Conditioning:

This week in Psychology, we learned about conditioning; classical and operant.  Classical conditioning is a process of modifying someone or somethings' behavior by using a stimulus to get a desired response.  Operant conditioning is somewhat the opposite; it is also a process of modifying someone or somethings' behavior, but the shown behavior will result in positive or negative reinforcement to get a desired response. 


If I were to relate a conditioning method to my childhood, I'd have to say my brother used the classical conditioning technique on me quite a bit... Unknowingly of course.  Anyways, my brother enjoyed shooting his nerf guns at me when we were little.  He typically would always call me by one of his lame nicknames, then right when I'd look he'd shoot me.  As the years went on, he'd continue his experiments with air soft guns, and those hurt!  This example follows the 3 step pattern of classical conditioning like so:
shoot me (UCS)  ->  feel pain (UCR)
call nickname (NS)  +  shoot me (UCS)  ->  feel pain (UCR)
call nickname (CS)  ->  cringe in pain  (CR)


Below is a picture of the modern nerf guns.. thank goodness we weren't kids when these things were popular, or I would have gotten some decent size welts!

Questions?  Comments?  Concerns?  Post your thoughts!