Unit 3: Classical Conditioning

Stimulus

any event or situation that evokes a response

Step 1 of Classical Conditioning

unconditioned stimulus (food) + unconditioned response (salivation)

Step 2 of Classical Conditioning

neutral stimulus (bell) --> no conditioned response

Step 3 of Classical Conditioning

neutral stimulus (bell) + unconditioned stimulus (food) --> unconditioned response (salivation)

Step 4 of Classical Conditioning

conditioned stimulus --> conditioned response

Acquisition

associative learning in classical conditioning

Habituation

decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation; you get used to stimulus

Extinction

a conditioned response can become extinct when no longer paired with the conditioned stimulus

Spontaneous recovery

a formerly conditioned response can come back if the unconditioned stimulus and continued stimulus are paired again

Stimulus discrimination

ability to differentiate between a conditioned stimulus and another stimulus (ie: Pavlov's dog responds to a bell, but not a doorbell)

Stimulus generalization

an organism responds to stimuli that are similar to conditioned stimulus and triggers the conditioned response (ie: Pavlov's dog responds to different pitches for bells)

Higher-Order conditioning

a conditioned stimulus from an initial classical conditioning process is used as an unconditioned stimulus to create a new association with a different neutral stimulus

The Little Albert Experiment

classical conditioning on a 9 month old baby, white rat was paired with a loud clanking noise resulting in crying and fear of rat

Counterconditioning

therapeutic process where a previously conditioned emotional response is paired with a new unconditioned stimulus that elicits a positive response (ie: treating cynophobia: person bitten by a dog may develop a phobia of dogs)

One-Trial-Conditioning

a strong association between a stimulus and a response after just one exposure rather than requiring multiple pairings (ie: taste aversion: eat spoiled seafood (unconditioned stimulus) then gets violently sick (unconditioned response) due to food poisoning)