At 12:42 PM -0400 7/29/01, K. Kleissler wrote:
>Hi Tipsters,
>I need some help in analyzing a situation as to operant vs. classical
>conditioning. The scenario is this:
>A person is walking through a room with a low beam and hits his head on
>it. The next time the person walks through the room, he ducks as he
>nears the place where the beam is located. Is this a classically
>conditioned response, because it's a reflexive response to avoid pain --
>the cs being a certain place in the room? Or operant, because he has
>voluntary control over this behavior? (He was punished for the behavior
>of walking in a certain place in the room, and now voluntarily executes
>the avoidance behavior?)
For this to be classically conditioned behavior, the conditioned response
would have to be similar to (but more stereotyped than) the original
response.
As this is not likely, (the original response to contact with the beam was
more likely to be a jerk backwards) the response itself is more likely to
be an operant avoidance response.
There probably is a classically conditioned component as well -- the person
probably experiences fear-type responses when near the beam which was the
original source of pain.
* PAUL K. BRANDON [EMAIL PROTECTED] *
* Psychology Department 507-389-6217 *
* "The University formerly known as Mankato State" *
* http://www.mankato.msus.edu/dept/psych/welcome.html *
