Classical Conditioning
Ivan Pavlov was a Physiologist
Not a Psychologist
Pavlov was originally not interested in learning processes at all, he was studying the digestive processes of dogs.
While conducting research, Pavlov noticed some bizarre behaviour. Whenever he would enter the room in which the dogs were caged, he noticed that the dogs began to salivate even when he did not have food with him. He connected that the dogs were associating their feeding time with the sound of his own footsteps.
This sparked an idea for a research project. Pavlov would conduct an experiment to test whether he could make the dogs salivate to other stimuli other than the sound of his footsteps.
Definitions
Click to open/close
Classical Conditioning
is when something that does not cause a natural response (e.g., bell), produces a response when it is paired with something in the environment that causes a natural response (e.g., food)
Neutral stimulus (NS)
an object, person, or place etc. which has no effect on a person (e.g., bell)
Unconditioned stimulus (US)
something that causes a natural response (e.g., dog food)
Unconditioned response (UR)
the reaction as a result of the unconditioned stimulus (e.g., dog salivates to smell of food)
Conditioned stimulus (CS)
when a neutral stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus, the neutral stimulus then becomes a conditioned stimulus because it now elicits a response (e.g., bell now elicits a salivating response)
Conditioned response (CR)
the response that occurs after the neutral stimulus is paired with the unconditioned stimulus (e.g., salivation)
Acquisition
When the conditioned stimulus (e.g., bell) is repeatedly paired with the unconditioned stimulus (e.g., dog food), acquisition is said to occur. The more often you pair the CS with the US, the stronger the acquisition occurs. Also, it is important to note that the conditioned stimulus should be noticeable. For instance, if the bell is loud and unexpected, this will produce a better result in comparison to a quite tone
Extinction
as time passes, if the conditioned stimulus is presented without the unconditioned stimulus, the conditioned response does not occur (e.g., dog stops salivating when bell is presented without the food). Sort of like forgetting!
Generalization
similar stimuli elicit a similar reaction. For instance, if the sound of a small brass bell causes the dog to salivate, the sound of a door bell might also cause the dog to salivate as well