Download Study Guide: Classical Conditioning

AP Psychology
Classical Conditioning
Study Guide
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Classical conditioning involves respondent behavior—behavior that occurs as an
automatic response to a stimulus.
Ivan Pavlov is the researcher most closely identified with classical cond itioning. We will
review his most famous conditioning experiment, and show how classical conditioning
works.
Pavlov was originally doing studies in how much animals salivated when they ate. But
he noticed that his dog not only salivated when he ate, but also when he saw food, or
knew it was coming. This gave Pavlov an idea—he wondered if by pairing the idea of
food with another object, if he could get the same salivation response.
So, Pavlov began hitting a tuning fork (a tuning fork is used in music, and when it is
struck it emits a tone) whenever he gave the dog food. After doing this for a time, he
struck the tone without presenting food, and the dog would salivate just at the sound of
the tone. By pairing the sound of the tuning fork with getting food, the dog now reacts to
just the tone. This is, essentially, classical conditioning.
Here are the terms used in classical conditioning:
UCS—unconditioned stimulus
This is a stimulus that automatically triggers a response—you don’t need to be trained to
react. With Pavlov and his dog, the food was the unconditioned stimulus.
UCR—unconditioned response
This is a response that is automatically triggered, and needs no training. With Pavlov, the
dog salivating was the unconditioned response.
NS—neutral stimulus
This is a stimulus that originally has nothing to do with a response. With Pavlov, the
tuning fork is the neutral stimulus.
CS—conditioned stimulus
This is a stimulus that used to be neutral, and have nothing to do with a response. But,
because it is paired with the UCS, now it gets a response. With Pavlov, this is the tuning
fork. Note that the NS becomes the CS.
CR—conditioned response
This is the learned response to a previously neutral stimulus. In Pavlov’s experiments,
this is the salivation when the dog hears the tuning fork. Usually, the UCR and the CR
are very similar.
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AP Psychology
Classical Conditioning
Study Guide
Page 2 of 2
Let’s look at another example of how classical conditioning works:
Whenever Bubba’s pet ferret, Sidney, eats a carrot, he drools. Every time that Bubba
gives Sidney a carrot to eat, Bubba serves it on a white china dish with gold trim. Last
night when Bubba saw Sidney putting the china plate out on the table for his mother’s
dessert, Sidney salivated.
UCS—the carrot
UCR—drools
NS—white china plate
CS—white china plate (remember, the NS becomes the CS)
CR—salivates or drools
Here are some additional classical conditioning terms:
Acquisition—this is the initial stage in classical conditioning, when you associate a
neutral stimulus and get a response from it. When Pavlov’s dog began to salivate at the
sound of the tuning fork, and Sidney salivated when he saw the plate, these were the
points of acquisition.
Extinction—this is the diminishing or dying out of a response. With the dog, if he never
gets food when the tuning fork sounds, eventually he will stop salivating at the sound of
the fork. If Bubba uses the dishes all the time and stops using one to serve Sidney’s
carrot, then eventually Sidney will stop salivating when he sees one.
Spontaneous recovery—this is the reappearance of an extinguished response. If just
once Pavlov again pairs food with the tuning fork, or Bubba serves Sidney his carrot on
the white china dish, the response to the conditioned stimulus will probably reappear.
Generalization—this is when one gets the same response from similar stimuli. For
example, if the dog also salivated at the sound of a bell, this would be generalization.
Discrimination—this is when one distinguishes between similar stimuli. If Bubba uses a
blue dish instead of the original, and Bubba doesn’t drool, this would be discrimination.
Taste aversion—Suppose you eat raw oysters for the first time, and then you become ill
and vomit. The chances are good that you will never want to eat raw oysters again, even
if they were not the reason you got sick. What has happened is classical conditioning—
maybe you got sick because of the flu, but you now have paired the raw oysters (which
used to be the neutral stimulus), with getting sick, so you avoid the food because thinking
about eating them makes you slightly ill.
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Copyright © 2010 Apex Learning Inc. (See Terms of Use at www.apexvs.com/TermsOfUse)