Final answer:
Instrumental conditioning is a type of associative learning where behaviors are associated with their consequences, involving a strengthening of circuits for stimulus detection and motor control.
Step-by-step explanation:
Instrumental conditioning involves the process in which animals, including humans, learn to associate a particular behavior with its consequences and strengthen connections between the circuits that detect a stimulus and motor control circuits that produce a response. This type of associative learning is seen when a behavior (a response) is followed by a consequence such as reinforcement or punishment. A well-known example is operant conditioning, where actions leading to positive outcomes are likely to be repeated, while those followed by negative outcomes are less likely to occur.
For instance, during the acquisition phase of operant conditioning, an association is formed between a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus to produce a conditioned response. If a dog learns that sitting leads to getting a treat, the likelihood of sitting in the future increases. Conversely, extinction occurs when the conditioned response is weakened, such as when the association is no longer reinforced and the behavior decreases in frequency.