Respondant Conditoning Pt.1

PSYC210

Recall that in the early days of behavioral psychology, researchers attempted to force all behavior into the S-R relationship.

All behavior was forced into a two-term relation (S-R). Skinner and others suggested this was not sufficient, and thus the operant class conception.

Know the synonyms for respondent conditioning.

Pavlovian conditioning and classical conditioning.

Understand how the concept of stimulus control relates to respondent conditioning.

Respondent conditioning is an instance of stimulus control applied to stimulus presentations, not consequential operations. Stimulus control refers to the CS (Conditioned Stimulus) gaining the power to elicit the response.

Pavlov’s experiments (using food and aversive stimulation).

The metronome (buzzer, bell) is initially a NS.

When it acquires the ability to produce salivation, the metronome (buzzer, bell) becomes a CS.

The salivation that occurs as a function of only the metronome (buzzer, bell) is now a CR.

The difference between the CR and UCR is not simply a matter of temporal order.

neutral stimulus

a stimulus that has no eliciting effect.

conditional stimulus

a previously neutral stimulus that now elicits a response due to its pairing with an unconditional stimulus.

conditional response

the response that is learned. It occurs following the presentation of the conditional stimulus.

unconditional response

the response that occurs, reflexively, following the presentation of the unconditional stimulus.

unconditional stimulus

a stimulus that elicits a reflex (response) without any prior history.

John B. Watson’s experiment.

Little Albert. pairing a neutral stimulus (white rat) with an unconditioned stimulus (loud, scary noise), Watson conditioned a 9-month-old infant to fear the rat and similar furry objects, proving fears can be learned.

The respondent conditioning videos from a popular television program and an eager college student.

The Office example: given an altoid after every computer error sound (NS). College student: “that was easy button” (NS). Pairing a Nerf gun and button noise together.

Be able to describe why the conditional stimulus is not a discriminative stimulus.

The CS is an antecedent stimulus, but not a discriminative stimulus.

It is an antecedent because it simply describes the temporal order of things (it comes “before” or “first”). But it does not signal (or occasion) that a certain type of behavior will be reinforced. The CS forces the response; the SD invites the response by signaling a consequence.

Understand how respondent conditioning plays a role in shaping human emotion

When we remember important, meaningful events in our lives, we tend to recall things that co-occurred with those events (i.e., were paired with them). Ex. 9/11. MLK or JFK assassination.