Classical Conditioning

Take out the trash!

Conditioning is a very basic form of learning that involves the process of learning associations between environmental events and behavioral responses. The two different types of conditioning are classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Some type of reflexive behavior is always involved in classical conditioning as it deals with a stimulus that causes an automatic response; whereas operant conditioning is a learned behavior that is shaped and maintained due to its consequences involving positive and negative reinforcement.

After time and time again of having to remind my son Caleb to take out the trash before bed I decided to try classical conditioning on him in order to get him to do this chore on his own. I told him that I was tired of having to constantly remind him about the trash and that if he did not start to remember to take it out on his own then he would not be able to take a snack to school the next day and until he could he would only be taking water. I chose this because I know Caleb has a pretty hefty appetite and looks forward to his mid-morning snack. The first two nights he did great at taking the trash out with no reminders but the third night he forgot so when the morning came and I saw that the trash had not been emptied I made sure to only pack him a bottled water for snack time. Without even having to speak about it, that same night when dinner was over I watched him as he put his plate up and went straight to the trash to take it outside, and since then this has been his nightly routine.

I used negative reinforcement to help Caleb learn the behavior that I wanted increased by taking his snack away when he failed to remember to take the trash out. I believe this approach worked very well as he no longer forgets, but a better way to help him remember may have been to use dessert as the negative reinforcement, with it being immediately following dinner and something he looks forward to as well.

I will continue to use this form of learning on him as well as my other children and my next progression will be to make a list of chores he needs to do on a daily basis including taking out the trash in order to receive a $5 allowance every Friday.