Download Module 15

Module 15
Classical Conditioning
Hot water example
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Every time someone flushes a toilet in the apartment building, the shower
becomes very hot and causes the person to jump back. Over time, the
person begins to jump back automatically after hearing the flush, before
the water temperature changes.
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The hot water is the US
The jumping back is the UR
The toilet flush is the CS
The jumping back to the flush alone is the CR
Classical Conditioning terms
• Learning: A relatively permanent change in
behavior due to experience.
• Classical conditioning: A type of learning
where a stimulus gains the power to cause a
response because it predicts another stimulus
that already produces the response.
• Stimulus: Anything in the environment that
one can respond to.
Classical Conditioning terms
• Response: Any behavior or action.
• Behaviorism: The view that psychology should
restrict its efforts to studying observable
behaviors, not mental process.
• Cognition: Mental processes; all the mental
activities associated with thinking, knowing,
and remembering.
Components of Classical Conditioning
• Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): Stimulus that triggers a response reflexively or
automatically. (Ex): Just as scalding hot water in a shower makes someone jump.
Very hot shower water is a UCS for jumping. Classical conditioning cannot happen
without a UCS. The only behaviors and emotions that can be classically conditioned
are those that are reliably produced by a UCS.
• Unconditioned Response (UCR): The UCR is, quite simply, the response to the UCS.
(Ex):If hot cheese water is the UCS, jumping out of the way is the UCR. Once again,
notice that the stimulus-response relationship between the UCS and the UCR is
reflexive, not learned.
• Conditioned Stimulus (CS): The CS is originally neutral stimulus that, through
conditioning (learning), gains the power to cause the response. (Ex): On someone’s
first day in the dorm, the word “Flush!” was a neutral stimulus---he did not
associate it with showers, and it did not make him jump. Thousands of other sights
and sounds around the dormitory were also neutral stimulus to a CS. (This
constitutes learning) All those other neutral stimuli remained neutral. In basic
classical conditioning, the neutral stimulus and CS are always the same thing. The
term neutral stimulus describes the stimulus before conditioning and the term CS
describes the stimulus after conditioning.
• Conditioned Response (CR): The CR is the response to the CS. In basic classical
conditioning, it is the same behavior that is identified as the UCR. IF I jump because
of hot water (a UCS), my jumping is a UCR. However, if I have learned to jump when
someone yells “Flush!” (a CS), my jumping is now a CR.
3 Basic Processes in Classical
Conditioning
• Acquisition: The process of developing a
learned response.
• Extinction: The diminishing of a learned
response; when an unconditioned stimulus
does not follow a conditioned stimulus.
• Spontaneous Recovery: The reappearance,
after a rest period, of an extinguished
conditioned response.
Ivan Pavlov’s Experiment
• Ivan Pavlov was a Russian physiologist that was
interested in studying digestion. He was investigating
the effects of salivation. (What causes drooling) He
showed the dog the meet powder (UCS) which caused
the dog, by instinct, to salivate (UCR). He then started
ringing a bell before he would give the dog the food.
The dog didn’t catch on at first, but then he started
salivating at the sound of a bell. The bell was the CS,
and the salivating to the bell is now the CR, because he
learned to respond to the bell. Salivation can be the
UCR and the CR. It’s the UCR when he salivated
because his instinct is to salivate at the sight and smell
of food. It’s the CR when he learns that he’s going to
get the food when he hears the bell and then salivates.
Pavlov dog experiment
Generalization and Discrimination
• Generalization: A process in which an organism
produces the same response to two similar
stimuli.
– Ex: Let’s say Pavlov lost his bell, so he got a new one
with a different tune. The dog hears the similarity and
still salivates.
• Discrimination: A process in which an organism
produces different responses to two similar
stimuli.
– Ex: Okay so again, we’re going to say that he got a
new bell with a different tune. But the dog hears the
difference and realizes that is not the sound that leads
to the food, so he doesn’t salivate.
The Balloon Experiment
Someone pops a balloon with a needle, and
we flinch or jump. The balloon popping is the
UCS. Our flinch or jump is the UCR. But if we
jump before the balloon pops just because we
see the needle approaching the balloon, the
needle becomes the CS, and our flinch
becomes the CR.
• Ivan Pavlov: famous for discovering classical
conditioning.
• Rosalie Rayner: Co-researcher for the famous
Little Albert demonstration of classically
conditioned emotion.
Commercials or Advertising
We use the UCS, UCR, CS, and CR in our everyday
lives.
In a Nestea commercial they show people that are
hanging out by a pool, it makes you feel cool or
refreshed. The pool is the UCS and us feeling
refreshed is the UCR.
When you go to the store and see the Nestea brand
iced tea, you feel refreshed because you learned
that that’s how it’s advertised to make you feel.
So the tea is the CS, and you feeling refreshed is
the CR.
John Garcia
Identified taste aversion
Taste Aversion
• Taste aversion is your avoidance of certain tastes, just
because of how they taste, or how they make you feel.
• John Garcia and Robert Koelling discovered a way to
show how taste aversion could develop. They paired a
nausea-producing drug with a certain food or drink.
The drug that produces nausea is the UCS and the
nausea, or you feeling sick, is the UCR. They would use
that same food or drink with the nausea-producing
drug repeatedly. Eventually just the thought, taste, or
smell of that food could create nausea. So that food
becomes the CS, and your nausea is now the CR.
• Robert Rescorla: Developed a new theory that
emphasized the importance of cognitive
process in classical conditioning.