Psychology Chapter 6 Section 1: Learning

Classical Conditioning Stimulus- something that produces a reaction, or a response.

If your mouth waters for a certain type of food, you are experiencing the results of conditioning, or learning. Conditioning works through the pairing of different stimuli. Your reaction demonstrates a type of conditioning known as classical conditioning.

Classical conditioning is a simple form of learning in which one stimulus (in this case food) comes to call forth the response (your mouth watering) usually called forth by another stimulus (the actual food). This occurs when the two stimuli have been associated with each other.

Ivan Pavlov rings a bell Early research conducted with dogs. Russian physiologist (an expert in or student of the branch of biology that deals with the normal functions of living organisms and their parts) Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) discovered that dogs, too, learn to associate one thing with another when food is involved.

Pavlov was studying salivation, or mouthwatering, in dogs. He knew that dogs would salivate if meat was placed on their tongues because saliva aids in the eating and digestion of the meat. Meat on a dogs tongue is a stimulus for the production of saliva.

Pavlov discovered that the dogs did not always wait until they had received meat to start salivating. The dogs had learned from experience that certain events meant that food was coming.

The stimulus Pavlov chose was the ringing of a bell. After the bell rang, meat powder was placed on the dog’s tongue. After several times, Pavlov changed the process. He sounded the bell, but did not give the dog meat powder, but the dog still salivated.

US, Ur, Cr, and CS: Letters of Learning The meat in Pavlov’s research was an example of an unconditioned stimulus- a stimulus that causes a response that is automatic, not learned.

That automatic response, in turn, is called an unconditioned response. Salivation in response to the meat was an unconditioned response.

The dog’s salivation in response to the bell was a conditioned response- a learned response to a stimulus that was previously neutral, or meaningless.

Through repeated association with meat, however, the bell became a learned stimulus, or a conditioned stimulus, for the response of salivation.

Adapting to the environment One form of classical conditioning that be particularly useful to people is called taste aversion. A taste aversion is a learned avoidance of a particular food. If you ate spoiled food and became ill, you most likely stayed away from that type of food.

Often when foods make us ill, it is because they are unhealthy, even poisonous. A taste aversion helps us avoid these foods by keeping us away from them.

It is useful for people and animals to develop taste aversions readily. With other examples of classical conditioning, an association must be made several times before the conditioned response occurs

Extinction Classical conditioning helps people and animals adapt to their environments. Times can change, and what once was dangerous may no longer be so.

When a conditioned stimulus (such as the scent of an animal or a car alarm) is no longer followed by an unconditioned stimulus (a dangerous animal, the car being broken into), it will eventually lose its ability to bring about a conditioned response.

In classical conditioning, this is called extinction. Extinction occurs when the conditioned stimulus is disconnected from the unconditioned. Eventually in Pavlov’s experiment, the conditioned response of salivating at the sound of the bell had been extinguished.

Spontaneous Recovery An extinguished response is not necessarily gone forever. Spontaneous recovery, organisms sometimes display responses that were extinguished earlier.

Generalization and Discrimination Generalization is the act of responding in the same ways to stimuli that seem to be similar, even if the stimuli are not identical.

Pavlov also showed dogs a circle to associate with meat. The dog’s weaker response to figures that looked less like a circle was an example of discrimination. Discrimination- the act of responding differently to stimuli that are not similar to each other.

Applications of Classical Conditioning Classical conditioning is the means by which stimuli come to serve as signals for other stimuli. Classical conditioning can help people overcome their fears of various objects and situations.

Many fears –such as the fear of heights, of snakes, and of speaking in front of the class- are out of proportion to the harm that could happen.

Flooding- a person is exposed to the harmless stimulus until fear responses to that stimulus are extinguished.

Systematic Desensitization – people are taught relaxation techniques. Then they are exposed gradually to whatever stimulus they fear while they remain relaxed.

Counterconditioning Can cookies help children overcome their fears? In counterconditioning, a pleasant stimulus is paired repeatedly with a fearful one, counteracting the fear.

The Bell-and-Pad method for bed wetting Some children do not respond to sensations of a full bladder when they are asleep. Bell and pad method Teaches children to wake up in response to bladder tension. When the child starts to urinate, the water content of the urine triggers a bell, and the ringing wakes the child up.

After a couple of weeks using the bell and pad method, most children no longer wet their beds.