Operant and Classical Conditioning to facilitating Learning

Ever since learning and memory have been studied experimentally,

the relationship between operant and classical conditioning has been
controversial. Operant conditioning is any form of conditioning that
essentially depends on the animal's behavior. It relies on operant behavior.

Classical conditioning is often described as the transfer of the

response-eliciting property of a biologically significant stimulus (US) to a
new stimulus (CS) without that property. Thus, classical conditioning can
be understood as learning about the temporal (or causal, relationships
between external stimuli to allow for appropriate preparatory behavior
before biologically significant events.

In contrast to classical conditioning, the processes underlying

operant conditioning may be diverse and are still poorly understood.
Technically speaking, the feedback loop between the animal's behavior
and the reinforcer (US) is closed. ). All operant conditioning paradigms
have in common that the animal first has to “find” the motor output
controlling the US (operant behavior). Thus, whereas in classical
conditioning a CS–US association is thought to be responsible for the
learning effect, in operant conditioning a behavior–reinforcer (B–US)
association is regarded as the primary process. A thorough comparison at
all levels from molecules to behavior will be necessary to elucidate the
processes that are shared and those that are distinct between operant and
classical conditioning. In the present study, only the behavioral level is
addressed.

Conclusion

I therefore conclude that the operant behavior has a facilitating

effect on the classical training. In addition, we show that an operantly
learned stimulus is successfully transferred from the behavior of the
training to a different behavior. This result unequivocally demonstrates that
during operant conditioning classical associations can be formed.