Q

AP PSYCH 4.2 Classical Conditioning

Procedure

  • There must first be an association already present
    • This can be a biological reaction or training from another session beforehand
  • This association that already exists involves the unconditioned stimulus (US) and the unconditioned response (UR)
    • They are unconditioned because they are not the final, desired association
    • The stimulus elicits a response
    • Let’s use Pavlov’s dogs as an example: The US is food, and the UR is salivation because of the food
    • You must attribute the response at this stage to the US, not any other reason
  • A neutral stimulus (NS) is introduced
    • The neutral stimulus, at this point, does not elicit the desired response
    • Pavlov rings a bell
    • The dogs may have perked up or looked over to the bell, but when the association has not yet been made, they are not reacting as intended
  • The NS and US are paired
    • Pavlov rings the bell as he brings the food to his dogs
    • This is what will build the association
    • There are different ways the US and NS can be presented but most commonly they are presented at the same time or directly after one another
  • The NS becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS) which elicits and conditioned response (CR)
    • The dogs now salivate because of the bell
    • Now note that the response is attributed to a new source, the CS

Extinction

  • Extinction occurs when the CS gains a weakened or no CR at all, and the association is no longer present
  • Different methods of conditioning will result in different rates of extinction
  • The association can undergo spontaneous recovery, where the CS once again receives the CR, but not at the same intensity

Discrimination and Generalization

  • A learner who is able to discriminate stimuli will not give the CR to stimuli similar or very close to the CS
  • Learners who generalize will give the CR to similar stimuli
  • There can be different degrees of this
  • In the Little Albert experiment, the baby Albert was conditioned to fear white rats
  • There was a very loud sound played behind him every time he was presented with a rat
    • He began to fear all small, white, fluffy objects
    • He would break down into tears and shaking when he saw stuffed animals and even John B. Watson himself, who conducted the experiment
    • Some think this was because Watson was always present in the room, so Albert also associated the loud noise with him
    • Others think it was because he has whiteish-grey hair that may have looked like the rat

Higher Order Conditioning

  • Multi-level learning
  • Remember that the US and UR can be from previous learning
  • The CS and CR from the first association become the US and UR in the next series of steps