Download Classical Conditioning

Reader’s Guide
Main Idea
– People acquire certain behaviors through
classical conditioning, a learning procedure in
which associations are made between an
unconditioned stimulus and a neutral stimulus. 
Objectives
– Describe the principles of classical
conditioning. 
– Outline the techniques of classical
conditioning.
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Reader’s Guide (cont.)
Vocabulary
– classical conditioning

– neutral stimulus 
– generalization 
– unconditioned
stimulus (UCS) 
– discrimination 
– unconditioned
response (UCR) 
– extinction
– conditioned stimulus
(CS) 
– conditioned response
(CR) 
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2
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Introduction
• In classical conditioning, a person’s or
animal’s old response becomes attached
to a new stimulus. 
• Classical conditioning is one example of
learning. 
• Learning can be defined as a relatively
permanent change in behavior that results
from experience.
classical conditioning
a learning procedure in which
associations are made
between a natural stimulus and
a learned, neutral stimulus
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Introduction (cont.)
• Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist,
discovered the principle of classical
conditioning by accident. 
• Pavlov became fascinated with how a dog
anticipated food and how salivation
occurred before the food was presented.
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Classical Conditioning
• Pavlov began his experiments by ringing
a tuning fork and then immediately
placing some meat powder on the dog’s
tongue. 
• The tuning fork was a neutral stimulus–it
had nothing to do with the response to
meat (salivation) prior to conditioning.
neutral stimulus
a stimulus that does
not initially elicit a
response
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Classical Conditioning (cont.)
• Soon the dog began salivating as soon
as it heard the sound, even if the food
was not placed in its mouth. 
• Pavlov demonstrated that a neutral
stimulus will cause a formerly unrelated
response if it is presented regularly just
before the stimulus that normally brings
about that response. 
• Pavlov used the term unconditioned to
refer to stimuli and to the automatic,
involuntary responses they caused.
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Classical Conditioning (cont.)
• In the experiment, food was the
unconditioned stimulus (UCS)–an
event that leads to a certain, predictable
response without previous training. 
• The salivation is an unconditioned
response (UCR)–a reaction that occurs
naturally and automatically when the
unconditioned stimulus is presented, in
other words, a reflex.
unconditioned stimulus
an event that elicits a certain
predictable response without
previous training
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unconditioned response
an organism’s automatic (or
natural) reaction to a
stimulus
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Classical Conditioning (cont.)
• An ordinarily neutral event that, after
training, leads to a response such as
salivation is termed a conditioned
stimulus (CS). 
• The salivation it causes is a conditioned
response (CR). 
• A conditioned response is learned.
conditioned stimulus
conditioned response
a once-neutral event that
the learned reaction to a
elicits a given response
conditioned stimulus
after a period of training in
which it has been paired with
an unconditioned stimulus
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Classical Conditioning (cont.)
Classical Conditioning (cont.)
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General Principles of Classical
Conditioning
• Classical conditioning helps animals and
humans adapt to the environment and
avoid danger.
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Acquisition
• Acquisition of a classically conditioned
response generally occurs gradually. 
• With each pairing of the conditioned
stimulus (CS) and the unconditioned
stimulus (UCS), the conditioned response
(CR)–or learned response–is
strengthened. 
• The timing of the association between the
conditioned stimulus and the
unconditioned stimulus also influences
learning.
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Generalization and Discrimination
• Generalization occurs when an animal
responds to a second stimulus similar to
the original CS, without prior training with
the second stimulus. 
• When Pavlov conditioned a dog to
salivate at the sight of a circle, he found
that the dog would salivate when it saw an
oval as well.
generalization
responding similarly to a
range of similar stimuli
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Generalization and Discrimination
• Pavlov also taught the dog
discrimination–to respond only to the
circle, not the oval. 
(cont.)
• Generalization and discrimination are
complementary processes and are part of
your everyday life.
discrimination
the ability to respond
differently to similar
but distinct stimuli
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Extinction and Spontaneous
Recovery
• A classically conditioned response, like
any other behavior, is subject to change. 
• Pavlov discovered that if he stopped
presenting food after the sound of the
tuning fork, the sound gradually lost its
effect on the dog. 
• He called this effect extinction because
the CR had gradually died out.
extinction
the gradual disappearance of
a CR when a CS is repeatedly
presented without the UCS.
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Extinction and Spontaneous
Recovery (cont.)
• If a rest period is given following
extinction, the CR may reappear when the
CS is presented again but not followed by
a UCS. 
• This spontaneous recovery does not bring
the CR back to its original strength.
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Classical Conditioning and Human
Behavior
• John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner
(1920) used conditioning on a human
infant in the case of Little Albert. 
• This experiment conditioned an 11-monthold infant named Albert to fear laboratory
rats. 
• It provided evidence that emotional
responses can be classically conditioned
in humans.
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Classical Conditioning and Human
Behavior (cont.)
• Hobart Mowrer and his wife Mollie (1938)
discovered a practical solution to the
problem of bed-wetting. 
– They developed a device known as the bell
and pad. 
– When the sleeping child moistens the sheet
with the first drops of urine, an alarm goes off
and awakens the child. 
– The child can then use the bathroom. 
• This has proven to be a very effective way
of treating bed-wetting problems.
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Examples of Common Conditioned
Responses
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Taste Aversions
• When people or animals become ill, they
seem to decide, “It must have been
something I ate,” even if they have not
eaten for several hours. 
• Psychologists can even predict that people
will probably blame a new food. 
• John Garcia and R.A. Koelling (1966) first
demonstrated this phenomenon with rats. 
– Whenever a rat took a drink of flavored
water, lights flashed and clicks sounded. 
– Some rats were then given an electric shock.
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Taste Aversions (cont.)
– All of these rats showed traditional classical
conditioning–the lights and the sounds became
CS, and the rats tried to avoid them in order to
avoid a shock. 
– The other rats were not shocked, but given a
drug that made them sick after they drank and
the lights and sounds occurred. 
– They developed an aversion only to the taste of
the water. 
• In summary, classical conditioning helps
animals and humans predict what is going
to happen.
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Taste Aversions (cont.)
• Learning associated with classical
conditioning may aid animals in finding
food or help humans avoid pain or injury. 
• Classical conditioning is an example of a
behaviorist theory. 
• Behaviorism is the attempt to understand
behavior in terms of relationships between
observable stimuli and observable
responses. 
• Behaviorists are psychologists who study
only those behaviors that they can
observe and measure.
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Classical Conditioning vs.
Operant Conditioning
Classical Conditioning Operant Conditioning
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1. Always a specific
stimulus (UCS) that
elicits the desired
response 
1. No stimulus; learner
must first respond
appropriately, then
behavior is reinforced 
2. UCS does not
depend on learner’s
response 
2. Reinforcement
depends upon
learner’s behavior 
3. Learner responds to
its environment 
3. Learner actively
operates on its
environment
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