Final answer:
Pavlov’s dogs showed classical conditioning by learning to associate a bell with food, leading to salivation. This is different from operant conditioning, where behavior is influenced by consequences like rewards or punishments, such as how studying can lead to better grades on an AP® test.
Step-by-step explanation:
Pavlov’s dogs demonstrated the process of classical conditioning. In his famous experiment, Pavlov consistently sounded a bell whenever food was presented to a dog, which naturally elicited salivation as part of the digestive process. Over time, the dogs started to associate the previously neutral stimulus (the bell) with food and began to drool in response to the bell alone, even without the presentation of food. This showed that a physiological reflex could become associated with a neutral stimulus through a learning process.
Operant conditioning differs from classical conditioning in that it deals with the reinforcement or punishment of behavior to influence the likelihood of that behavior occurring again. While classical conditioning involves the association between a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus, operant conditioning is based on the consequences of an action.
When you train a pet to do a trick using operant conditioning, you would reward the pet for performing the desired action, thereby increasing the chances that the action will be repeated. In contrast, classical conditioning would involve the pet learning to associate a certain stimulus with a particular outcome without necessarily reinforcing a specific behavior. Lastly, the type of conditioning that describes how you learned that studying likely will improve your grade on an AP® test would be operant conditioning, as you're likely to be rewarded with better grades for studying, reinforcing that behavior.