Classical Conditioning
Module 21
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Classical Conditioning
How Do We Learn?
Classical Conditioning
 Pavlov’s Experiments
 Extending Pavlov’s
Understanding
 Pavlov’s Legacy
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Definition
Learning is a relatively permanent change in an
organism’s behavior due to experience.
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How Do We Learn?
We learn by association. Our minds naturally
connect events that occur in sequence.
Aristotle, 2000 years ago, suggested this law of
association and then 200 years ago Locke and
Hume
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Stimulus-Stimulus Learning
Learning to associate one stimulus
with another.
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Stimulus-Stimulus Learning
Learning to associate one stimulus
with another.
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Classical Conditioning
(Respondent behavior)
Ivan Pavlov
1849-1936
Russian physician/ neurophysiologist
Nobel Prize in 1904
studied digestive secretions
Sovfoto
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Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)
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Classical Conditioning - an organism learns to
connect or associate stimuli.
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Pavlov’s Experiments
Before conditioning food (Unconditioned
Stimulus, US) produces salivation
(Unconditioned Response, UR). The tone (neutral
stimulus) does not.
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Pavlov’s Experiments
During conditioning, neutral stimulus (tone) and
US (food) are paired resulting in salivation (UR).
After conditioning neutral stimulus (now
Conditioned Stimulus, CS) elicits salivation (now
Conditioned Response, CR)
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Acquisition
The CS needs to come half a second before
the US to cause acquisition.
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The Water Show
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Jeannette was happy when she heard her family’s plan to go to a
water sports’ show. Then she heard the weather report, which
predicted temperatures exceeding 100 degrees. Jeannette
suspected that the weather would be hard to bear, but she went
anyway to the show. As she watched the water skiers perform
their taxing routines to the blaring organ music, she became very
sweaty and uncomfortable. Eventually she fainted from the heat.
After the family outing, Jeannette could never again hear organ
music without feeling dizzy and eventually fainting.
What is the unconditioned stimulus (US)?
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What is the unconditioned response (UR)?
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What is the conditioned stimulus (CS)?
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What is the conditioned response (CR)?
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Biological Predispositions
Even humans develop classically conditioned
nausea.
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Extinction
When a US (food) does not follow a CS (tone)
CR (salivation) starts to decrease and at some
point goes extinct.
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Spontaneous Recovery
After a rest period an extinguished CR
(salivation) spontaneously recovers and if CS
(tone) persists alone becomes extinct again.
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Stimulus Generalization
Tendency to respond to
stimuli similar to CS is
called generalization.
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Stimulus Discrimination
Discrimination is the learned ability to
distinguish between a CS and other stimuli
that do not signal a US.
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Extending Pavlov’s Understanding
Pavlov and Watson considered consciousness
or mind not fit for scientific study of
psychology. However, they underestimated the
importance of cognitive processes and
biological constraints.
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Biological Predispositions
Even humans develop classically conditioned
nausea.
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Applications of Classical
Conditioning
Brown Brothers
Watson developed
advertising campaigns
including Maxwell
House, making “coffee
break” an American
custom.
John B. Watson
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Conditioned emotional response
Menu
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Applications of Classical
Conditioning
1. Alcoholics can be conditioned (aversively)
partly reversing their positive-associations
with alcohol.
2. A drug (plus its taste) that affects the
immune response, can lead the taste to
invoke the immune response through
classical conditioning.
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