Babies begin to take in sensory experiences

Babies begin to take in sensory experiences from the world till the moment of birth, and the environment will influence on behavior through all the life.

Some of the theories of psychology focus on the importance of experience and how it forms behavior and personality. Three of the most known theories are:

Classical conditioning:It associates a stimulus and a response. In an experiment, Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov discovered that a dog can associate the sound of a bell with the food. Once the association was created, the sound of the bell alone could make the dog salivate. Children can learn in the same way. For example, a babycan associate the sight of themilk bottle with the time to feed.

Operant conditioning:If you reward a behavior, is very probably that this can be repeated in the future. When a behavior is punished, it won’t be repeated. This theorytalks about a set of learning techniques that uses reinforcement and punishment toincrease or decrease a response. For example, when a child is rewarded for cleaning her room, she will repeat the same behavior later.

Observational learning:Children can learn just watching their parents, other people or the environment.

As a conclusion, I can say that culture playsan important role in child’s development. Also is importantthe interaction of influences. Environmental influences, parents, friends, teachers, schools and the culture are some of the factors that combineto determine a child's growth and learning.

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