Download Module 9

Module 9
Classical Conditioning
MR. McKinley
First a quick video…
http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/headgames/videos/pavlovs-bell.htm
THREE KINDS OF LEARNING
• Learning
– A relatively enduring or
permanent change in behavior
that results from previous
experience with certain stimuli
and response
• Behavior
– Includes both unobservable
mental events (thoughts,
images) and observable
responses (fainting, salivating,
vomiting)
THREE KINDS OF LEARNING (CONT’D)
• Classical conditioning
– A kind of learning in which a neutral
stimulus acquires the ability to produce a
response that was originally produced by
different stimulus
• Ivan Pavlov
– Conducted experiments with dogs
– Pavlov rang a bell before putting food in
a dog’s mouth
– After numerous trials of pairing the food
and bell, the dog salivated to the sound
of the bell
– This is a conditioned reflex
PROCEDURE: CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
• Step 1: Choosing stimulus and response
– Neutral stimulus
• some stimulus that causes a sensory
response, such as being seen, heard, or
smelled, but doesn’t produce the reflex
being tested
– Unconditioned stimulus
• USC; some stimulus that triggers or elicits
a physiological reflex, such as salivation
or eye blink
– Unconditioned response
• UCR; unlearned, innate, involuntary
physiological reflex elicited by the
unconditioned stimulus
PROCEDURE: CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
(CONT’D)
• Step 2: Establishing classical conditioning
– Neutral stimulus
• trial; pair neutral stimulus (bell) with the
unconditioned stimulus (food)
• neutral stimulus presented first, then short time
later, the unconditioned stimulus
– Unconditioned stimulus
• seconds after the tone begins, present the UCS
– Unconditioned response
• UCS (food) elicits the UCR (salivation)
PROCEDURE: CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
(CONT’D)
• Step 3: Testing for conditioning
– Conditioned stimulus
• CS; a formerly neutral stimulus
that acquires the ability to elicit
a response that was previously
elicited by the unconditioned
stimulus
– Conditioned response
• CR; elicited by the conditioned
stimulus and similar to, but not
identical in size or amount to,
the UCS
• CR; less salivation than the
UCR
OTHER CONDITIONING CONCEPTS
• Generalization
– Tendency for a stimulus that’s
similar to the original conditioned
stimulus to elicit a response similar
to the conditioned response
• Discrimination
– Occurs during classical conditioning
when an organism learns to make a
particular response to some stimuli
but not to others
OTHER CONDITIONING CONCEPTS (CONT’D)
• Extinction
– Refers to a procedure in which a
conditioned stimulus is repeatedly
presented without the
unconditioned stimulus, and, as a
result, the conditioned stimulus
tends to no longer elicit the
conditioned response
• Spontaneous recovery
– Tendency for the conditioned
response to reappear after being
extinguished, even though there
have been no further conditioning
trials
Classical Conditioning:
Definitions
Unconditioned Stimulus (US): a stimulus that has the
ability to produce a specified response before
conditioning begins. (FOOD)
Unconditioned Response (UR): the response produced by
the US. (SALIVATION PRODUCED BY FOOD)
Conditioned Stimulus (CS): an initially neutral stimulus
that comes to produce a new response because it is
associated with the US. (BELL)
Conditioned Response (CR): the response produced
by the CS. (SALIVATION PRODUCED BY THE BELL)
Classical Conditioning:
The Elements of Associative
Learning
Ivan Pavlov
Conditioning
Trial:
Salivation
Test Trial:
Salivation
Classical Conditioning:
Basic Principles
Acquisition
Repeatedly pairing a CS with a US will produce a CR.
1 pairing = presenting the CS and then quickly presenting
the US:
Extinction
After conditioning has taken place, repeatedly presenting
the CS without the US will make the CR weaker and
eventually make it disappear.
X
Classical Conditioning:
Additional Principles
Spontaneous Recovery
Following extinction, the CR reappears at reduced strength
if the CS is presented again after a rest period.
Stimulus Generalization
After a CR has been trained to a CS, that same CR will
tend to occur to similar stimuli without further training;
The greater the similarity, the stronger the response will be.
