Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education Canada Inc. Learning Chapter 5
Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education Canada Inc. Learning Learning is a relatively permanent change in an organism. Learning occurs as a result of experiences in the environment Psychologists study the results of learning by examining overt behaviour or by measuring physiological changes
Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education Canada Inc. Classical Conditioning Conditioning refers to a systematic procedure through which associations and responses to specific stimuli are learned A stimulus is an event that has an impact on an organism A response is a reaction of an organism
Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education Canada Inc. Classical Conditioning Classical conditioning was first described by Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist In classical conditioning, a neutral stimulus, through repeated pairings with a stimulus that invokes a reflexive response, produces a similar or identical response
Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education Canada Inc. UCS= Unconditioned Stimulus UCR= Unconditioned Response CS= Conditioned Stimulus CR= Conditioned Response Ivan Pavlov’s Original Observations
Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education Canada Inc. Terms and Procedures Pavlov called a stimulus that elicits a response without conditioning an unconditioned stimulus The unconditioned stimulus naturally produces a reflex An unconditioned response is a response to an unconditioned stimulus
Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education Canada Inc. Terms and Procedures A conditioned stimulus is a neutral stimulus, that through repeated association with an unconditioned stimulus, is capable of invoking a response The conditioned response is a response to a conditioned stimulus
Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education Canada Inc. Terms and Procedures The key characteristic of such conditioning is the use of an originally neutral stimulus (e.g. a bell) to elicit a response (e.g. salivation) Psychologists refer to this process as acquisition process
Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education Canada Inc. Figure 5.2 The Three Stages of Classical Conditioning
Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education Canada Inc. Human Conditioning Marquis showed classical conditioning in infants When a nipple touches the baby’s lips, it reflexively begins to suck upon it If presentation of a nipple is repeatedly paired with a light or noise, the baby can be conditioned to suck to that light or noise
Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education Canada Inc. Human Conditioning Watson and Rayner (1920) conditioned an 11-month-old infant named Albert
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Higher-Order Conditioning Higher-order conditioning is the process by which a neutral stimulus takes on conditioned properties through pairing with a another conditioned stimulus
Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education Canada Inc. Key Variables in Classical Conditioning The strength of the unconditioned stimulus The timing of the unconditioned stimulus
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Key Variables in Classical Conditioning The frequency of the pairings of the neutral and the unconditioned stimulus is also important If the unconditioned stimulus can be readily predicted by the conditioned stimulus, the conditioning can be achieved rapidly
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Extinction and Spontaneous Recovery When the conditioned stimulus no longer elicits the conditioned response, it is referred to as extinction Spontaneous recovery occurs when the conditioned response reappears after some passage of time
Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education Canada Inc. Stimulus Generalization and Stimulus Discrimination Stimulus generalization occurs when a conditioned response becomes associated with a stimulus that is similar to the conditioned stimulus In stimulus discrimination, an organism learns to respond only to a specific stimulus
Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education Canada Inc. Classical Conditioning in Daily Life Garcia found that a conditioned taste aversion could occur if nausea was induced several hours after food or drink was consumed Conditioned taste aversions (the Garcia effect) can have practical implications
Copyright © 2005 Pearson Education Canada Inc. Classical Conditioning in Daily Life The immune system may be subject to classical conditioning Researchers paired a sweet solution with a drug that produced illness and suppressed immune system activity Animals quickly developed an aversion to the liquid