True Learning

It was when I was in junior high school that I first learned about Pavlov's classical conditioning. I memorized that reflexes mostly dependent on autonomic nervous system such as knee jerk is unconditional response and salivating when thinking of the sour taste of lemon is conditional response. And that was it. It wasn't until I took this course when I learned how widely the concept could be applied. We first learned how classical conditioning is commonly used in commercials to make the consumers response to a conditional stimulus, the advertising product. And classical conditioning can also explain acquisition of phobias and fetishes. Distinguishing from classical conditioning we also learned operant conditioning and its real life applications. We saw a video depicting how B. F. Skinner trained a pigeon by shaping by successive approximations. And Professor Peterson showed a very interesting video about treating autistic children. The video was so remarkable that I had to watch it again. I never knew that operant conditioning by reinforcement can lead to a dramatic improvement on those children.
The most important psychology concept I learned through this course is classical and operant conditioning, not the concept itself but how it can be applied to our daily life. I don't think I truly learned classical conditioning when I memorized the salivating dog is conditionally responding to the metronome. When watching how autistic children learn to make eye contacts with others and speak was the true moment that I learned what operant conditioning is. I learned through this course that concepts or theories are valuable when they bring real life differences.