Psychology 001
Introduction to Psychology
Christopher Gade, PhD
Office: 621 Heafey
Office hours: F 3-6 and by apt.
Email: gadecj@gmail.com
Class WF 7:00-8:30 Heafey 650
What’s on tap?
Today we’re going to discuss behaviorism
and how it relates to learning
We’ll do this by…



Briefly reviewing the field of behaviorism and
discussing one of its most influential characters
Going over one of the most popular behavioral
discoveries of all time
Discussing classical conditioning and the basics
of how this learning process works
Learning:
A relatively permanent change in an
organism’s behavior due to experience.
Behaviorism: the approach to
Psychology that involves
observable cause-and-effect
relationships between conditions
and behavior
• Origins in ‘stimulus-response’
psychology
• Takes into account an organism’s
history of experiences, i.e.
knowledge
• Aims to decode the ‘basic laws of
behavior’
• Assumes a deterministic perspective
and emphasizes the influence of the
environment
John B Watson
Pioneer in the field of behaviorism
Considered by many to be the founding
father of behaviorism. This might not be the
case, but he was definitely their poster boy.
Famously known for his statement:

“Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my
own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll
guarantee to take any one at random and train him to
become any type of specialist I might select…”
Most famous experiment was with Baby Albert.
Associative Learning (Classical Conditioning):
We link together events/experiences that have some
kind of association such that you can predict one from
the other:
•
•
•
•
temporal sequence, they happen close in time.
meaning, they represent the same thing.
function, they serve the same function.
salience, they share the same emotional significance.
Lightning  thunder
A  excellent
Bank teller  ATM
9/11  WMD
Ivan Pavlov (1839-1946)
• Originally interested in
the digestive system of
dogs.
• From his research, he
discovered ‘psychic
salivations’ that dogs
would show (for which he was awarded a Nobel
prize)
• Realized that this form of learning was interesting
and dedicated his time to studying how dogs
developed this behavior
•
5:28
Classical Conditioning
In this form of learning, the
learned responses develop from
an initial pairing of two pieces
of information:
•
The unconditioned stimulus
(US): a stimulus that elicits an
unlearned, or reflexive response.
•
The unconditioned response
(UR): a response to a stimulus
that is automatic.
Classical Conditioning
After the initial pairing of
information, a “neutral
stimulus” (NS) is presented to
the individual.
A “training” or “pairing”
procedure then begins until the
neutral stimulus is recognized
to be associated with the
unconditioned stimulus:
This pairing of stimuli
eventually leads to a
“conditioned response” (CR)
to the newly “conditioned
stimulus” (CS).
Classical Conditioning
Important concepts
• A learning curve tells us whether conditioning is
occurring, that is, whether, when and how strongly the
CS is eliciting the CR over time.
• Second-order conditioning is a process of adding new
CSs to the conditioned CSs (sequentially).
• If, after the conditioning, the CS is presented without the
US repeatedly, the association will deteriorate and the CS
will cease to elicit the CR – this is called extinction.
– however, extinguished associations can be reconditioned
(usually faster than the initial conditioning) AND, sometimes
organisms show spontaneous recovery of extinguished
behaviors.
Extinction and Spontaneous Recovery
Strength
of CR
Acquisition
(CS+US)
Extinction
(CS alone)
Spontaneous
recovery of
CR
Extinction
(CS alone)
Pause
What influences the strength of a learned response
through classical conditioning?
Conditioning occurs more rapidly when the
neutral stimulus is relatively unfamiliar.
The less time that elapses between the
presentation of the CS and the UCS, the faster
the CR is acquired.
The CR will be acquired more quickly when the
CS precedes the UCS (forward conditioning).
Specific connections between CS’s and UCS’s
are stronger in different species.

Rat and Poison example
What about stimuli that are
similar to the neutral stimulus?
• Sometimes, organisms respond to new, irrelevant stimuli
that closely resemble the original Neutral Stimulus with
the same CR, this is called generalization.
• Organisms can also
learn through
conditioning to
discriminate between
similar stimuli, if a
CS– is introduced into
the conditioning
process.
What does this tell us about learning?
It tells us how we can learn about how our minds
might pair stimuli with each other.
However, it doesn’t inform us about how we
know about what to do and not to do in our
world.
In our next class we’ll revisit the world of
behaviorism from a different perspective; from
the world of operant conditioning.
Have a good weekend!