Classical or Operant Conditioning?

Question

I'm working on a conditioning experiment for my psychology class in which I tap my finger three times on a table and then ask my friend to sharpen a pencil for me. If she finishes the task I give a reward (ex. part of a cookie). However, I'm not sure if this would be classified as classical or operant conditioning because although it's a voluntary behavior, it's prompted by a stimulus. I think it's operant conditioning, but I just wanted to be sure. Any advice for this?

Answer 1

This is operant conditioning. The nature of operant conditioning changes behavior by offering either a reinforcement or punishment as a consequence for a spontaneous behavior, which in your example, is sharpening the pencil. Classical conditioning works by creating an association between a stimulus that naturally and automatically elicits a response (such as salivation to food or pupil dilation to low levels of light) and one that typically would not through repeated pairings of those two stimuli. Hope this clears it up. Is there any reason why you would use an example that is less than crystal clear? there are so many possibilities...