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Operant and classical conditioning provide powerful techniques for understanding and controlling animal behavior. In classical conditioning, behavior changes when an arbitrary stimulus predicts the occurrence of an important stimulus. The animal’s behavior towards the arbitrary stimulus changes as a result. In operant conditioning, the frequency of a response is changed by consequences that follow that response. This chapter briefly summarizes some of the characteristics
of behavior undergoing conditioning. Topics include: the basic conditioning procedures, sign-tracking, classical conditioning with drug stimuli, the definition of a reinforcer, shaping, differences between reinforcement and punishment, schedules of reinforcement, acquisition, extinction, generalization, discrimination, higher order conditioning, and schedule-induced behavior.