CHS AP Psychology
Unit 6: Learning (Behaviorism)
Essential Task 5.2: Describe basic classical conditioning
phenomena with specific attention to unconditioned
stimulus, unconditioned response, neutral stimulus, pairing,
acquisition, conditioned stimulus, conditioned response,
extinction, spontaneous recovery, stimulus generalization,
stimulus discrimination, contingency, and higher-order
learning.
Classical Conditioning
• Book definition: The type of learning in
which a response naturally elicited by one
stimulus becomes to be elicited by a
different formally neutral stimulus.
• Working definition:
– Type of learning that happens TO someone
– Person learns to respond BIOLOGICALLY to a
stimulus.
– Previously the stimulus meant nothing.
– Now it means something IS ABOUT TO
HAPPEN.
Examples of Classical Conditioning
Phobias
After the attacks, cats become a
warning stimulus for pain causing fear
when the child sees cats.
After this botched photo, 6 ft bunny
becomes warning stimulus for
someone trying to capture you.
Examples of Classical Conditioning
Taste Aversion
After throwing up a food, it
becomes a warning stimulus
for getting sick.
Examples of Classical Conditioning
Using Sex to Sell
Advertisers pair their product with sexual
imagery hoping that the product will
become a ‘promising stimulus’ for sexual
arousal. Hopefully this connection makes
you grab their product off the self .
Examples of Classical Conditioning
Key Psychologists
• Ivan Pavlov
Russian physiologist
known primarily for
his work in classical
conditioning.
Key Psychologists
• John B. Watson
Key Psychologists
• John Garcia
Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)
• A stimulus that invariably causes an
organism to responds BIOLOGICALLY
in a specific way
Unconditioned response (UCR)
• A BIOLOGICAL response that takes
place in an organism whenever an
unconditioned stimulus occurs
Neutral Stimulus
• A stimulus that does not naturally
cause a response in the organism.
Pairing
• Presenting the organism with the CS
and then the UCS multiple times.
Acquisition
• refers to the first stages of learning
when a response is established.
– In classical conditioning, it refers to the
period of time when the stimulus comes
to evoke the conditioned response.
– The time in between the two stimuli
should be about half a second.
Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
• An originally neutral stimulus that is
paired with an unconditioned stimulus
an eventually produces the desired
response in an organism when
presented alone.
Conditioned Response (CR)
• After conditioning, the response an
organism produces when only a
conditioned stimulus is presented.
Taste Aversion:
Single Conditioning Experience
Stimulus Generalization
• the transfer of a learned response to
different but similar stimulus.
Stimulus Discrimination
• learning to respond to only one
stimulus and to inhibit the response to
all other stimuli.
Extinction
• Extinction is a decrease in the strength
or frequency of a learned response
because of no longer pairing the US
and CS
Spontaneous Recovery
• reappearance of an extinguished
response after the passage of time,
without further conditioning
Contingency Theory of Classical Conditioning
For Pavlov, the key variable in associative
learning was the number of times the CS was
paired with the US.
The Pairings Principle:
As the number of pairings increases, the
strength of the association between CS and
US increases.
This was because the CS became a more
reliable signal that the US was going to
occur.
Contingency Theory of Classical
Conditioning
In the 1960s, an alternative theory was proposed
by Robert A. Rescorla, the Contingency Theory.
Rescorla agreed with Pavlov that for learning
to take place, the CS had to be a useful
predictor of the US.
But he disagreed on what made the CS a
useful predictor. It was more complicated
than the number of CS-US pairings.
He maintained that it was the contingency OR
THE CONNECTION between the CS and US.
Higher Order Learning in Classical
Conditioning
• Also known as second order conditioning.
• A form of learning in which a stimulus is
first made meaningful or consequential for
an organism through an initial step of
learning, and then that stimulus is used as a
basis for learning about some new stimulus.
For example, an animal might first learn to
associate a bell with food (first-order
conditioning), but then learn to associate a
light with the bell (second-order
conditioning).