Classical Conditioning
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
Stimulus-Response
Stimulus - anything in the environment that one can respond to
Response - any behavior or action
Ivan Pavlov’s Discovery
Pavlov’s Research Apparatus
Pavlov’s Experiment
Pavlov’s Experiment
Pavlov’s Experiment
Components of Classical
Conditioning
Unconditioned Stimulus (US) Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
Unconditioned Response (UR) Conditioned Response (CR)
Before Learning After Learning
Unconditioned Stimulus (US/UCS)
A stimulus that triggers a response automatically and reflexively (naturally)
Should cause somethingUS in our anchor?
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?
Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
A stimulus that through learning has gained the power to cause a conditioned response
Must be a neutral stimulus before conditioning occursIrrelevant before conditioning (Neutral)
Conditioned Response (CR)
The response to the conditioned stimulus
Usually the same behavior as the UR
H0w Does Learning Occur?
Acquisition
The process of developing a learned response
Occurs when a neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with an unconditioned stimulusEach pairing is called a trialNeutral stimulus (“That Was Easy”) is
paired with (air gun) over and overNeutral stimulus is now a CS
1. Air gun (US) Flinch (UR)
2. That was Easy (neutral stimulus) + Air Gun (US) Flinch
3. That was Easy (CS) Flinch (CR)
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
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 ownMay work with your neighbor for the
remainder of the scenarios
EXTINCTION, SPONTANEOUS RECOVERY, DISCRIMINATION, GENERALIZATION
Classical Conditioning Processes
Extinction
The diminishing of a learned responseIn classical conditioning, the continual
presentation of the CS without the USAnchor example
Presenting “That was Easy” without the air gun
Spontaneous Recovery
The reappearance, after a rest period, of an extinguished conditioned response
May be diminished
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
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 ExampleDog being able to tell the difference between
two tuning forks
Classical Conditioning in Everyday Life
John Watson
Behaviorist Mental processes don’t matter!
Wanted to disprove Freud’s growing field of psychoanalysis
“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)
Little Albert
8-11-month-old infantWatson and his assistant, Rosalie
Rayner, conditioned Albert to be frightened of white rats
Little Albert – Before Conditioning
Little Albert – During Conditioning
Little Albert – After Conditioning
Little Albert - Generalization
So What?
Brought up questions of ethicsAlso….any time you associate an emotional response with a particular stimulus, classical conditioning probably has occurredAdvertisements!
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
Taste Aversion
Subjects become classically conditioned to avoid specific tastes, because the tastes are associated with nausea
John Garcia (1917- )
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!)
Cognition and Biological
Predispositions
Biological Perspective
We are predisposed to learn things that affect our survivalPreparedness (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.
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 wearingBirds hunt by sight and will more quickly become
conditioned to the SIGHT of tainted food
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
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.
Examples of Classical Conditioning
Conditioned Fears Driving a car (neutral event). Experience a panic attack while
driving associate driving with causing panic responseConditioning 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 addictionChild 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)