Classical Conditioning

12 Key excerpts on "Classical Conditioning"

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  Learning and Memory

  Basic Principles, Processes, and Procedures

  • W. Scott Terry(Author)
  • 2023(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Hollis, 1997 ). The application to areas such as drug dependence and tolerance connect conditioning research to the field of health psychology. And Classical Conditioning offers model systems for neuroscientists to study the biology of learning, on biological levels from synapses to genetics.

  Possibly foremost among our reasons for studying Classical Conditioning is to study associative learning. Association refers to the connections that are formed between the internal representations of events, such as stimuli and responses. A simple illustration is word association. The word TABLE often evokes CHAIR as a response. But how are associations formed? Classical Conditioning is one tool to study the conditions under which associative learning occurs.

  The Definition of Classical Conditioning

  Simply put, a neutral stimulus, such as a tone, is paired with a significant stimulus, such as food or shock. The development of a new response to the neutral stimulus (such as salivation during the tone) indicates learning. This is more-or-less the definition you learned in Psychology 101. In actual practice, Classical Conditioning includes a number of variations and violations of the definition. The learning that occurs in Classical Conditioning can be described on several levels: behavioral, as the learning of a new response; cognitive, as the acquisition of knowledge about the relationship between stimuli; or neural, as the pattern of synaptic changes that underlie conditioning.

  Say we are to perform an experiment in which mild but aversive electric shocks are to be presented randomly in time. Because of our ethical discomfort with shocking animals or college students, let us suppose the participants are all faculty in the Economics Department. The shocks, delivered to the participants’ forearm, are unavoidable, but our participants would desperately like to know when each is about to occur. We sound a tone for a few seconds before each shock. What will the participants learn? After several pairings of tone followed by shock, the tone will probably come to elicit a behavioral reaction of hand flexion; physiological reactions such as muscular tensing or bracing; and verbalizable knowledge of the tone–shock relationship.

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  What is Psychology?

  Foundations, Applications, and Integration

  • Ellen Pastorino, Susann Doyle-Portillo, Ellen Pastorino(Authors)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  conditioned stimulus (CS) a stimulus that elicits a conditioned response in an organism conditioned response (CR) the response that is elicited by a conditioned stimulus Copyright 2022 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Classical Conditioning: Learning Through the Association of Stimuli 241 Summing up Classical Conditioning in a nice, neat definition is a bit awkward but nonetheless extremely important. Once, when one of your authors asked a student to define Classical Conditioning, she replied, “What Pavlov did with his dogs.” This isn’t, of course, a definition of Classical Conditioning. It does reflect the student’s difficulty in trying to understand the concept of Classical Conditioning apart from Pavlov’s particular demonstration of it, however. Keep in mind that to truly understand a concept, you must be able to define it in abstract terms as well as give an example of it. So here goes. We would define Classical Conditioning as learning that occurs when a neutral stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus that reliably causes an unconditioned response; and because of this as- sociation, the neutral stimulus loses its neutrality and takes on the same power as the unconditioned stimulus to cause the response. This definition may seem a bit complex, but Classical Conditioning is actually a fairly simple process. It merely involves learning to associate two stimuli, the unconditioned stimulus and the neutral stimulus. Through this association, the neutral stimulus becomes a condi- tioned stimulus (You Review: Classical Conditioning).

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  Psychology, 6th Australian and New Zealand Edition

