1. Classical Conditioning

2. Classical Conditioning
A type of learning where a stimulus gains the power to cause a response because it predicts another stimulus that already produces that response
Form of learning by association

3. Stimulus - anything in the environment that one can respond to
Stimulus-Response
Stimulus - anything in the environment that one can respond to
Response - any behavior or action

4. Ivan Pavlov’s Discovery

5. Pavlov’s Research Apparatus

6. Pavlov’s Experiment

7. Pavlov’s Experiment

8. Pavlov’s Experiment

9. Components of Classical Conditioning
Before Learning
After Learning
Unconditioned Stimulus (US) Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
Unconditioned Response (UR) Conditioned Response (CR)
Components of Classical Conditioning

10. Unconditioned Stimulus (US/UCS)
A stimulus that triggers a response automatically and reflexively (naturally)
Should cause something
US in our anchor?

11. Unconditioned Response (UR/UCR)
The automatic response to the unconditioned stimulus
The relationship between the US and UR must be reflexive and not learned
UR in our anchor?

12. Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
A stimulus that through learning has gained the power to cause a conditioned response
Must be a neutral stimulus before conditioning occurs
Irrelevant before conditioning (Neutral)

13. Conditioned Response (CR)
The response to the conditioned stimulus
Usually the same behavior as the UR

14. H0w Does Learning Occur?

15. The process of developing a learned response
Acquisition
The process of developing a learned response
Occurs when a neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with an unconditioned stimulus
Each pairing is called a trial
Neutral stimulus (“That Was Easy”) is paired with (air gun) over and over
Neutral stimulus is now a CS

16. 1. Air gun (US)  Flinch (UR)
2. That was Easy (neutral stimulus) + Air Gun (US)  Flinch
3. That was Easy (CS)  Flinch (CR)

17. How can we test if acquisition has occurred?
Present the CS (That Was Easy) without presenting the US (Air Gun)
If something happens (flinch) then learning has occurred!
If not, then the neutral stimulus is not a conditioned response yet

18. PRACTICE!
Read the provided scenarios and identify the components of classical conditioning
How do I know where to start?
Ask yourself: What is the automatic/reflexive response? UR
What caused that? US
What now causes the response? CS
Complete the first two scenarios on your own
May work with your neighbor for the remainder of the scenarios

19. Classical Conditioning Processes
Extinction, spontaneous recovery, discrimination, generalization

20. The diminishing of a learned response
Extinction
The diminishing of a learned response
In classical conditioning, the continual presentation of the CS without the US
Anchor example
Presenting “That was Easy” without the air gun

21. Spontaneous Recovery
The reappearance, after a rest period, of an extinguished conditioned response
May be diminished

22. Generalization
Process in which an organism produces the same response to two similar stimuli
The more similar the substitute stimulus is to the original used in conditioning, the stronger the generalized response
Little Albert example?
Responding to other fluffy things
Pavlov’s example
Responding to a different tuning fork

23. Subject learns that one stimuli predicts the US and the other does not
Discrimination
A process in which an organism produces different responses to two similar stimuli
Subject learns that one stimuli predicts the US and the other does not
Pavlov Example
Dog being able to tell the difference between two tuning forks

24. Classical Conditioning in Everyday Life

25. John Watson Behaviorist Mental processes don’t matter!
Wanted to disprove Freud’s growing field of psychoanalysis

26. “Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select - doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant chief, and yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and the race of his ancestors” (From Behaviorism, by John Watson, 1924)

27. Little Albert
8-11-month-old infant
Watson and his assistant, Rosalie Rayner, conditioned Albert to be frightened of white rats

28. Little Albert – Before Conditioning

29. Little Albert – During Conditioning

30. Little Albert – After Conditioning

31. Little Albert - Generalization

32. Brought up questions of ethics
So What?
Brought up questions of ethics
Also….any time you associate an emotional response with a particular stimulus, classical conditioning probably has occurred
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33. Desensitization Therapy
Some phobias are learned through classical conditioning
Mary Cover Jones: fears can be unlearned through CC
Used cc to pair a frightening thing (rabbit) w/ pleasant experience (candy)
Joseph Wolpe: Desensitization Therapy
Learning to relax in fearful/anxiety producing situations

34. Taste Aversion
Subjects become classically conditioned to avoid specific tastes, because the tastes are associated with nausea
John Garcia ( )

35. Garcia
While doing research on radiation, discovered that rats avoided drinking from the water bottles in the radiation chambers
Began pairing a nausea-producing drug with different foods to create a taste aversion to certain foods
Taste aversion is our brain telling us we’re being poisoned (regardless of whether or not the food made us sick!)

36. Cognition and Biological Predispositions

37. Biological Perspective
We are predisposed to learn things that affect our survival
Preparedness (Martin Seligman)
We are predisposed to avoid threats our ancestors faced--food that made us sick, storms, heights, snakes, etc.--but not modern-day threats--cars, water pollution, etc.

38. Biological Predispositions
It was once believed that conditioning occurred the same in all animals and that you could associate any neutral stimulus with a response.
Nope!
Animals have biological predispositions to associating certain stimuli over others
Ex: You eat a new food and later get sick.
You will be conditioned to associate the taste of the FOOD with getting sick
NOT the music playing in the restaurant, the plate it was served on, or the perfume your neighbor was wearing
Birds hunt by sight and will more quickly become conditioned to the SIGHT of tainted food

39. Cognition and Robert Rescorla (1940- )
Early behaviorists believed that learned behaviors of various animals could be reduced to mindless mechanisms
Rescorla developed a theory emphasizing the importance of cognitive processes in classical conditioning
Pointed out that subjects had to determine (think) whether the CS was a reliable predictor of the UCS

40. Example
Therapists give alcoholics drink containing a nausea-producing drug to condition them to avoid alcohol
Because clients KNOW that the drug is what is actually causing the nausea, it doesn’t work so well.

41. Examples of Classical Conditioning
Conditioned Fears
Driving a car (neutral event). Experience a panic attack while driving  associate driving with causing panic response
Conditioning of emotional responses
Cancer patients associating the chemo room with nausea
Treating drug/alcohol addiction by pairing a nausea-producing drug with the drug of addiction
Child who is afraid of rabbits because one bit him when he was young, expose the child to rabbits in safe environments repeatedly until the behavior is extinguished
Extinguish feelings of anxiety associated with trauma (PTSD)