Classical Conditioning

Mr. KochAP Psychology

Forest Lake High School

Ivan Pavlov1849-1936

• Russian physician/ neurophysiologist

• Studied digestive secretion– Accidentally discovered

Classical Conditioning

Classical Conditioning• Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)– Stimulus which causes an

automatic unlearned response• The food

• Unconditioned Response (UCR)– Unlearned behavior of an

organism which occurs naturally as a result of stimulation• Salivation when food is in mouth

Classical Conditioning

• Acquisition– The initial stage of learning• In classical conditioning, the phase associating a neutral

stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus

Classical Conditioning

• Conditioned Stimulus (CS)– Being paired with a stimulus that

causes a response this will eventually cause a similar response

– Starts as a Neutral Stimulus (NS) before pairing• Tone of a bell/tuning fork

• Conditioned Response (CR)– The behavior of an organism when

a conditioned stimulus is presented after the CS has been paired with a UCS• Salivation

Classical Conditioning

Classical Conditioning

• Classical Conditioning– Learning situation in which a response is caused by a

certain stimulus because the stimulus was combined for a number of trials with a stimulus which normally causes the response • Also called respondent conditioning

Classical ConditioningUCS(passionate kiss) UCR

(sexualarousal)

CS(onionbreath)

CS(onion breath) CR

(sexualarousal)

UCS(passionate Kiss) UCR

(sexualarousal)

Classical ConditioningUCS(drug)

UCR(nausea)

CS(waiting room)

CS(waitingroom) CR

(nausea)

UCS(drug)

UCR(nausea)

Classical Conditioning

What would happen if UCS stopped being paired with CS? (i.e. rang bell and gave dog no food?)

• Extinction– The elimination of the conditioned response by

presenting the CS without the UCS

Classical ConditioningWhat if you then allowed time to pass before

presenting the CS again?

• Spontaneous Recovery– The recovery of the response to a particular

stimulus after extinction and the passage of time

Strengthof CR

Pause

Acquisition(CS+UCS)

Extinction(CS alone)

Extinction(CS alone)

Spontaneousrecovery ofCR

Behaviorism

• John B. Watson– Viewed psychology as

objective science– Recommended study of

behavior without reference to unobservable mental processes

“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 – doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief, and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors.”

- John B. Watson

Classical Conditioning• Generalization– Subject reacts to a class of stimuli similar to the

original CS

“Little Albert” experiment(Watson and Rosalie Rayner)

Classical Conditioning

• Discrimination– Subject learns to respond to a particular stimulus

(ability to distinguish between a CS and other stimuli)

Classical Conditioning

• Taste Aversion• John Garcia

– Can learn association between taste and nausea even hours after eating• Adaptive for survival• Challenged idea that pairing must

be immediate– Examples:

» Problems for chemotherapy patients

» Mr. Koch’s dad & chocolate milk» Binge drinkers and tequila» Nausea-inducing drugs & alcohol