  • Lorelle J. Burton, Drew Westen, Robin M. Kowalski(Authors)
  • 2022(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  Principles of association are fundamental to most accounts of learning. 9.2 Classical Conditioning LEARNING OUTCOME 9.2 Describe the basic principles underlying Classical Conditioning. Classical Conditioning (sometimes called Pavlovian or respondent conditioning) was the first type of learning to be studied systematically. In the late nineteenth century, the Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936) was studying the digestive systems of dogs (research for which he won a Nobel Prize). During the course of his work, he noticed a peculiar phenomenon. Like humans and other animals, dogs normally salivate when presented with food, which is a simple reflex. Pavlov noticed that if a stimulus, such as a bell or tuning fork ringing, repeatedly occurred just as a dog was about to be fed, the dog would start to salivate when it heard the bell, even if food was not presented. As Pavlov understood it, the dog had learned to associate the bell with food, and because food produced the reflex of salivation, the bell also came to produce the reflex. This phenomenon is called Classical Conditioning. Classical Conditioning occurs when we learn to identify a relationship between two different stimuli. For example, if you are involved in a serious car accident, you would probably feel very tense the next time you get behind the wheel, especially if the car in front of you brakes suddenly. Pavlov’s model An innate reflex such as salivation to food is an unconditioned reflex. Conditioning is a form of learning; hence, an unconditioned reflex is a reflex that occurs naturally, without any prior learning. The stimulus that produces the response in an unconditioned reflex is called an unconditioned stimulus (UCS). In this case, the UCS was food. An UCS activates a reflexive response without any learning having taken place; Pdf_Folio:407 CHAPTER 9 Learning 407 thus, the reflex is unlearned, or unconditioned. An unconditioned response (UCR) is a response that does not have to be learned.

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  Visualizing Psychology

  • Karen R. Huffman, Alastair Younger, Claire Vanston(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  What does a salivating dog have to do with your life? Classical Conditioning is the most fundamental way that all animals, including humans, learn many new respons- es, emotions, and attitudes. Your love for your parents (or boyfriend or girlfriend), your drooling at the sight of learning A relatively permanent change in behaviour or mental processes because of practice or experience. Classical Conditioning Learning that occurs when a neutral stimulus (NS) is paired (associated) with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) to elicit a conditioned response (CR). conditioning The process of learning associations between environmental stimuli and behavioural responses. PROCESS DIAGRAM Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning • Figure 6.1 THE PLANNER ✓ ✓ Before conditioning The neutral stimulus (NS) produces no relevant response. The unconditioned (unlearned) stimulus (UCS) elicits the unconditioned response (UCR). During conditioning The neutral stimulus (NS) is repeatedly paired with the unconditioned (unlearned) stimulus (UCS) to produce the unconditioned response (UCR). Summary An originally neutral stimulus (NS) becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS), which elicits a conditioned response (CR). After conditioning The neutral stimulus (NS) has become a conditioned (learned) stimulus (CS). This CS now produces a conditioned (learned) response (CR), which is usually similar to the previously unconditioned (unlearned) response (UCR).

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  Psychology

  Modules for Active Learning

  • Dennis Coon, John Mitterer, Tanya Martini, , Dennis Coon, John Mitterer, Tanya Martini, (Authors)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 231 MODULE 27 CONDITIONING AND LEARNING: Classical Conditioning Learning Any relatively permanent change in knowledge or behav-ior that can be attributed to experience. Associative learning The formation of simple associations between various stimuli and responses. Classical Conditioning A form of learning in which reflex responses are associated with new stimuli. animal forms a simple association among various stimuli, behaviors, or both. Associative learning requires little or no awareness or thought (Everitt & Robbins, 2016). For early psychologists, such as Ivan Pavlov, John Watson, and Edward Thorndike (see Module 3), associative learning was a fairly mechanical process of “stamping in” associa-tions between objective stimuli and objective responses, or behaviors (Henley, 2019). There are two types of associative learning: Classical con-ditioning (which we’ll learn about in this module) and op-erant (or instrumental) conditioning (which is the subject of Module 28). It is worth understanding both forms of associa-tive learning because they help us make sense of much animal and human behavior. In later modules, we’ll also discuss other ways by which people learn, including observational learning (Module 29) and cognitive learning (Module 30). Classical Conditioning—The Nobel Drool Learning Outcome 27.2 Explain how classical condition-ing works, distinguish between extinction and spontaneous recovery as well as between stimulus generalization and stimulus discrimination, and name four instances of Classical Conditioning in everyday life At the beginning of the 20th century, something happened in the lab of Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov that gained him the Nobel Prize: His subjects drooled at him. By itself this wasn’t too surprising—after all, Pavlov was studying diges-tion by putting dogs in harnesses and placing food on their tongues.

