Classical Conditioning Notes

Learning

  • Learning is defined as a change in behavior resulting from experience.

How We Learn

  • Classical conditioning: Learning to respond to a new stimulus that has been associated with another stimulus that normally produces the response.
  • Operant conditioning: Learning behaviors due to experiences with their consequences.
  • Observational learning: Learning via observation and imitation.

Conditioning

Classical Conditioning

  • Classical conditioning involves learning to respond to a new stimulus that has been associated with another stimulus that normally produces the response.
  • Pavlov
    • Studied digestion in dogs.
    • Observed that dogs salivated at the mere sight of a food dish, indicating they learned to associate the dish with food.
    • Experiment: Presented food with a neutral stimulus (bell) and measured salivation in response to the bell alone.

Pavlov's Classical Conditioning Terms

  • Unconditioned stimulus (US): A stimulus that automatically elicits a response without prior conditioning.
    • Example: US = food
  • Unconditioned response (UR): An innate response to an unconditioned stimulus.
    • Example: UR = salivation
  • Conditioned stimulus (CS): A previously neutral stimulus that now elicits a conditioned response due to its association with an unconditioned stimulus.
    • Example: CS = bell
  • Conditioned response (CR): A learned response to a stimulus that did not originally elicit the response.
    • Example: CR = salivation

Classical Conditioning Terms

  • Acquisition: The stage of conditioning in which the association between the two stimuli (US and CS) is being learned.
  • Generalization: A conditioned response to stimuli that are not the conditioned stimulus but are similar to the CS.
  • Discrimination: A conditioned response occurs only to a specific stimulus.

Classical Conditioning Terms - Extinction and Spontaneous Recovery

  • Extinction: Failure to exhibit the CR to the CS because the CS no longer predicts the US.
  • Spontaneous recovery: Reappearance of the CR to the original CS after extinction. Tends to be short-lived.

Classical Conditioning Terms - Second-Order Conditioning

  • Second-order (higher-order) conditioning: A new neutral stimulus becomes associated with a previously conditioned stimulus, becoming a new CS. Tends to be weaker than first-order conditioning.

Classical Conditioning – Conditioned Aversion

  • Conditioned aversion: A classically conditioned association between a CS and a US that causes an unpleasant response.
  • John Garcia (1966): Discovered conditioned aversions to flavored water in rats.

Classical Conditioning – Learning to Fear

  • Watson & Raynor (1920) – Little Albert
    • Paired a loud noise with a rat, leading to fear in Albert.
    • Albert generalized this fear to other fuzzy objects.

Classical Conditioning - Counterconditioning

  • Counterconditioning: Replacing an unwanted CR with a wanted response (Mary Cover Jones).
    • Example: Unwanted response = fear of rabbit.
    • Pair rabbit (CS) with a stimulus (e.g., cookies) that produces pleasant feelings that are incompatible with the fear response.
    • Purpose: To eliminate the unwanted response.