Respond to post does it have to do with respondent or operant conditioning

When I see my husband come home on Friday nights at 5 p.m., he always takes me to dinner, and then we get some of my favorite ice cream, pecan and cream passion,from Cold Stone ice cream shop in our neighborhood. The smell of the pecan and cream passion ice cream made me eager and happy. As I drove past the ice cream shop in our community, I began to smile and got eager as the scent of the pecan and cream passion drifted into my car window.

In this scenario, seeing my husband would be the unconditioned Stimulus (US), and it would certainly result in feeling eager and happy when I come home, which is the unconditioned response (UR). The neutral stimulus (NS) can obtain the ability to elicit respondents (Cooper et al. 2020); therefore, the NS would be seeing my husband on Friday evening, which is the neutral stimulus (NS).

Accidentally, my husband and I were driving past the mall and drove past a Cold Stone ice cream shop. Upon seeing the ice cream shop, I smelled ice cream (i.e., pecan and cream passion), which is a conditioned stimulus (CS) that triggers the conditioned response (CR), in which I smile (i.e., eager and happy-excited memories) and felt when smelling ice cream, especially my favorite (i.e., pecan and cream passion).

Seeing my husband come on Friday nights at 5 p.m. and take me out for dinner and ice cream is a reflexive behavior that positively impacts me because it is exciting memories and quality time I spend with my husband. According to Cooper (2020), "conditioned reflexes can be established by stimulus-stimulus paring with NS with a CS" (pg. 32). Therefore, when I noticed repeated behavior (e.g., eagerness, and happiness), I planned a dinner and a movie with my husband on Saturday at 6 p.m., provoking excitement and happy to go on a date with him creating happy memories again.

Cooper, J., Heron, T., & Heward, W. (2020). Applied behavior analysis (3rd ed.). Pearson.