Verbal Paired-Associates Learning (VPAL)

Acquisition:

S₁ word repeatedly paired with S₂ word in text or conversation (e.g. sex-disgusting).

Performance:

S₁ word encountered (e.g. sex) and S₂ word (e.g. disgusting) comes to mind immediately as the response, R₁.

Classical Conditioning (CC)

Acquisition:

A potential conditioned stimulus, CS (e.g. going shopping) becomes associated with an unconditional stimulus, US (e.g. intense anxiety experienced during actual shopping).

Performance:

The CS (e.g. the very thought of going shopping) now reliably elicits memory of the US (e.g. anxiety in the shopping situation), which in turn brings on a reflexive conditioned response, CR (e.g. hesitation, postponement, or even behavioral “freezing”).

Evaluative Conditioning (EC)

Acquisition:

As for CC except that the new US can occur simultaneously with or even closely follow the CS, and the UR must be an evaluative response, most often the “gut reaction” emotional response of strong liking (e.g. your partner, a long-time positive CS, is revealed to have an obnoxious habit, a negative US).

Performance:

The negative US (e.g. obnoxious habit) now overrides at least partially the positive evaluative CR (e.g. liking) and if the negative evaluative US is seen to recur and was not just a one-off, then the CS (e.g. seeing or thinking of your partner) elicits a more negative CR (e.g. liking of the loved one turns awkwardly to dislike).

Operant Learning (OL)

Acquisition:

A behavioral response, R, is made, often accidentally, and it is followed immediately by a positive consequence, S^reinf. The R is then likely to be voluntarily repeated with the same result.

Performance:

R will be repeatedly performed if even just occasional reinforcement follows (e.g. hand-washing can become habitual even when your hands are not dirty).

Note:

If during acquisition there is a consistent prior stimulus present—a specific sign or situation, for instance—then this stimulus will become a discriminative stimulus, S^D, which acts much like a CS in classical conditioning. That is, whenever the sign or situation is encountered, the operant response is made almost reflexively. Same for a negative discriminative stimulus, S^∆, which can serve as a CS-like signal to not perform the response.