LEARNING
3 Main Types of Learning
• Classical Conditioning – Pavlov
• Operant Conditioning – Skinner
• Observational / Social Learning - Bandura
How do we learn?
Most learning is associative learning
• Learning that certain events occur together.
What was Derek Zoolander
conditioned to do?
Classical Conditioning 243-250
It all started with:
Ivan Pavlov …. And
his dogs.
Interested in
digestion but
noticed dogs were
salivating when he
entered the room.
Why??
CS --> CR
• Unconditioned stimulus
(US)- normal or natural
stimulus.
• Unconditioned
Response (UR) normal / natural
response.
• Neutral Stimulus (NS) would not normally
cause a response.
• NS + US = UR
• The neutral stimulus
becomes conditioned,
to produce the
conditioned response.
Conditioning
• Associating neutral stimulus with
unconditioned stimulus
• Conditioned Stimulus = CS
• Conditioned Response = CR
• A previously Neutral Stimulus (NS)
produces a response in the animal/human
How did Pavlov’s experiment work?
•
•
•
•
•
Food = US
Salivation = UR
Bell = NS → CS
Associating bell with food = CS
Salivating to the bell = CR
What about our Squirt Bottle
experiment?
Unconditioned Stimulus (US):
Squirt of water
Unconditioned Response (UR):
Eye Flinching
Neutral Stimulus (NS) → (CS):
Word “psycho”
Conditioned Response (CR):
Flinching to word “psycho”
Some practice
•
•
Scenario 1
A man goes to a nice restaurant & gets his favorite dish – shrimp. After eating at the
restaurant, he gets food poisoning & is violently ill. After the food poisoning, he never
wants to eat shrimp again and gags a little when he smells it.
_____ + ________ 
____________
NS
UCS
UCR
___________

____________
CS
CR
•
•
Scenario 2
Every time a man hears “Dancing Queen” by Abba, he cannot control his happy feet
and begins to dance wildly. Whenever the DJ is about to play “Dancing Queen” he
unbuttons the first two buttons on his shirt. Now, whenever the DJ unbuttons his
shirt, the person begins to dance wildly.
_____ + ________

____________
NS
UCS
UCR
__________

____________
•
CS
CR
Pavlov spent the rest of his life outlining
his ideas. He came up with 5 critical
terms that together make up classical
conditioning.
• Acquisition
• Extinction
• Spontaneous Recovery
• Generalization
• Discrimination
Acquisition
• The initial stage of learning.
• The phase where the neutral stimulus is
associated with the UCS so that the
neutral stimulus comes to elicit the CR
(thus becoming the CS).
Does timing matter?
•The CS should come before the UCS (within 5
seconds).
Extinction
• The diminishing of a conditioned
response.
• Will eventually happen when the UCS
does not follow the CS.
Is extinction permanent?
Spontaneous Recovery
• The reappearance. After a rest period, of
an extinguished conditioned response.
Generalization
• The tendency, once a response has been
conditioned, for stimuli similar to the CS to
elicit similar responses.
Discrimination
• The learned ability to distinguish between
a CS and other stimuli that does not signal
UCS.
Pages 250-253
APPLICATIONS OF
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
John Watson
• Started behavioral
perspective – idea
that psychology
should be centered
on observable
responses
• Case of Little Albert
3:27
https://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=FMnhyGozL
yE
John Watson and advertising
• Used classical
conditioning principles
in advertising
• People associate
products with sex
appeal or warm,
comfortable feelings
Cognition in Classical
Conditioning
• Rescorla and Wagner
– Contingency model of
conditioning
– Rat A heard a tone
then was shocked 20
times. Rat B had the
tone-shock pair but
then was shocked
without the tone.
Which one had a
stronger response?
• Garcia and Koelling =
biological predisposition
to learn
• Rats given sugar water
then injected with nausea
producing drug hours
later will have a taste
aversion.
• Wouldn’t become
nauseous to sounds,
sights. Why not?
So are we all just Pavlovian dogs who will
mindlessly follow a bell?
What do Rescorla/Wagner and
Garcia/Koelling experiments tell us about
humans and conditioning?
Real Life applications of
Classical Conditioning
• Animal Training
• Food Aversions
• Bedwetting Alarms