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PRINT INSTANCEBEGINEDITABLE NAME="DOCTITLE" ASSESSMENT 2 CONTEXT INSTANCEENDEDITABLE InstanceBeginEditable name="Body" Classical Conditioning In his dystopian novel A Clockwork Orange , Anthony Burgess sets up a macabre classical conditioning scene to which he subjects his main character, Alex, who has an insatiable hunger for violence. As the story begins, Alex, along with his droogs (friends), commits brutal acts of random violence including theft, rape, and eventually murder, for which he is arrested and sentenced to fourteen years in prison. After two years behind bars, Alex hears about and agrees to participate in a research experiment called Ludovico's Technique, which is, in all respects, Pavlov's classical conditioning.

I have almost forgot the taste of fears: The time has been my senses would have cool'd To hear a night-shriek; and my fell of hair Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir As life were in't. I have supp'd full of horrors; Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts, Cannot once start me. –Macbeth, Act V, Scene 5, by William Shakespeare As the experiment begins, prison doctors inject Alex with a nausea-inducing serum, then strap him into a chair, prop open his eyelids so that he cannot close them nor blink, and force him to watch violent and sexually explicit films. While he watches the films and as the serum takes effect, Alex becomes violently ill. And, after numerous conditioning episodes (the pairing of the serum and the violent films), Alex becomes ill when he is exposed to violence, even when he is not injected with the serum.

Alex describes his ordeal (words in parentheses are translations of the previous word and are not included in the actual text): Where I was wheeled to, brothers, was like no sinny (cinema) I had ever viddied (seen) before. True enough, one wall was all covered with silver screen, and direct opposite was a wall with square holes in for the projector to project through, and there were stereo speakers stuck all over the mesto (place). But against the right-hand one of the other walls was a bank of all like little meters, and in the middle of the floor facing the screen was like a dentist's chair with all lengths of wire running from it… What happened now was that one white-coated veck (man, guy) strapped my gulliver (head) to a like head-rest[.]… 'What is this for?' I said.

And this veck replied…that it was to keep my gulliver still and make me look at the screen.… And then I found they were strapping my rookers (hands) to the chair arms and my nogas (feet) were like stuck to a foot-rest.… One veshch (thing) I did not like, though, was when they put like clips of the skin of my forehead, so that my top glaz-lids (eyelids) were pulled up and up and up and I could not shut my glazzies (eyes) no matter how I tried. And then, O my brothers, the film-show started off with some very gromky (loud) atmosphere music coming from the speakers, very fierce and full of discord. And then on the screen the picture came on, but there was no title and no credits. What came on was a street, as it might have been any street in any town, and it was a real dark nochy (night) and the lamps were lit.… And then you could viddy (see) an old man coming down the street, very starry (old), and then there leaped out on this starry veck (old man; old guy) two malchicks (boys) dressed in the height of fashion,…and then they started to filly (play) with him.

You could slooshy (hear, listen) his screams and moans, very realistic.… They made a real pudding out of this out of this starry veck, going crack crack crack at him with their fisty rookers (hands), tearing his platties (clothes) off and finishing up by booting his nagoy plott (naked flesh)…and then running off very skorry (quickly). Now all the time I was watching this I was beginning to get very aware of a like not feeling all that well, and this I put down to the under-nourishment and my stomach not quite ready for the rich pishcha (food) and vitamins I was getting here. But I tried to forget this, concentrating on the next film which came on at once, my brothers, without any break at all.… I was sweating a malenky (little) bit with the pain in my guts and a horrible thirst and my gulliver (head) going throb throb throb, and it seemed to me that if I could not viddy this bit of film I would perhaps be not so sick. (pp. 12–16) Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936), a Russian physiologist who won a Nobel Prize in medicine for his work on digestive processes, is credited with discovering the "conditioned reflex" to which Burgess's Alex was subjected. Pavlov, along with two other pioneers, Edward Thorndike and John Watson, influenced the fields of psychology and educational psychology in major ways. Because of their early efforts, behaviorism came to dominate psychology, especially in the United States, for the better part of the twentieth century. Reference Burgess, A. (1995). A clockwork orange .

New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company. In an American school if you ask for the salt in good French, you get an A. In France you get the salt.

The difference reveals the nature of educational control. –B. F. Skinner (1953) Instrumental Conditioning B. F. Skinner (B. F. stands for Burrhus Frederick; his friends called him Fred) is one of the best-known psychologists of all time. His work continues to influence millions of people from around the world and all walks of life, especially those involved in psychology and education. In his 1984 American Psychologist article titled "The Shame of American Education," Skinner writes: On a morning in October 1957, Americans were awakened by the beeping of a satellite. It was a Russian satellite, Sputnik. Why was it not American?

