Classical Conditioning:

→ A neutral stimulus is associated with a natural response

→ The formation of associations between two stimuli that are normally unrelated

• Sherbert Story:

  → UCS (sherbert) leads to UCR (salivate)

  → NS (tapping) / UCS leads to UCR

  → CS (tapping) leads to CR (salivate)

  • There has been a learned association between the tap (NS) and the sherbert (UCS) to produce the salivation (CR)

• General Process:

  • UCS → UCR

  • NS / UCS → UCR

  • CS → CR

→ Ivan Pavlov first demonstrated classical conditioning whilst studying digestion in dogs

• Pavlov Conditioning of Dogs Process:

  → Before Conditioning:

  • UCS (the food) leads to a UCR (salivation) - a reflexive process

  → During Conditioning (Acquisition of Learning):

  • NS (tuning fork) half a second before the UCS (food) is handed out, leading to UCR (salivation) - this is repeated many times

  → After Conditioning (Performance of Learning):

  • CS (tuning fork - used to be NS, no more UCS as well) leads to CR ( salivation - used to be UCR)

→ A learning that occurs when a neutral stimulus (NS) becomes paired with an unconditional stimulus (UCS) to elicit a conditioned response (CR)

• There is an acquisition phase (getting) and a performance phase (carrying out) of the learning

  → Acquisition Phase:

  • Occurs as the NS is being associated with the UCS and then becomes a CS that producers a CR

  → Performance Phase:

  • Occurs so that a CS produces a CR without the UCS being present and thus learning has come to completion

Stimulus and Responses:

→ Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS):

• A stimulus that produces an unconditioned response without previous conditioning

→ Unconditioned Response (UCR):

• An unlearned reaction to an unconditioned stimulus (usually a reflex response)

→ Neutral Stimulus (NS):

• A stimulus that, before conditioning, does not naturally bring about the response of interest

→ Controlled Stimulus (CS):

• A previously neutral stimulus that through repeated pairings with an unconditioned stimulus, now causes a conditioned response

→ Controlled Response (CR):

• A learned reaction to a conditioned stimulus that occurs because of previous repeated pairings with an unconditioned stimulus. No unconditioned stimulus is present now

Factors Affecting Classical Conditioning:

→ Contiguity:

• Stimuli (NS and UCS) are close together in time

  → Maximum classical conditioning occurs when the NS occurs just before (0.5 secs) the UCS.

  • This provides the closest association between the two stimuli

→ Contingency:

• One stimulus (UCS) is contingent (dependent) on the other (NS) occurring

  → If one stimulus occurs it is likely the other one will

  → As the number of pairings increases, the strength of the association between the NS and. UCS increases.

  → Example:

  • A flash of lightning is often followed by the sound of thunder. Thus, if you see lightning, you might put your hands over your ears or lean away in anticipation of the thunder

→ Individual’s Learning History:

• Interference: Earlier learning can interfere with future learning.

• Example:

  → fail leads to being miserable

  → math test and fail leads to being miserable

  → math test then leads to being miserable

  • This decreases future learning of math concepts

→ Preparedness (biological)

• The organisim’s inherited biological readiness to learn certain associations for survival

• Example:

  → Avoiding poisonous plants / animals

  • Some responses related to survival can be conditioned much more readily to certain stimuli than others (less pairings required)

    → This explains why phobias are easily conditioned

Principles of Classical Conditioning:

→ Stimulus Generalisation:

• A CR occurs to stimuli similar to the original CS because the subject has learned to associate the new stimulus with the original CR

  → Process:

  • CS₁ → CR

  • CS₂ → CR

  • CS₃ → CR

  → Example:

  • CS₁ (tabby cat) → CR (scream)

  • CS₂ (ragdoll cat) → CR (scream)

  • CS₃ (tortoise shell cat)→ CR (scream)

    → CS₁ CS₂ CS₃ are all similar

• When the behaviour occurs for a number of similar stimuli (consequences)

→ Stimulus Discrimination:

• A CR does not occur to stimuli that are different from the original CS because the subject has not learned to associate the new stimulus with the original CR

  → Example:

  • CS₁ (tabby cat) → CR (scream)

  • CS₂ (sphinx cat) → CR (no scream due to major difference)

  • CS₃ (tortoise shell cat)→ CR (Scream)

• The behaviour does not occur for a number of different stimuli

→ Extinction:

• Occurs when a CS is presented repeatedly without the UCS, causing the CR to weaken and eventually stop occurring

• (Good) Behaviour occurs without a consequences (OC - Operant Conditioning), so then the behaviour stops. There is a need for further pairing of the behaviour and consequence.

• Example:

  → OC: B = Tidies bedroom, S = Chocolate → Stops tidying bedroom because lack of chocolate

→ Spontaneous Recovery:

• The reappearance of a previously extinguished CR after a period of time has passed following extinction

  → This reconditioning, with the CS introduced alone, can occur much faster and on the second reappearance, the response is generally weaker

Phobias:

→ Fear is a normal, healthy emotion, meant for protection against harm

→ Phobias are defined as “an irrational and excessive fear of an object or situation”

• Example: Fear of tight spaces → claustrophobia

→ Learned phobic response

• Feelings of fear associated with certain things or situations

Symptoms:

→ The phobia can induce a sense of endangerment or fear of harm

→ Symptoms include dizziness, breathlessness and nausea

→ In extreme cases people can experience a fear of dying leading to a full-scale anxiety attack

Systematic Desensitisation:

→ Form of behaviour therapy that uses a technique called counter-conditioning

• Assumes that certain classically conditioned responses cannot exist simultaneously

  → Example: anxious and relaxed

• The undesirable response is replaced by learning a desirable resoonse

→ Process:

• Client is taught relaxation techniques. They need to be able to achieve a dee state of relaxation at will

• The psychologist and the client will develop a hierarchy of fear, where level 1 = very low level of anxiety, level 10 = terrifying

• Initially, the psychologist will ask the client to visualise their level 1 scenario and relax at will. When this can be achieved, the client will be asked to visualise level 2 and so on

• When the client can visualise the entire hierarchy with a relaxed response, then the psychologist will expose the client to the real life scenarios very slowly

• If the client becomes anxious at any stage of the process, the psychologist would take them back to a level they are comfortable with

  → The conditioned response of fear is being counter-conditioned with a feeling of relaxation