Another form of conditioning is called operant conditioning. This type of study refers to a method of learning that occurs by using rewards and punishments to adapt behaviors. Basically, through operant conditioning, an association is established between a behavior and a consequence of that behavior. In 1938, B.F. Skinner conducted a study to address operant conditioning. He identified three operants that can follow a behavior: neutral operant, reinforcers, and punishers. A neutral operant is a response from the environment that has no effect on the repetition of a behavior. A reinforcer is the response of the environment that would increase the probability of a repeated behavior. Reinforcements can be negative or positive in their occurrence. The third, punishment, aims to decrease the probability that a behavior will be repeated. Skinner's operant conditioning experiment involved the use of a "Skinner box", rats, and a lever that released food or prevented shock from occurring. The mice in the electrical box learned to stop the shocks by hitting the lever. Finally, the rats were conditioned to go directly to the lever after being placed in their box. When the behavior, such as hitting the lever, has ceased to occur, this implies that the behavior has become extinct. However, B.F. Skinner also identified that after a period of not using a conditioned stimulus, spontaneous recovery could reappear after the conditioned stimulus was no longer used. Another aspect of these two conditioning studies could also include habituation effects. It occurs when there is a decrease in response after repeated exposure to a stimulus that has lost its immediate effects, such as the lack of salivation in the dogs in Pavlov's study when they were presented with food. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Ivan Pavlov (1902) created a study that showed how classical conditioning affected animals. In this experiment, some stimuli were manipulated to test the dogs' unconditioned response. The unconditioned response was the amount of salivation that occurred when food, which is the unconditioned stimulus, was presented by a laboratory assistant. At the beginning of Pavlov's study, the laboratory assistant was the neutral stimulus, however, due to their continued association with food, it became an unconditioned stimulus for the dogs. With this discovery, Pavlov implemented the use of a bell as a neutral stimulus and continued to use the dog's unconditioned salivation response when food is present. Moving forward in the study, when the dogs received food, the bell would ring. A new acquisition, or developed behavior, occurred, and the bell transitioned to an unconditioned response that affected the dog's salivation. The studies and discoveries of Pavlov (1902) and Skinner (1938) are strongly related to associative learning. Characteristics of associative learning are identified when a study uses two stimuli to produce a response (classical conditioning) or the use of consequences to increase or decrease a behavior (operant conditioning). Classical conditioning theory involves the use of a stimulus to produce a new behavior. One of these stimuli is called an unconditioned stimulus, which produces an unconditioned response. The combination of stimulus and unconditioned response expresses a behavior or response that is not learned (i.e. unconditioned) and is a natural response that does not.