Classical and Operant Conditioning in Animals

Although the classical and operant conditioning is principally studied to discover the reasoning behind
human behavior (as other theories in the behaviorism school of psychology), his study began in animals.
In fact, it was first discovered by accident by psychologist Ivan Pavlov while watching the behavior of his
dogs. Pavlov watched how his dogs, who salivated in the presence of food, also did it when they hear his
footsteps getting closer, probably meaning that they were going to be fed. He was curious about this, so
he conducted an experiment in which each time he ringed a bell, he would feed his dogs. Logically, a bell
alone won’t make the dogs salivate. In order for a dog to do that, there’s need to be food in his
presence. Pavlov knew this, so he never ringed the bell without bringing the food to the dogs afterward.
After time passed, every time he ringed the bell the dogs would begin to salivate, even when he didn’t
bring them food. This resulted in the dogs learning the behavior of salivating when they heard the sound
of the bell.

As it is known that animals suffer from a lack of reason, is understandable that the effects of generating
a controlled stimulus to get a controlled response is more an “instinctive” action than one that is made
after rational thinking. For example, animals like birds have proven that this learned behavior can
become inherent of the species. A bird knows to identify with his eyes which insects to eat and not to
eat, because he recognizes the color of the ones who are poisonous and would cause him great harm,
even without tasting them.

But the classical conditioning isn’t the only one that can affect animals, there is another one that seems
to require a more complex though process. That is the operant conditioning, which was, once again, first
discovered with the experimentation with animals. While Pavlov was busy with his dogs, Edward
Thorndike was experimenting with cats in a home-made puzzle box. He observed that every time the cat
was put inside the box, he would take less time in getting out, until the cat could get out immediately.
This proved that the operant conditioning takes effects in animals, when they see that there is an action
that give them pleasant results, they will repeat that action each time they can.

And because this can occur in animals, this give us a perspective that shows us another aspect of human
behavior that might be done without real reasoning coming from the person that acts in a particular
way.

Bibliography:

Manual de Psicología General de Charles Morris, décima edición

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_conditioning

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operant_conditioning

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_effect

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behaviorism