learning; Phobias; Reflexes.