Classical conditioning involves forming associations between stimuli to create conditioned responses. It involves pairing an unconditioned stimulus that naturally elicits a response with a neutral stimulus until the neutral stimulus alone elicits the response.
The document defines key terms in classical conditioning like unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, conditioned stimulus, and conditioned response. It provides examples of how classical conditioning works and discusses concepts like stimulus discrimination, stimulus generalization, and extinction. Higher order classical conditioning is described as layering the classical conditioning process by using an existing conditioned stimulus to condition a new neutral stimulus.
Operant conditioning is introduced as involving pairing a behavior with a consequence to shape future behaviors rather than pairing two stimuli as in classical conditioning.