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  An Introduction to Theories of Learning

  • Matthew H. Olson, Julio J. Ramirez(Authors)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Such a definition still stresses the importance of experience but leaves it to the theorist to specify the kind of experience the theorist feels is necessary for learning to take place. These might include, for example, reinforced practice, contiguity between a stimulus and a response, or the acquisition of information. It also reminds us that experience results in processes other than learning, fatigue for example, that modify behavior. ARE THERE DIFFERENT KINDS OF LEARNING? Learning , as we have seen, is a general term that is used to describe changes in behavior potentiality resulting from experience. Conditioning , however, is a more specific term used to describe actual procedures that modify behavior. Because there are two kinds of conditioning, instrumental and classical , many theorists conclude that there are at least two kinds of learning or that learning ultimately can be understood in terms of classical and instrumental conditioning. Although both conditioning procedures are discussed in detail later on in this book, we summarize both procedures here briefly. Classical Conditioning We look at Classical Conditioning in detail when we discuss Pavlov’s views on learning in Chapter 7, but for now we can summarize Classical Conditioning as follows: 1. A stimulus, such as food, is presented to an organism and will cause a natural and automatic reaction, such as salivating. The stimulus causing this natural reaction is called the unconditioned stimulus (US). In this case, the food is the US. The natural, automatic reaction to the US is called the unconditioned response (UR). In this case, salivation is the UR. Gregory A. Kimble. Source : Duke University Archives. 9 WHAT IS LEARNING? 2. A neutral stimulus (one that does not cause a UR), such as a tone or light, is presented to the organism just prior to the presentation of the US. This neutral stimulus is called the conditioned stimulus (CS).

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  Essentials of Psychology

  Concepts and Applications

  • Jeffrey Nevid(Author)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  You can think of Classical Conditioning as learn- ing by association. If you associate the sound of a dentist’s drill with pain because of past dental treatment, the sound of the drill will probably cause you to respond with the muscle tension that is a natural reflex to pain. If you associate a certain bakery with a particularly tasty treat, you may find yourself salivating simply by driv- ing by the bakery. In other words, you learn to connect or associate two stimuli—the sound of the dental drill and pain, for instance (Chance, 2009). Although Classical Conditioning is a relatively simple form of learning, it plays important roles in our lives—as you will see in this module. Principles of Classical Conditioning Pavlov performed many experiments in Classical Conditioning. In a typical experi- ment, he harnessed dogs in an apparatus similar to the one shown in ■ Figure 5.1. When food is placed on a dog’s tongue, the dog naturally salivates. This reflex- ive behavior is called an unconditioned response (UR or UCR) (unconditioned means “unlearned”). A stimulus that elicits an unconditioned response—in this case, the dog’s food—is called an unconditioned stimulus (US or UCS). ■ Figure 5.2 outlines the steps involved in a Pavlovian experiment. As you can see in ■ Figure 5.2(b), the introduction of a neutral stimulus (NS), such as the tone CONCEPT 5.1 Pavlov’s discovery that dogs would salivate to particular sounds in his laboratory led him to identify a process of learning called Classical Conditioning. Copyright 2022 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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  Visualizing Psychology

