• A relatively permanent change in
– behavior,
– knowledge,
– capability, or
– attitude
– that is acquired through experience
– and cannot be attributed to illness, injury, or maturation
• Infants do not ‘learn’ how to walk as basic motor skills and maturation govern every species.

LEARNING

BASIC ASSUMPTIONS of Behaviorism
 People’s behaviors are largely the result of their experiences with environmental stimuli
 Person is born as a blank slate (Locke’s Tabula Rasa)
 Environment writes on this slate – conditions individual
 Learning can be described in terms of relationships among observable event – Stimuli and responses
 Learning is a change in behavior
 Learning is most likely to occur when stimuli and responses occur close together in time.
 CONTIGUITY – events occur together
 Many species of animals, including humans, learn in similar ways
 Rats, pigeons,

A type of learning through which, by association, an organism learns to associate one stimulus with another.
• working with emotional component, INVOLUNTARY operates on the
– involuntary nervous system
– endocrine system
– smooth muscles
– When you are conditioned, you can’t help yourself!
You just respond.

– Any event or object in the environment to which an organism responds
– Any reaction evoked by a stimulus

The Process of Classical
Conditioning
• Discovered by accident during saliva experiment
• Observed salivary response occurring before presentation of food
• when dogs heard footsteps of lab assistants
• heard food dishes rattle
• saw the attendant who fed them
• Or spotted their food.

• Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)
– A stimulus that elicits a specific unconditioned response without learning
• Food
• Loud noise
• Light in eye
• Puff of air in eye
• Unconditioned Response (UCR)
– A response that is elicited by an unconditioned stimulus without prior learning.
• Salivation
• Startle
• Contraction of pupil to light
• eye blink response

Classical Conditioning
• Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
– A neutral stimulus that, after repeated pairing with an
UCS, becomes associated with it and elicits a CR
• Conditioned Response (CR)
– The learned response that comes to be elicited by a CS as a result of its repeated pairing with an UCS.
• Higher-Order Conditioning
– Occurs when the CS are linked together to form a series of signals
• The steps leading to a blood draw at a clinic

• Neutral Stimulus (NS) alone  No Response
– Tone (NS)  NR
• Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)  UCR
– Food  Salivation
• Tone + Food  Salivation
NS + UCS  UCR
Paired often enough  Tone MEANS FOOD

• The Tone becomes a CONDITIONED
STIMULUS ( CS )
• We can get a response without the food ( UCS )
• We now have
CS  CR

Changing Conditioned Responses
• Extinction
– The weakening and eventual disappearance of the CR as a result of repeated presentation of the CS
WITHOUT the UCS.
• Spontaneous Recovery
– Reappearance of an extinguished response after exposure to the original
CS following a rest period.

Changing Conditioned Responses
• Generalization
– The tendency to make a CR to a stimulus that is similar to the original
CS.
• Discrimination
– The learned ability to distinguish between similar stimuli so that the CR occurs only to the original CS but not to similar stimuli

and Emotional Conditioning
• In 1919 initiated experiment to prove fear could be classically conditioned.
– ‘Little Albert’
– Conditioned to be afraid of
• White rats
• Other white objects

Classical Conditioning in Daily Life
Smell and taste are closely associated because the smell of a particular food is a signal for its taste and the physical sensation associated with eating it.
You can imagine how the fresh bread smells, tastes, and its texture by viewing the picture.

Classical Conditioning in Daily Life
• What happens when you smell food?
– Stomach rumbles due to digestive processes that typically follow the smell and taste of food
– Pancreas responds to counteract conditioned rise in blood sugar after a sweet taste on the tongue

Classical Conditioning in Daily Life
• Taste Aversion
– The intense dislike and/or avoidance of a particular food that has been associated with nausea or discomfort.
• Chemotherapy
– Chemotherapy treatments can result in a conditioned taste aversion,
– Providing a “scapegoat” target can help patients maintain a proper diet

Classical Conditioning in Daily Life
• Dental visits
– Sound of the drills and suction
– Smell of the office
– Sight of the chair and light
• Drug use
– The CS associated with drug use lead individuals to seek out those substances
– Counselors urge recovering addicts to avoid any cues (people, places, and things)