Classical Conditioning

• Acquisition: process of developing and strengthening a conditioned response through repeated pairings of neutral stimulus with unconditioned stimulus
  • more intense US produces stronger / more rapid conditioning (than less intense US)
  • more intense NS produces stronger / more rapid conditioning (than less intense NS)
• Extinction: when conditioned response is weakened/eliminated by repeatedly presenting CS alone
  • ex: anielle was really scared of cats, so more exposure to declan w no problems helped extinguish that fear
• Spontaneous recovery
  • extinguished response can be reacquired rapidly when the CS or NS is once again paired with US
  • when paired again, it will take fewer trials to achieve a strong level of conditioning
• Stimulus generalization: tendency for CR to occur in presence of stimulus similar to CS
  • ex: Albert or whatever and the bunny ➝ all white things
  • meaning of the word is more important than the sound of the word
  • like sensitization, but sensitization happens without a conditioning process
• Stimulus discrimination: tendency for a response to be caused more by one stimulus than another
• Higher-Order Conditioning
  • basic conditioning: basic reaction to an event, such as a dog salivating at sight of food
  • higher-order conditioning: transfer of conditioning to another stimulus through association
  • several steps between something occurring and the reaction
• sensory preconditioning: when one stimulus is conditioned as a CS, another previously paired stimulus can also become a CS
  • stimulus came first
  • ex: toolshed has wasps. i got stung by a wasp and now i’m afraid of wasps, so i’m afraid of the toolshed

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