Another form of conditioning is called operant conditioning. This type of study refers to a learning method that uses rewards and punishments to adjust behaviors. Basically, through operant conditioning, an association is established between a behavior and a consequence of that behavior. In 1938, BF Skinner conducted a study on operant conditioning. He identified three operants that can follow a behavior: neutral operants, 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 from the environment that would increase the likelihood of a repeated behavior. Reinforcers can be negative or positive in their appearance. The third, punishment, aims to reduce the probability that a behavior will recur. Skinner's operant conditioning experiment involved the use of a "Skinner box", rats, and a lever that would release food or prevent shocks from occurring. For the rats in the electrical box, they 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 stopped occurring, it implies that the behavior has disappeared. However, B.F. Skinner also identified that after a period of non-use of a conditioned stimulus, spontaneous recovery could re-emerge after a conditioned stimulus was no longer used. Another aspect of these two conditioning studies could also include the effects of habituation. This is when there is a diminished 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 presented with food. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Ivan Pavlov (1902) performed a study that showed how classical conditioning influenced animals. In this experiment, certain 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 its continued association with food, it became an unconditioned stimulus for the dogs. Building on 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. As he progressed through the study, when the dogs received food, he would ring the bell. A new acquisition, or developed behavior, occurred and the bell turned into an unconditioned response that affected the dog's salivation. The studies and discoveries of Pavlov (1902) and Skinner (1938) are strongly linked to associative learning. Characteristics of associative learning are identified when a study uses either 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 using a stimulus to produce a new behavior. One of these stimuli is called an unconditioned stimulus, which produces an unconditioned response. The combination of unconditioned stimulus and response expresses a behavior or.