1. Unit 6: Learning (Behaviorism)
CHS AP Psychology
Unit 6: Learning (Behaviorism)
Essential Task 5.2: Describe basic classical conditioning phenomena with specific attention to unconditioned
stimulus, unconditioned response, neutral stimulus, pairing, acquisition, conditioned stimulus, conditioned response, extinction, spontaneous recovery, stimulus generalization, stimulus discrimination, contingency, and higher-order learning.
Logo Green is R=8 G=138 B= Blue is R= 0 G=110 B=184
Border Grey is R=74 G=69 B=64

2. Classical Conditioning
Book definition: The type of learning in which a response naturally elicited by one stimulus becomes to be elicited by a different formally neutral stimulus.
Working definition:
Type of learning that happens TO someone
Person learns to respond BIOLOGICALLY to a stimulus.
Previously the stimulus meant nothing.
Now it means something IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN.

3. Examples of Classical Conditioning
Phobias
After the attacks, cats become a warning stimulus for pain causing fear when the child sees cats.
After this botched photo, 6 ft bunny becomes warning stimulus for someone trying to capture you.

4. Examples of Classical Conditioning
Taste Aversion
After throwing up a food, it becomes a warning stimulus for getting sick.

5. Key People
Ivan Pavlov: Russian physiologist known primarily for his work in classical conditioning.

6. Key People
John B. Watson

7. Key People
John Garcia

8. Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)
A stimulus that invariably causes an organism to responds BIOLOGICALLY in a specific way

9. Unconditioned response (UCR)
A BIOLOGICAL response that takes place in an organism whenever an unconditioned stimulus occurs

10. Neutral Stimulus
A stimulus that does not naturally cause a response in the organism.

11. Pairing
Presenting the organism with the CS and then the UCS multiple times. + =

12. Acquisition
refers to the first stages of learning when a response is established.
In classical conditioning, it refers to the period of time when the stimulus comes to evoke the conditioned response.
The time in between the two stimuli should be about half a second.

13. Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
An originally neutral stimulus that is paired with an unconditioned stimulus an eventually produces the desired response in an organism when presented alone.

14. Conditioned Response (CR)
After conditioning, the response an organism produces when only a conditioned stimulus is presented.

15. Taste Aversion: Single Conditioning Experience

16. Stimulus Generalization
the transfer of a learned response to different but similar stimulus.

17. Stimulus Discrimination
learning to respond to only one stimulus and to inhibit the response to all other stimuli.

18. Extinction
Extinction is a decrease in the strength or frequency of a learned response because of no longer pairing the US and CS

19. Spontaneous Recovery
reappearance of an extinguished response after the passage of time, without further conditioning

20. Question of the Day
Researchers condition a flatworm to contract when exposed to light by repeatedly pairing it with electric shock. The electric shock is a(n)
negative reinforcer
conditioned stimulus
conditioned reinforcer
unconditioned stimulus
Answer: D unconditioned stimulus

21. Contingency Theory of Classical Conditioning
For Pavlov, the key variable in associative learning was the number of times the CS was paired with the US.
The Pairings Principle:
As the number of pairings increases, the strength of the association between CS and US increases.
This was because the CS became a more reliable signal that the US was going to occur.

22. Contingency Theory of Classical Conditioning
In the 1960s, an alternative theory was proposed by Robert A. Rescorla, the Contingency Theory.
Rescorla agreed with Pavlov that for learning to take place, the CS had to be a useful predictor of the US.
But he disagreed on what made the CS a useful predictor. It was more complicated than the number of CS-US pairings.
He maintained that it was the contingency OR THE CONNECTION between the CS and US.

23. Higher Order Learning in Classical Conditioning
Also known as second order conditioning.
A form of learning in which a stimulus is first made meaningful or consequential for an organism through an initial step of learning, and then that stimulus is used as a basis for learning about some new stimulus.
For example, an animal might first learn to associate a bell with food (first-order conditioning), but then learn to associate a light with the bell (second-order conditioning).