Conditioning:
Test for
Generalization:
Classical Conditioning
Stimulus Discrimination
A subject responds to the CS but not to a similar stimulus
because the CS was paired with a US but the similar
stimulus was presented without the US.
X
ACTIVITY
• Give each student a cup of powder, then choose
some neutral stimulus to serve as a conditioned
stimulus. The Cogans use the word “Pavlov.”
• Instruct your students to moisten the tip of their
index finger and to watch for your signal (for
example, you will raise your arm) to dip their
finger into the powder and then put it into their
mouth. Also inform them that from time to time
you will say the words “test trial” instead of
giving the signal; when they hear those words,
they should not dip into the powder but close
their eyes and concentrate on their experience.
• Present the CS and, after a small delay (0.5 to
1.5 seconds), give the signal for your students to
dip into the lemonade powder.
• Repeat trials at 10- to 15-second intervals, with
a test trial after every 10 conditioning trials.
• After each test trial ask for a show of hands of
those who salivated.
• When all or most of the students have
demonstrated conditioning, begin extinction
using the same test-trial procedure (in which you
state on successive trials, “Pavlov . . . test trial”).
Extinction should be completed during the same
class period.
THREE KINDS OF LEARNING (CONT’D)
• Operant conditioning
– Refers to a kind of learning in which the
consequences that follow some behavior increase or
decrease the likelihood of that behavior’s occurrence
in the future
• E. L. Thorndike
– Experimented with cats in the puzzle box
• Law of effect
– Says that if some random actions are followed by
pleasurable consequences or reward, such actions
are strengthened and will likely occur in the future
THREE KINDS OF LEARNING (CONT’D)
THREE KINDS OF LEARNING (CONT’D)
• Cognitive learning
– A kind of learning that involves mental processes,
such as attention and memory; may be learned
through observation or imitation, and may not involve
any people performing any observable behaviors
• Albert Bandura
– Found that children who had watched a film of an
adult modeling aggressive behavior played more
aggressively than children who had not seen the film
– Bandura’s study demonstrated that we can learn
through observation or imitation
ADAPTIVE VALUES & USES
• Adaptive value
– Refers to usefulness of certain abilities or traits that
have evolved in animals and humans and tend to
increase their chances of survival, such as finding
food, acquiring mates, and avoiding pain and injury
• Taste-aversion learning
– Refers to associating a particular sensory cue (smell,
tastes, sound, or sight) with getting sick and thereafter
avoiding that particular sensory cue in the future
ADAPTIVE VALUES & USES (CONT’D)
• Adaptive value
– Explanation
– Preparedness
– Refers to the phenomenon that animals and humans
are biologically prepared to associate some
combinations of conditioned and unconditioned
stimuli more easily than others
– Animals are genetically prepared to use different
senses to detect stimuli that are important to their
survival and adaptation
ADAPTIVE VALUES & USES (CONT’D)
• Classical conditioning and emotion
– Conditional emotional response
• feeling some positive or negative emotion, such as
happiness, fear, or anxiety, when experiencing a
stimulus that initially accompanied a pleasant or
painful event
• sound of a rattlesnake or wail of a siren
THREE EXPLANATIONS
• Theories of classical conditioning
– Stimulus substitution and contiguity theory
• stimulus substitution means that a neural bond or
association forms in the brain between the neutral
stimulus (bell) and unconditioned stimulus (food)
– Contiguity theory
• classical conditioning occurs because two stimuli
(neutral stimulus and unconditional stimulus) are
paired close together in time (contiguous)
THREE EXPLANATIONS (CONT’D)
• Theories of classical conditioning
– Cognitive perspective
• says that an organism learns a predictable
relationship between two stimuli such that the
occurrence of one stimulus (neutral stimulus)
predicts the occurrence of another (unconditioned
stimulus)
APPLICATION
• Systematic desensitization
– Procedure based on classical conditioning
– Person imagines or visualizes fearful or anxietyevoking stimuli
– Immediately uses deep relaxation to overcome the
anxiety
– Form of counterconditioning because it replaces, or
counters, fear and anxiety with relaxation