Classical and operant conditioning are forms of associative learning. When you learn something caused by a stimulus, this is what we call associative learning. In classical conditioning, one learns if for instance there is a conditioned stimulus which is paired with a reward. If there is repetition of the conditioned stimulus, this will result to learning. If the opposite happens where the reward is not considered, the behavior will begin to extinguish. Humans tend to associate the repetition of the stimulus with reward to learning. On the other hand, operant conditioning will yield learning through the use of schedules of punishments, rewards or reinforcements. In this conditioning, association of responses and its consequences usually happens.
