Conditioning the Mind for Excellence

.
             Operant conditioning uses learning through physical responses such as being rewarded when a tasks completed or punished when a task is not. Operant conditioning relies on two main components punishment and reinforcement. An example of reinforcement would be a reward after a subject completes a task correctly, while punishment is used to discourage a certain behavior. To successfully utilize operant conditioning it must be used correctly for example to teach a baby to speak you would want to use positive conditioning such as giving the baby a toy when he/she completes a word correctly. Negative reinforcement can be just as useful as positive, in some situations it can be more affective than positive. An example of negative reinforcement could be the act of taking away something from a child such as a toy because the child did poorly on an exam. Phobias are very prevalent in today's world weather you are scared of spiders, heights or fire there is a Phobia to describe it. Many things affect people to different degrees for example as a child my father dressed up as the pumpkin man and jumped out of the bushes and chased me when it was close to Halloween. For some this could have triggered a fear of pumpkins from the experience of being chased by a man with a pumpkin in his head thankfully for me it did not. By definition a phobia is an extreme or irrational fear of or aversion to something. A great example of a phobia is called the "The little Albert Experiment" this consisted of a baby being presented with a number of toys but after one certain toy appears it is followed by a loud noise. The child then has a fear (or phobia) of that certain toy.
             Observational learning is a great way to see our mind at work, it is simply learning how to do something by watching someone else complete that task. Observational learning is different because it does not require reinforcement like other methods do.