  • Siri Carpenter, Karen Huffman(Authors)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  Next, you need to know that Classical Conditioning is a three-step process ( before, during , and after conditioning ) ( Figure 6.1 ). Step 1 Before conditioning, Pav-lov’s dogs did not salivate at ex-traneous stimuli, like the sight of the food, food dish, or the person delivering the food. The initial salivary reflex was inborn and bio-logical, which consisted of an un-conditioned stimulus (US) that normally elicits or produces an unlearned, biological response (in this case food ). Because this re-sponse is also unlearned, it is called an unconditioned response (UR) (in this case salivation ). Classical Conditioning Learning through involuntarily paired associations; it occurs when a neutral stimulus (NS) becomes paired (associated) with an unconditioned stimulus (US) to elicit a conditioned response (CR). (Also known as Pavlovian conditioning.) unconditioned stimulus (US) An unlearned stimulus (e.g., food) that naturally and automatically elicits an unconditioned response (UR) (e.g., salivation). unconditioned response (UR) An unlearned, naturally occurring response (e.g., salivation) to an unconditioned stimulus (US) (e.g., food). PROCESS DIAGRAM Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning • Figure 6.1 THE PLANNER ✓ ✓ Before conditioning The neutral stimulus (NS) produces no relevant response. The unconditioned (unlearned) stimulus (US) elicits the unconditioned response (UR). During conditioning The neutral stimulus (NS) is repeatedly paired with the unconditioned (unlearned) stimulus (US) to produce the unconditioned response (UR). Summary An originally neutral stimulus (NS) becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS), which elicits a conditioned response (CR). After conditioning The neutral stimulus (NS) has become a conditioned (learned) stimulus (CS). This CS now produces a conditioned (learned) r esponse (CR), which is usually similar to the previously unconditioned (unlearned) response (UR).

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  Psychology in Action

  • Karen R. Huffman, Katherine Dowdell, Catherine A. Sanderson(Authors)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  Note that adding additional examples from your personal life will further help you understand, appreciate, and master the principles of Classical Conditioning. Mediaphotos/Getty Images 192 CHAPTER 6 Learning 1. Acquisition In the basic acquisition phase, learning occurs (is acquired) when an organ- ism involuntarily links a neutral stimulus (NS) with an unconditioned stimulus (US). This acquisition in turn elicits the conditioned response (CR). Pavlov’s original (accidental) dis- covery of Classical Conditioning involved this mechanism, but he later went on to conduct numerous experiments beyond the acquisition phase. 2. Generalization One of Pavlov’s most interesting findings was that stimuli similar to the original conditioned stimulus (CS) also can elicit the conditioned response (CR). For ex- ample, after first conditioning dogs to salivate to the sound of low-pitched tones, Pavlov later demonstrated that the dogs would also salivate in response to higher-pitched tones. Similarly, after Watson and Rayner’s conditioning experiment, Little Albert learned to fear not only rats, but also a rabbit, a dog, and a bearded Santa Claus mask. This process, by which a conditioned response (CR) spreads (generalizes) and comes to be involuntarily elicited not only by the conditioned stimulus (CS) but also by stimuli similar to the CS, is called stimulus generalization (Davidson et al., 2016; El-Bar et al., 2017; Pear, 2016). 3. Discrimination Just as Pavlov’s dogs learned to generalize and respond to similar stimuli in a similar way, they also learned to discriminate between similar stimuli. For example, when he gave the dogs food following a high-pitched tone, but not when he used a low-pitched tone, he found that they learned the difference between the two tones and only salivated to the high- pitched one. Likewise, Little Albert learned to recognize differences between rats and other stimuli and presumably overcame his fear of these other stimuli.

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  Psychology

  • Douglas Bernstein, , , (Authors)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  © Wei Ming/Shutterstock.com IN REVIEW BASIC PROCESSES OF Classical Conditioning Process Description Example Acquisition A neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) are paired. The neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS), eliciting a conditioned response (CR). A child learns to fear (conditioned response) the doctor’s office (conditioned stimulus) by associ-ating it with the automatic emotional reaction (unconditioned response) to a painful injection (unconditioned stimulus). Stimulus generalization A conditioned response is elicited not only by the conditioned stimulus but also by stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus. A child fears most doctors’ offices and places that smell like them. Stimulus discrimination Generalization is limited so that some stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus do not elicit the conditioned response. A child learns that his mother’s doctor’s office is not associated with the unconditioned stimulus. Extinction The conditioned stimulus is presented alone, without the unconditioned stimulus. Eventu-ally the conditioned stimulus no longer elicits the conditioned response. A child visits the doctor’s office several times for a checkup but does not receive a shot. Fear may eventually cease. Review Questions 1. If a person with a conditioned fear of spiders is also frightened by the sight of creatures that look somewhat like spiders, the person is demonstrating stimulus _ . 2. Because of _ , we are more likely to learn a fear of snakes than a fear of cars. 3. Feeling sad upon hearing a song associated with a long-lost relationship illustrates _ . Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience.