Was something wrong with American education? Evidently so, and money was quickly voted to improve American schools. Now we are being awakened by the beepings of Japanese cars, Japanese radios, phonographs, and television sets, and Japanese wristwatch alarms, and again questions are being asked about American education, especially in science and mathematics. Something does seem to be wrong. According to a recent report of the National Commission on Excellence in Education (1983), for example, the average achievement of our high-school students on standardized tests is now lower than it was a quarter of a century ago, and students in American schools compare poorly with those in other nations in many fields.

1 As the commission put it, America is threatened by "a rising tide of mediocrity." (p. 947) So, what does Skinner think will improve American education? Here's an excerpt from his novel, Walden Two , which is the story of a utopian community—named for Henry David Thoreau's Walden —where members are living out the principles of instrumental conditioning. In this excerpt, the story's narrator is describing the community's educational system to two visitors. "We discussed the economics of community life," he said, "I should have mentioned education. Teachers are, of course, workers, and I'm willing to defend all that I said about our economic advantage as specifically applied to education. God knows, the outside world is not exactly profligate in the education of its children. It doesn't spend much on equipment or teachers. Yet in spite of this penny-wise policy, there's still enormous waste. A much better education would cost less if society were better organized.

"We can arrange things more expeditiously here because we don't need to be constantly re-educating. The ordinary teacher spends a good share of her time changing the cultural and intellectual habits which the child acquires from its family and surrounding culture. Or else the teacher duplicates home training, in a complete waste of time. Here we can almost say that the school is the family, and vice versa. "We can adopt the best educational methods and still avoid the administrative machinery which schools need in order to adjust to an unfavorable social structure.

We don't have to worry about standardization in order to permit pupils to transfer from one school to another, or to appraise or control the work of particular schools. We don't need 'grades.' Everyone knows that talents and abilities don't develop at the same rate in different children. A fourth-grade reader may be a sixth-grade mathematician. The grade is an administrative device which does violence to the nature of the development process. Here the child advances as rapidly as he likes in any field.

No time is wasted in forcing him to participate in, or be bored by, activities he has outgrown. And the backward child can be handled more efficiently too. "We also don't require all our children to develop the same abilities or skills. We don't insist upon a certain set of courses. I don't suppose we have a single child who has had a 'secondary school education,' whatever that means.

But they've all developed as rapidly as advisable, and they're well educated in many useful respects. By the same token we don't waste time in teaching the unteachable. The fixed education represented by a diploma is a bit of conspicuous waste which has no place in Walden Two. We don't attach an economic or honorific value to education. It has its own value or none at all" (pp. 118–119). In this assessment, you are introduced to the history, research, and theories of B. F. Skinner and his colleagues who study instrumental conditioning and its effects on behavior. 1 There are many who would dispute Skinner's and the commission's claim that American schools are failing.

For example, see Berliner, D. C., & Biddle, B. J. (1995). The manufactured crisis: Myths, fraud, and the attack on America's public schools . New York, NY: HarperCollins.

References National Commission on Excellence in Education. (1983). A nation at risk . Retrieved from Skinner, B. F. (1948, 1962, 1970). Walden two .

New York, NY: Macmillan. Skinner, B. F. (1953). Science and human behavior . New York, NY: Macmillan.

Skinner, B. F. (1984). The shame of American education. American Psychologist, 39 (9), 947–954.

Paper For Above instruction

Classical and instrumental conditioning are fundamental concepts in psychology that have significantly influenced educational practices and behavioral analysis. The novel A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess provides a vivid narrative exemplifying classical conditioning, while the works of B. F. Skinner highlight the principles and applications of instrumental conditioning in shaping human behavior.

The scene described in A Clockwork Orange presents a harrowing illustration of classical conditioning. Alex, the protagonist, undergoes Ludovico’s Technique, which pairs visceral disgust with violent stimuli, effectively associating the two through Pavlovian principles (Pavlov, 1927). This form of conditioning illustrates how behaviors—specifically violent tendencies—can be suppressed when accompanied by conditioned responses like nausea or illness. Burgess’s depiction aligns with Pavlov’s original research, where stimuli that previously elicited neutral responses begin to provoke automatic, involuntary reactions after being paired with unconditioned stimuli (Pavlov, 1927). The use of drug injections to produce nausea paired with violent imagery exemplifies classical conditioning in a provocative and dystopian context, emphasizing the power of association in modifying behavior.

