Experiment Results

Trial (Pteradactyl Scream instead of a full glass):

Trial 1: Blink

Trial 2: Blink

Trial 3: No Blink

Trial 4: No Blink

Trial 5: No Blink

Test Trial 1: No Blink

Test Trial 2: Blink

Alternating Conditioning Trials:

Trial 1 (with puff): Blink

Trial 2 (w/o puff): Blink

Trial 3 (with puff): Blink

Trial 4 (w/o puff): Blink

Trial 5 (with puff): Blink

Trial 6 (w/o puff): Blink

Test Trial 3: Blink

Generalization test (Hawk Scream instead of an empty glass): No Blink

Number of trials for extinction: 8

Number of trials for extinction after a break: 12

Allison Whitener

PSY 200 Basic Learning

Griffee

Response/Interpretation

For this experiment, I chose to use animal screams, as .wav files on my computer were more

readily available than glasses. My subject began extremely confused initially by what I was doing,

because I didn’t go into any detail about what would be occurring. As he listened to the pterodactyl

scream the first time, the general response was that he didn’t blink. After blowing in his eye and

following the steps listed, he began to blink each time he heard the pterodactyl scream. It was

extremely interesting once he discovered that I was using classical conditioning to make him blink during

that sound (he is a psychology minor) because he started trying to resist. Even when trying to resist, he

still blinked whenever he heard the pterodactyl scream. I then played a hawk scream, which sounds

extremely similar, in order to test if stimulus generalization had occurred. Because it hadn’t, I went back

to playing the pterodactyl noise. Then I tried using extinction to help him get rid of the habit. When I

blew in his eye the second time after the first fit of extinction, he seemed to struggle even more to break

the habit. This has been an interesting look at the effects of classical conditioning. Something as simple

as blinking when hearing a noise can be conditioned, which seems so minute.

I guess I’m just surprised that this is even a plausible response. I’m not entirely sure if his

responses had specifically to do with his previous learning history. The biggest shock is that even when

he was consciously attempting to resist, he still blinked when he heard the pterodactyl noise.

Example:

So one everyday example of classical conditioning is how we’ve been conditioned to be excited

when we hear the sound of an ice cream truck. In this situation, the unconditioned stimuli is ice cream

and the unconditioned response is a happy feeling. When the ice cream truck comes in the

summertime, it stops to allow children to get ice cream. After many times of hearing the jingle that the

ice cream truck plays and getting ice cream shortly after, the children would be conditioned to be happy

every time they hear the ice cream truck. In this example the conditioned stimuli is the ice cream truck

jungle and the controlled response is the happy feeling. If every single time the children heard the tune

and were given ice cream, they are being reinforced that the tune from the ice cream truck is a good

thing.

In this situation, the easiest way to implement extinction is to change the contents of the truck.

The ice cream truck for some reason didn’t make enough money, so a new vendor, who sells only

broccoli, uses that truck. At first, the children would be happy whenever when they heard the truck’s

tune because they are conditioned for it to represent ice cream. Eventually, after going to the truck

several times and finding out it only serves broccoli, they won’t be as confident to get the ice cream.

Soon, the good feelings associated with the jingle due to the ice cream will diminish because of the

change of stimuli.