Download Classical Conditioning

Objectives:
Do Now
 Think of something you have learned how to
do……ride a bike, dance, etc
 How did you learn how to do it? List each step that
occurred in the process.
Definition: Learning
 “Learning” is defined in psychology as ‘a relatively
permanent behavior change as a result of experience.
Learning
How Do We Learn?
Classical Conditioning
 Pavlov’s Experiments
 Pavlov’s Legacy
Learning
Operant Conditioning
 Skinner’s Experiments
 Skinner’s Legacy
 Contrasting Classical & Operant
Conditioning
Learning
Observational Learning
 Modeling
How Do We Learn?
 By linking events that occur close together, humans
and other animals exhibit associative learning.
 This process of learning associations is called
conditioning.
 There is also cognitive learning, the acquisition of
mental information by observing events, watching
others, or through language.
Classical Conditioning
 A stimulus is an event or situation that evokes a
response.
 In classical conditioning, we learn to associate two
stimuli; the unconditioned response to one stimulus
becomes the conditioned response to the other.
Classical Conditioning
This woman has now been conditioned to have a negative response to the
flash of light, even before or without the loud noise.
Classical Conditioning: Pavlov’s
Classic Experiment
Classical Conditioning
 The neutral stimulus (NS) elicits no response before
conditioning.
 The unconditioned stimulus (US) is a stimulus
which triggers a reflex (automatic response, UR)
without conditioning.
 The conditioned stimulus (CS) is an originally
neutral stimulus that, after association with a US,
comes to trigger a CR.
Classical Conditioning
 The unconditioned response (UR) is an unlearned,
natural response to a US
 The conditioned response (CR) is a learned
response to a previously neutral stimulus (CS). It is the
same action as the unconditioned response, except
that it is now triggered by the formerly neutral
stimulus (now CS).
Conditioning Processes
 Pavlov and his associates identified five major
conditioning processes:
 Acquisition
 Extinction
 Spontaneous recovery
 Generalization
 Discrimination
Acquisition
 Acquisition is the first stage in classical
conditioning – where a NS is linked with a US that
the NS begins triggering the CS
Why are our bodies set up to be conditioned?
Classical conditioning helps us prepare for good
and bad events.
This is why the neutral stimulus must happen first
for conditioning to occur; it is the event we use as a
warning for the bad, a clue that helps us find the
good!
Acquisition
Extinction and Spontaneous Recovery
 If, following acquisition, the CS occurs repeatedly
without the US, it can lead to extinction, the
weakening of the CR.
 After a delay (a few hours more), however, the CS
may elicit a spontaneous recovery of a
(weakened) CR
Generalization
 Generalization: after conditioning, an organism may
respond similarly to stimuli that resemble the CS
 This can be adaptive, but also have lingering effects
 A child scared by a red car learns to avoid stepping in
front of all vehicles.
Generalization
 Child abuse can lead to general hypersensitivity to the
faces of any angry person, not just their abusers.
Discrimination
 Organisms also learn to discriminate, or distinguish,
between a CS and other stimuli.
 Consider your responses to a guard dog and a guide
dog: would they both make your heart pound with
fear?”
Pavlov’s Legacy
1.
Many other responses to many other stimuli can be
classically conditioned in many other creatures

This is one way that virtually all animals learn to
adapt to their environment
2. A process such as learning can be studied objectively
Can Pavlov’s work help us understand
emotions?
 Little Albert
 John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner (1920) worked with
11-month old boy
 Initially feared loud noises but not white rats
 Presented him with white rat, and just as he reached out
to touch it, made a very loud noise just behind his head
 After 7 repeats, burst into tears at sight of rat
 5 days later, he had generalized this fear to a rabbit, a
dog, and a sealskin coat