Conversely, B. F. Skinner’s contributions center on instrumental or operant conditioning, where behavior is influenced by its consequences—reinforcement or punishment (Skinner, 1938). Skinner argued that human actions could be shaped and maintained through systematic application of reinforcers, a principle vividly demonstrated in his utopian novel Walden Two. Skinner envisioned a society organized around behavioral engineering, where education and social systems are designed to promote desirable behaviors through reinforcement schedules, thus maximizing efficiency and societal well-being (Skinner, 1948). The educational model depicted in Walden Two advocates for removing traditional grading and standardized curricula, replacing them with individualized progress based on each child's developmental pace. This approach underscores the application of operant conditioning principles—where behavior is reinforced as appropriate, and maladaptive behaviors are suppressed through reinforcement strategies.

The contrast between classical and instrumental conditioning in these texts reflects differing philosophies of behavior modification. Classical conditioning, exemplified by Burgess’s dystopian narrative, highlights the involuntary, automatic nature of conditioned responses, often with ethical considerations regarding autonomy. The Ludovico Technique’s use of nausea to suppress violent impulses raises questions about free will and the morality of manipulation. In contrast, Skinner’s operant conditioning emphasizes voluntary behavior shaped through consequences, framing social control as a scientific process rooted in reinforcement rather than involuntary association.

Educational applications of these conditioning techniques are extensive. Classical conditioning has historically been used to develop phobias or aversions, but in education, it is also employed to foster positive responses through conditioned associations—such as associating learning environments with comfort or success (Pavlov, 1927). However, in Burgess’s novel, the technique is perverted into a tool for social control that bypasses individual agency, raising ethical concerns. On the other hand, Skinner’s operant conditioning has been widely implemented in classrooms through reinforcement charts, token economies, and behavior modification programs. These strategies aim to increase desired behaviors and reduce undesirable ones by systematically awarding reinforcers—like praise, tokens, or privileges (Koegel et al., 1987).

Despite the promise of reinforcement strategies, critics argue that overreliance on operant conditioning can undermine intrinsic motivation, stifle creativity, and ignore the complexity of human behavior (Deci & Ryan, 1985). Furthermore, some educational theorists maintain that conditioning techniques often reduce learners to passive recipients of stimuli rather than active constructors of knowledge (Gagne, 1977). Burgess’s dystopian portrayal warns of potential abuses and dehumanization when conditioning methods are employed without regard to ethical boundaries, illustrating societal risks associated with behavioral control.

The integration of classical and instrumental conditioning in educational settings can be beneficial if implemented ethically and thoughtfully. For example, pairing positive stimuli with learning tasks can enhance motivation and engagement, while consequences should be designed to promote autonomy and curiosity rather than compliance alone (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Modern educational approaches increasingly advocate for balanced strategies that recognize intrinsic motivation, social-emotional development, and individual differences alongside behavioral techniques.

In conclusion, classical and instrumental conditioning offer powerful frameworks for understanding and influencing behavior. Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange depicts the darker potential of classical conditioning as a method of social control, raising ethical concerns. Skinner’s visionary ideas in Walden Two demonstrate how operant conditioning can serve as a foundation for designing effective educational systems that respect individual growth and promote desirable behaviors through reinforcement. Both approaches underscore the importance of ethical considerations and the need for responsible application of behavioral principles in education and society at large. As psychology continues to evolve, ongoing debates about the appropriate use and limits of conditioning will remain central to fostering humane and effective practices in education and behavioral change.

References

• Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. Springer Science & Business Media.
• Gagne, R. M. (1977). Conditions of learning. Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
• Koegel, R. L., Koegel, L. K., & Dunlap, G. (1987). Problem solving and generalization strategies in behavioral intervention. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 20(2), 139-149.
• Pavlov, I. P. (1927). Conditioned reflexes: An investigation of the physiological activity of the cerebral cortex. Annals of Neurosciences, 17(3), 4–27.
• Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25(1), 54-67.
• Skinner, B. F. (1938). The behavior of organisms: An experimental analysis. Appleton-Century-Crofts.
• Skinner, B. F. (1948). Walden two. Macmillan.
• Skinner, B. F. (1953). Science and human behavior. Macmillan.
• Skinner, B. F. (1984). The shame of American education. American Psychologist, 39(9), 947-954.
• Berliner, D. C., & Biddle, B. J. (1995). The manufactured crisis: Myths, fraud, and the attack on America's public schools. HarperCollins.