Classical conditioning

Describe the mechanisms of classical conditioning; give one example of classical conditioning in humans (suitable examples would include acquisition of phobias, tastes and habits), and evaluate classical conditioning as explanations of human behaviour.

Try this tutorial on classical conditioning: http://www.worthpublishers.com/myers5e/content/psychsim/index.htm

Powerpoint on classical conditioning

Classical conditioning is a behavioral technique of pairing a naturally occurring stimulus and response chain with a different stimulus in order to produce a response which is not naturally occurring. Classical conditioning was accidentally discovered around the beginning of the 20th century by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov was studying digestive process in dogs when he discovered that the dogs salivated before they received their food. Pavlov set up an experiment to find out if the dogs could be trained to salivate at other stimuli such as the sound of a bell or a light. At feeding times, Pavlov would ring a bell and the amount of saliva produced by the dog was measured. After several 'trials' Pavlov rang the bell without presenting the food and found that the dogs salivated in the same way as if food was being presented.

How does classical conditioning work?
Classical conditioning always starts with a reflex-like action on the part of the learner—like salivating in response to food or jumping in response to a loud noise.
The reaction, or unconditioned response (UCR), is a natural response—it is not learned. The event that triggers the unconditioned response is called the unconditioned stimulus (UCS).
Then, another stimulus, or "neutral" stimulus, is introduced (NS) Alone, this neutral stimulus does not elicit a response, but when it's paired with the unconditioned stimulus (UCS), the subject learns to respond to it. This stimulus is called the conditioned stimulus (CS) and the learned response to it is called the conditioned response (CR).

 

Following his initial discovery, Pavlov spent more than three decades studying the processes underlying classical conditioning. He and his associates identified five main processes at work.

Acquistion:
The acquistion phase is the initial learning of the conditioned response-for example, the dog learning to salivate at the sound of a bell.

Extinction:
The term extinction is used to describe the elimination of the conditioned response by repeatedly presenting the conditoned stimulus without the unconditioned stimulus- for example, repeatedly ringing the bell without presenting food afterward.

Spontanous Recovery
The re-ermergence of responses over time following extinction.

Stimulus generalisation
After an animal has learned a conditioned response to one stimulus, it may also respond to similar stimuli without further training- for example, using a different sounding bell.

Discrimination
Discrimination is the opposite of generalization in which an individual learns to produce a conditioned response to one stimulus but not to another stimulus that is similar- for example, a buzzer won't work like the bell

Basically, the findings support the idea that we develop responses to certain stimuli that are not naturally occurring. When we touch a hot stove, our reflex pulls our hand back. It does this instinctually, no learning involved. It is merely a survival instinct. But why now do some people, after getting burned, pull their hands back even when the stove is not turned on? Pavlov discovered that we make associations which cause us to generalize our response to one stimuli onto a neutral stimuli it is paired with. In other words, hot burner = ouch, stove = burner, therefore, stove = ouch.
Many of our behaviors today are shaped by the pairing of stimuli. Have you ever noticed that certain stimuli, such as the smell of a cologne or perfume, a certain song, a specific day of the year, results in fairly intense emotions? It's not that the smell or the song are the cause of the emotion, but rather what that smell or song has been paired with...perhaps an ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend or the death of a loved one. We make these associations all the time and often don’t realize the power that these connections or pairings have on us. But, in fact, we have been classically conditioned

Classical conditioning activity 1

answers to activity 1

Play the Pavlov Dogs Game

More examples of classical conditioning for you to try

Evaluation of Classical conditioning

Classical conditioning is an important mechanism in human learning. It helps us to explain the reactions we have to stimuli in the world around us due to prior associations such as dentists with pain. Classical conditioning does explain how some human (and other animal) reflexive behaviours are acquired. Understanding that phobias and fear responses as are only learned behaviors (as shown by Watson in the Little Albert experiments) allows us to use techniques such as COUNTER-CONDITIONING to replace this stimulus-response connection of fear with a more adaptive response such as relaxation.

However most human learning is not based on classical conditioning, and behaviourists such as Watson overplayed its importance. Classicla conditioning does not explain all behaviours which are not reflexive. Only a few reflex responses can be conditioned, and generalisations can only be made to other reflexive responses. Most people would no longer subscribe to his view that there is no such thing as a human mind, and seen thinking and emotions as important as behaviour (the actions). In laboratory studies of classical conditioning a passive animal is presented with various conditioned and unconditioned stimuli. In real life, on the other hand, learning typically involves the human interacting actively with the environment.

Has practical applications as several therapies such as systematic desensitization and aversion therapy, have been developed to deal with reflexive behaviours such as phobias, increased blood pressure, and sexual deviations.

It is also used for predator control such as training wolves not to eat sheep by lacing their mutton with lithium (which tastes unpleasant) so the wolves associate sheep with an unpleasant taste.

Much research e.g. Pavlov was only done on animals so cannot generalise to humans as they are physically and mentally different.

The theory of biological preparedness (Seligman, 1970) explains why a fear response to snakes can be conditioned more easily than one to cars.

For example: It states that the process of evolution has predisposed organisms to readily learn to be afraid of things that might have caused our ancestors harm (hence snakes and not cars, even though cars are far more dangerous).

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