Classical Conditioning Module 9 Classical Conditioning

THREE KINDS OF LEARNING A relatively enduring or permanent change in behavior that results from previous experience with certain stimuli and response Behavior Includes both unobservable mental events (thoughts, images) and observable responses (fainting, salivating, vomiting)

THREE KINDS OF LEARNING (CONT’D) Classical conditioning A kind of learning in which a neutral stimulus acquires the ability to produce a response that was originally produced by different stimulus Ivan Pavlov Conducted experiments with dogs Pavlov rang a bell before putting food in a dog’s mouth After numerous trials of pairing the food and bell, the dog salivated to the sound of the bell This is a conditioned reflex

THREE KINDS OF LEARNING (CONT’D) Operant conditioning Refers to a kind of learning in which the consequences that follow some behavior increase or decrease the likelihood of that behavior’s occurrence in the future E. L. Thorndike Experimented with cats in the puzzle box Law of effect Says that if some random actions are followed by pleasurable consequences or reward, such actions are strengthened and will likely occur in the future

THREE KINDS OF LEARNING (CONT’D)

THREE KINDS OF LEARNING (CONT’D) Cognitive learning A kind of learning that involves mental processes, such as attention and memory; may be learned through observation or imitation, and may not involve any people performing any observable behaviors Albert Bandura Found that children who had watched a film of an adult modeling aggressive behavior played more aggressively than children who had not seen the film Bandura’s study demonstrated that we can learn through observation or imitation

PROCEDURE: CLASSICAL CONDITIONING Step 1: Choosing stimulus and response Neutral stimulus ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Unconditioned stimulus UCS; ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Unconditioned response UCR; __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

PROCEDURE: CLASSICAL CONDITIONING (CONT’D) Step 2: Establishing classical conditioning Neutral stimulus ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Unconditioned stimulus ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Unconditioned response

PROCEDURE: CLASSICAL CONDITIONING (CONT’D) Step 3: Testing for conditioning Conditioned stimulus ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Conditioned response __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

OTHER CONDITIONING CONCEPTS Generalization Tendency for a stimulus that’s similar to the original conditioned stimulus to elicit a response __________ to the conditioned response Discrimination Occurs during classical conditioning when an organism learns to make a particular response to ______________stimuli but not to _______________

OTHER CONDITIONING CONCEPTS (CONT’D) Extinction Refers to a procedure in which a conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus, and, as a result, the conditioned stimulus tends to _____________elicit the conditioned response Spontaneous recovery Tendency for the conditioned response to reappear after being extinguished, even though there have been no further conditioning trials

ADAPTIVE VALUES & USES Adaptive value Refers to usefulness of certain abilities or traits that have evolved in animals and humans and tend to increase their chances of survival, such as finding food, acquiring mates, and avoiding pain and injury Taste-aversion learning ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

ADAPTIVE VALUES & USES (CONT’D) Explanation Preparedness Refers to the phenomenon that animals and humans are biologically prepared to associate some combinations of conditioned and unconditioned stimuli more easily than others Animals are genetically prepared to use different senses to detect stimuli that are important to their survival and adaptation

ADAPTIVE VALUES & USES (CONT’D) Classical conditioning and emotion Conditional emotional response feeling some positive or negative emotion, such as happiness, fear, or anxiety, when experiencing a stimulus that initially accompanied a pleasant or painful event sound of a rattlesnake or wail of a siren

THREE EXPLANATIONS Theories of classical conditioning Stimulus substitution and contiguity theory ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Contiguity theory ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

THREE EXPLANATIONS (CONT’D) Theories of classical conditioning Cognitive perspective _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

APPLICATION Systematic desensitization Procedure based on classical conditioning ______________________________________________________________________________________ Immediately uses deep relaxation to overcome the anxiety Form of ___________________________________ because it replaces, or counters, fear and anxiety with relaxation