Download Classical Conditioning

Classical
Conditioning
Classical Conditioning &
Behaviorism
• Ivan Pavlov & his
• Psychology should be an
experiments with a dog & a objective science based on
bell is when the scientific
observable behavior
concept of classical
– Behaviorism
conditioning was born
– Psychology should study
• Laid the foundation for
the mental processes & that
John B. Watson ideas
classical conditioning is a
– To study how organisms
respond to stimuli in their
environments
basic form of learning by
which all organisms adapt
to their environment
Pavlov’s Experiment
• 2 decades studying the
digestive system (Nobel Prize
in 1904)
• His experiments on learning
that gave him his place in
history
• Dog would salivate to stimuli
associated with food (psychic
secretions)
• Hoped that he might be able
to better understand the
workings of the brain
UR = salivation in response
to food (unlearned)
US = food stimulus
CR = learned association
salivating to the bell
CS = sound associated with
the food
After the Experiment
• After the experiment Pavlov & his
colleagues spent the next 30 years
studying the causes & effects of
classical conditioning
• They Identified 5 major conditioning
processes
–
–
–
–
–
Acquisition
Extinction
Spontaneous recover
Generalization
discrimination
Acquisition, Extinction, &
Spontaneous Recovery
• Acquisition is the initial • Extinction takes place when
learning stage of classical
the CR diminishes to the
conditioning
point when it no longer takes
– The stimulus response
place to the CS
relationship
• Spontaneous Recovery takes
– How much time does it
place when the reappearance
take to learn an
of a CR takes place after an
association?
absence of time
• Not much
– Onions & kissing
Generalization & Discrimination
• Generalization is when we
responds to a stimuli that is similar
to the CS
– Stimuli that are similar to naturally
disgusting or appealing objects will by
association evoke some disgust or
liking
– Survival value
• Discrimination is the ability to
distinguish between a CS & other
irrelevant stimuli
– Survival value
Updating Pavlov Understanding
Today
• Because Pavlov felt •
disdain for concepts
like consciousness this
then led to an
underestimation of
the importance of the •
cognitive process &
biological constraints
in learning capacity
Cognitive process is important to
learning because
– Predictability & Expectancy
– Not as simple as association of CSUCS but also that thought that
counts
Biological Predispositions
– Animals capacity for conditioning
depends on it biology
– Each species disposes it to learn the
particular association that enhances
its survival, meaning environment is
not the whole story
Pavlov’s Legacy
• Most basic form of learning
• Today’s theories stand on the
shoulder’s of his findings
•Motivation
•Emotion
•Psychological disorders
•Therapy
•health
– One way that virtually all
organisms learn to adapt to their
environment
– A scientific model of studying
learning objectively
– Can be applied to human health
& well being