Learning and Conditioning
MARINA SANGKAVICHAI
LECTURE 6
Classical Conditioning in Ads
Gucci Fragrance
Louis Vuitton
Coach Bags
What does this symbol stand for?
A Famous Symbol
Famous Coffee



Famous Soda
MAC Make-up
Learning
 Aristole summed it up best when he said:
“When two things commonly occur together,
the appearance of one will bring the other to
mind.”
 What comes to mind with these terms?
 Terrorism, USA, Immigrants, Crime, Good
neighborhoods, bad neighborhoods.
Learning
 Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior,
knowledge, capability or attitude that is acquired through
experience and cannot be attributed to illness, injury or
maturation.
 For example:
If you go out with a certain type of person, it doesn’t work
out, you decide not to go out with those “types” anymore.
 If you cram for an exam at the last minute and then
receive an “F” you learn ( hopefully) that cramming
doesn’t work

Just Recently
 If I eat a peanut butter sandwich before bed
time and then can’t get to sleep, I may attribute
the insomnia to the peanut butter sandwich
We form these associations automatically!
Psychologists say learning is about making
associations
Real life examples?
Learning
 Learning involves reinforcement and
responses
 Reinforcement: any event that increases
the probability that a particular response
will occur. For example, studying ahead of
time and getting an “A” (which makes me
feel good) will increase the probability that
I’ll do it again.
Classical Conditioning
 Classical conditioning is about the formation of
associations between stimuli and responses.
 Aristole summed it up best when he said: “When
two things commonly occur together, the
appearance of one will bring the other to mind.”
 An unconditioned stimulus (UCS) is an event,
object, or substance that naturally evokes a
response. For example, pizza makes a person
hungry. Sharks are scary. Steaks makes dogs
salivate naturally.
Classical Conditioning
 An unconditioned response (UCR) is the
reaction to the unconditioned stimulus. These
unconditioned responses occur NATURALLY.
 For example the unconditioned responses are:
pizza makes a person hungry, sharks are scary
Classical Conditioning
 A neutral stimulus being paired with the
unconditioned stimulus will form an association
( which will elicit a response ) Sample neutral
stimuli are a doorbell and music.
 Let’s form associations!
Assocations
 The doorbell rings when the pizza delivery person
arrives/pair the bell and pizza
 The music plays when the shark is approaching (
Jaws )/pair music and shark
 When doorbell rings (CS) you will get hungry (CR)
 When the music plays (CS) you will feel
nervous(CR)
Pavlov and his Dogs
 Russian researcher Ivan Pavlov was studying
digestion.
 He observed that meat powder made his dog
salivate.
 He rang a bell ( which of course elicited no
response from the dog )at first.
 Then he would ring a bell and then place meat
powder on the dogs tongue which caused the dog
to salivate.
Pavlov and his dogs
 Pavlov, continued with this sequence many times, bell, meat powder,






and dog salivating.Bell, meat powder and dog salivating.
Eventually as conditioning took place, the dog began to
salivate at the sound of the bell.
Remember UNCONDITIONED STIMULI and RESPONSES are ones
you don’t have to learn. They are innate!
CONDITIONED STIMULI and CONDITIONED RESPONSES are
learned.
Neutral stimulus produced no responses until paired with an
unconditioned stimulus ( which produced a response)
What were the UCS, UCR, and CS and CR?
Water Experiment
Classical Conditioning
Acquisition is demonstrated. At first, the word can, by itself
causes no special response. After repeated pairings of the
word and the water, the word by itself gradually becomes a
more likely to cause a CONDITIONED REPONSE.
What was the unconditioned stimulus?
What was the unconditioned response?
The conditioned stimulus?
Video: Big Bang Theory
Ivan Pavlow
J.B. Watson’s Little Albert
 JB Watson proposed that emotions such as fear can be conditioned in a




human being.
He conditioned a nine month old orphan (Albert B) to be afraid of
certain objects.
At 11 months old, he showed baby Albert several objects, like a rat,
rabbit and masks. He verified that he had no fear of these objects.
Then he paired these items with a loud noise ( a hammer bang against a
bar) He paired the rat and this loud noise together. The loud noise
made Albert cry and he grew frightened.
Pretty soon, Albert developed a fear of the rat alone. Paired seven times
in one week, rat and loud noise. When given the rat, Albert would be
stricken with fear and try to get away from the rat.
Little Albert
Conditioning Little Albert
John B. Watson
Little Albert Experiment
Watson’s Experiment
 The goal of Watson’s experiment was to show that
behavior is learned and trained into our minds and
to also show that our behavior did not come from the
“unconscious.”
 Unethical study
Psychology Question
Describe the phenomenon of classical conditioning.
What is the significance of classical conditioning?
Have you been classically conditioned to respond to
certain objects? Please identify the Unconditioned
stimulus, the Unconditioned response, and the
conditioned stimulus with the conditioned response?
Operant Conditioning
 Operant conditioning is used to shape voluntary
behavior through the use of reinforcers ( to make a
behavior happen more) and punishment ( to make
a behavior decrease or disappear).
 Operant conditioning can be used to alter the
behavior of pets, children, other adults, and your
own behavior too.
Examples of Operant Conditioning in everyday
life
 Operant conditioning is active!
 Animal trainers use these principals all the time.
For example, teaching SHAMU to jump through
hoops. They start real low, placing the hoop at a
low level and feeds her when she’s successful. Then
they place the hoop higher and higher. Start small.
Rewards each step she makes.
Operant Conditioning
 Parents who take away privileges when children
misbehave. They hope their children will lessen this
behavior. For example, taking away a child’s phone
privileges after receiving an F grade.
Shaping
 Animal trainers use shaping. Shaping involves
gradually molding responses to a final
desired pattern.
Mickey the Rat. We want to teach him to press the
bar. First we get him to face the bar, Any time he
turn toward the bar we give him food. If he takes a
step toward the bar we reinforce him with food. If
he takes a step in the other direction he gets
nothing. When he walks toward the bar, he’ll get
food. His responses are being shaped.
Shamu and trainers
Shamu’s Posing
Observational Learning
 Observational learning is learning by
watching and imitating the actions of another
person or by noting the consequences of the
person’s actions.
 Watching and imitating!
 Seeing a wrestling move on TV and using it
 Hearing certain phrases on TV and using it
 Imitating what you see on television or movies.
BOBO DOLL
 Bobo Doll Experiment
 Three groups of children.
 Group 1: Children watch an adult attack a large
blow up BoBo the clown doll. This adult sat on it,
kicked it, and punched it.
 Group 2: Children saw a movie of these actions.
 Group 3: Children saw a cartoon version of the
aggression.
Bobo Doll Experiment
 Later the children were frustrated by having some
toys taken away. They were then allowed to play
with BoBO the clown doll. Most of these children
imitated the adults attack and some even added
new moves on their own.
 What can these results tell you?
 Violent video game playing can have an affect on
you, desensitizing you to violence and acts of
aggression
Bobo Doll Experiment
Amazing Study
 An amazing study in Northwestern Canada took
place. This part of town did not receive TV
broadcasts was about to receive TV broadcasting.
Researchers seized this opportunity to test the
effects of television on aggressive behavior.
Researchers carefully tested residents of the town
just before TV arrived and again 2 years later.
Results of study
 After television was introduced two years later:
 Reading development among children declined
 Children’s score on creativity dropped
 Children’s perceptions of sex roles became more
stereotyped
 There was a significant increase in both verbal and
physical aggression.
 I wonder what this town did before television
came? End of lecture