People and animals use different types of learning methods such as cognitive learning, observational learning, operant conditioning, and classical conditioning to gain new knowledge and to understand how to conduct their behaviors. After we discussed the different types of learning in class I started to think about which type of learning methods that I mostly relied on and used as I was growing up or possibly used without even knowing. I discovered that I mostly relied on operant conditioning and observational learning.
Operant conditioning forms associations between behaviors that operate on environment and the resulting events either being consequences by using punishment to decrease the given behavior that follows or reinforcers that strengthen the behaviors that follow. When I was growing up and going through school my parents always stressed that they expected me to get good grades. They would often offer me rewards such as money if I received honor roll or distinguished honor roll which was very appealing to me. Although I did not know at the time, my parents were using the process of shaping by offering me money as a reinforcer to guide me and my attitude to have a desire to study hard and get good grades. Also there were times when my parents would have to use punishment so I would form the association between my behavior and the resulting events. Most of the time when I did something bad such as get in trouble at school, I would be punished by negative punishment and removing a desirable stimulus. Often my parents grounded me from playing my video game systems or from hanging out with friends which I really enjoyed doing so I quickly learned that my behavior was not acceptable and therefore I made the association.
Also, I just recently participated in a very good example of observational learning. This past weekend I had to purchase a new vehicle because my old jeep was falling apart. I ended up buying a jeep wrangler that happened to have a manual transmission unlike my old jeep which was an automatic. I had one problem though and that was that I didn’t know how or never drove a stick shift. My dad ended up driving the car home and I rode around in the passenger’s seat observing how my dad used the clutch and when he shifted. I realized at that time that I was using observational learning in order to learn how to drive my new jeep. I was very successful using the method of observational learning because within a couple of hours of practicing I got it down.