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  Test File to Accompany Essentials of Psychology

  • Sarah Rundle(Author)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Academic Press

    (Publisher)

  CHAPTER 4: LEARNING AND CONDITIONING. 1. The study of learning processes is a. largely independent of other fields of psychology. *b. an important element in many fields of psychology, (p. 127) c. related to developmental psychology and to perception but not to fields like personality and abnormal psychology. d. of theoretical interest but has little relationship to the every day affairs of humans. A DEFINITION OF LEARNING 2. According to Kimble's definition of learning, if you know how to tie your shoes it is because a. someone showed you how. b. your coordination improved until you were able to do it. *c. you were rewarded for shoe tying, (p. 127) d. you figured out how to do it by watching someone. 3. Learning is defined as a change in a. the physiology of the brain. *b. behavior potentiality, (p. 127) c. what one knows or knows how to do. d. the amount of information stored and the manner in which the information is organized. 4. The most controversial aspect of Kimble's definition of learning is the specification that a. learning will not occur without practice. b. learning refers to the potential for behavior rather than to behavior that actually occurs. c. learning represents some type of change. *d. practice must be reinforced, (p. 127) 5. Kimble's definition of learning refers to changes in behavior potentiality. This means that *a. behavior is not always an accurate indicator of whether learning has occurred, (p. 127) b. learning cannot be inferred from the observation of behavior. c. learning cannot be directly reinforced. d. all of the potential for learning cannot be tapped. 6. Kimble's definition of learning specifies that learning takes place as a result of a. maturation. b. fluctuations in motivational states. *c. reinforced practice, (p. 127) d. All of the above result in learning, according to Kimble. 51 52 CHAPTER 4 Classical Conditioning Pavlov's Experiments 7. Pavlov's experiment involved a dog learning to a. eat meat powder.

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  Learning and Memory

  • David A. Lieberman(Author)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  These different meanings are potentially confusing, but in most cases the intended meaning is clear from the context. Second-order conditioning Once a response had been conditioned to a CS, Pavlov found that he could then use that CS to condition the response to yet another stimulus. In one demonstration, a dog was first given conditioning trials in which a metronome was paired with food. Then, once the metronome elicited salivation reliably, food presentations were discontinued and a black square was paired with the metronome: 1 . metronome → food 2 . black square → metronome After several trials, the black square also began to elicit salivation, even though it had never been followed by food. Pavlov called this phenomenon second-order conditioning and considered it to be the outcome of a double associative chain, 66 Learning from the square to the metronome, and then from the metronome to food. (See Rescorla, 1980a , for an alternative interpretation.) Counterconditioning In addition to extinction, Pavlov discovered another way to eliminate a condi-tioned response, which was to pair the CS that elicited it with a US that elicited a different response. If the new response is incompatible with the old one, so that only one of them can occur at a time, then the more strongly the new response is conditioned the less likely it is that the old response will occur again. This tech-nique has become known as counterconditioning . Pavlov provided a particularly dramatic demonstration of its power by showing that it could be used to suppress even unconditioned responses. In one experiment, he used an electric shock that normally elicited violent escape reactions and repeatedly followed it with presen-tations of food. Provided that the intensity of the shock employed was not too severe, he found that the dogs’ normal defensive reactions were eventually sup-pressed almost entirely.

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