Classical Conditioning

Classical conditioning

Learning an automatic or reflexive behavior through association. The behavior is often a biological response or an emotional response. A person or animal pairs a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned one and eventually responds to the NS the same way as they would the UCS. At this point the NS has become the CS.

ex. A dog that once salivated at food associates a bell with food. Now the dog salivates at the sound of the bell as well making it a conditioned stimulus.

Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)

in classical conditioning, a stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers a response. One does not need to learn to react to the UCS.

ex. food or a loud noise

Warning: some of you may mix up UCS and NS. A neutral stimulus yields no response and a UCS yields an automatic natural response.

Unconditioned Response (UCR)

in classical conditioning, the unlearned, naturally occurring response to the unconditioned stimulus (UCS).

ex. salivation when food is in the mouth.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

in classical conditioning, an originally neutral stimulus (NS) that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS), comes to trigger a conditioned response (CR).

ex. the bell in Pavlov's experiment

Conditioned Response (CR)

in classical conditioning, the learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus (CS)

ex. salivating at the sound of the bell

Pavlov

Discovered the principles of classical conditioning while studying dogs and digestion. In his experiment he paired a bell with food and he found that eventually the dogs would salivate at the sound of the bell because they associated it with food. At this point the bell became a conditioned stimulus.

acquisition (classical conditioning)

learning a new response (the conditioned response) to the conditioned stimulus.

ex. when the dogs salivated at the sound of the bell, acquisition of that behavior had occurred

Extinction (classical conditioning)

The weakening of a conditioned response in the absence of an unconditioned stimulus.

ex. If Pavlov rang the bell repeatedly without food, the salivation response might disappear

spontaneous recovery

the reappearance of a learned response after extinction has occurred and some time has passed.

ex. Pavlov's dogs stop salivating at the bell due to extinction. A few days later the bell is rung and a dog salivates.

discrimination (classical conditioning)

the process of learning to respond to certain stimuli and not others

ex. If little Albert only responded in fear to the white rat and not other animals

generalization (classical conditioning)

the tendency of a new stimulus that is similar to the original conditioned stimulus to elicit a response that is similar to the conditioned response

ex. If little Albert responded to the white rat with fear and also other small furry animals like rabbits.

Little Albert Experiment

John Watson's study in which a white rat was paired with a loud clanging sound in order to condition a fear response in an infant.

taste aversion (John Garcia)

A biological tendency in which an organism learns, after a single experience, to avoid a food if eating it is followed by illness.

ex. You ate under cooked chicken and got sick. You associate the chicken with illness and it makes you sick just thinking about it. In this case the under cooked meat is the UCS and the thought of chicken is the CS.

counter-conditioning (Mary Cover Jones)

A behavior therapy procedure that conditions new responses to stimuli that trigger unwanted behaviors; based on classical conditioning.

ex. A child that fears the dentist is given a toy at the end of each visit to help them for a new association.

aversion therapy

form of behavioral therapy in which an undesirable behavior is paired with an aversive stimulus to reduce the frequency of the behavior

ex. putting on nail polish that tastes bitter to try to stop biting one's fingernails

Flooding

An attempt to create extinction of a response through direct & repeated confrontation with feared object or experience.

ex. a person that fears heights would be taken to a high building in the hopes that the anxiety level would eventually diminish due to prolonged exposure.

systematic desensitization (Joseph Wolpe)

A gradual method of reducing fears in which people are taught relaxation techniques and establish an anxiety hierarchy from the least anxiety causing scenario to the most. Clients/patients work their way up the hierarchy using the relaxation techniques and guidance from their therapist.

Biological preparedness (Seligman)

In learning theory, the idea that an organism is innately predisposed to form associations between certain stimuli and responses.

ex. Humans are more likely to form associations of fear with snakes and spiders because, from an evolutionary standpoint, they could actually harm us.

Conditioned Compensatory Response (CCR) (Shepard Siegel)

A classically conditioned response in which stimuli that reliably precede the administration of a drug elicit a physiological reaction that counteracts, or is opposite to, the drug's effects.

ex. Dogs that are placed in a harness and are then injected with adrenaline begin to react to the harness as a conditioned stimulus. The dog's heart rate begins to decrease once placed in the harness in anticipation that the adrenaline shot will increase it. This is known as the CCR.

reliable signal (Robert Rescorla)

Rescorla conducted an experiment with rats that showed that a neutral stimulus must accurately predict the UCS in order for classical conditioning to happen.

ex. If a tone was sounded followed by an electric shock, a rat would learn to run away at the sound of the tone. However if the tone was sounded followed by an electric shock and there were a number of additional random shocks, the rat would not form the association and would not respond to the tone.

Behaviorism

John Watson, the founder of the behaviorist perspective, conducted the little Albert experiment. He believed in only studying observable actions and that people are essentially born a "blank slate". Quoted as saying he could turn any healthy newborn baby into a doctor, lawyer, or a thief based upon the principles of conditioning.

higher order conditioning

a procedure in which the conditioned stimulus in one conditioning experience is paired with a new neutral stimulus, creating a second (often weaker) conditioned stimulus. For example, an animal that has learned that a tone predicts food might then learn that a light predicts the tone and begin responding to the light alone. (Also called second-order conditioning.)