Classical Conditioning

Classical Conditioning

A type of learning where a stimulus gains the power to cause a response because it predicts another stimulus that already produces that response

Form of learning by association

Stimulus-Response

Stimulus - anything in the environment that one can respond to

Response - any behavior or action

Ivan Pavlov’s Discovery

Pavlov’s Research Apparatus

Pavlov’s Experiment

Pavlov’s Experiment

Pavlov’s Experiment

Components of Classical

Conditioning

Unconditioned Stimulus (US) Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

Unconditioned Response (UR) Conditioned Response (CR)

Before Learning After Learning

Unconditioned Stimulus (US/UCS)

A stimulus that triggers a response automatically and reflexively (naturally)

Should cause somethingUS in our anchor?

Unconditioned Response (UR/UCR)

The automatic response to the unconditioned stimulus

The relationship between the US and UR must be reflexive and not learned

UR in our anchor?

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

A stimulus that through learning has gained the power to cause a conditioned response

Must be a neutral stimulus before conditioning occursIrrelevant before conditioning (Neutral)

Conditioned Response (CR)

The response to the conditioned stimulus

Usually the same behavior as the UR

H0w Does Learning Occur?

Acquisition

The process of developing a learned response

Occurs when a neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with an unconditioned stimulusEach pairing is called a trialNeutral stimulus (“That Was Easy”) is

paired with (air gun) over and overNeutral stimulus is now a CS

1. Air gun (US) Flinch (UR)

2. That was Easy (neutral stimulus) + Air Gun (US) Flinch

3. That was Easy (CS) Flinch (CR)

How can we test if acquisition has occurred?

Present the CS (That Was Easy) without presenting the US (Air Gun)

If something happens (flinch) then learning has occurred!

If not, then the neutral stimulus is not a conditioned response yet

PRACTICE!

Read the provided scenarios and identify the components of classical conditioning

How do I know where to start? Ask yourself: What is the automatic/reflexive

response? UR What caused that? US What now causes the response? CS

Complete the first two scenarios on your ownMay work with your neighbor for the

remainder of the scenarios

EXTINCTION, SPONTANEOUS RECOVERY, DISCRIMINATION, GENERALIZATION

Classical Conditioning Processes

Extinction

The diminishing of a learned responseIn classical conditioning, the continual

presentation of the CS without the USAnchor example

Presenting “That was Easy” without the air gun

Spontaneous Recovery

The reappearance, after a rest period, of an extinguished conditioned response

May be diminished

Generalization

Process in which an organism produces the same response to two similar stimuli

The more similar the substitute stimulus is to the original used in conditioning, the stronger the generalized response

Little Albert example? Responding to other fluffy things

Pavlov’s example Responding to a different tuning fork

Discrimination

A process in which an organism produces different responses to two similar stimuli

Subject learns that one stimuli predicts the US and the other does not

Pavlov ExampleDog being able to tell the difference between

two tuning forks

Classical Conditioning in Everyday Life

John Watson

Behaviorist Mental processes don’t matter!

Wanted to disprove Freud’s growing field of psychoanalysis

“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 the race of his ancestors” (From Behaviorism, by John Watson, 1924)

Little Albert

8-11-month-old infantWatson and his assistant, Rosalie

Rayner, conditioned Albert to be frightened of white rats

Little Albert – Before Conditioning

Little Albert – During Conditioning

Little Albert – After Conditioning

Little Albert - Generalization

So What?

Brought up questions of ethicsAlso….any time you associate an emotional response with a particular stimulus, classical conditioning probably has occurredAdvertisements!

Desensitization Therapy

Some phobias are learned through classical conditioning

Mary Cover Jones: fears can be unlearned through CC Used cc to pair a frightening thing (rabbit) w/

pleasant experience (candy)Joseph Wolpe: Desensitization Therapy

Learning to relax in fearful/anxiety producing situations

Taste Aversion

Subjects become classically conditioned to avoid specific tastes, because the tastes are associated with nausea

John Garcia (1917- )

Garcia

While doing research on radiation, discovered that rats avoided drinking from the water bottles in the radiation chambers

Began pairing a nausea-producing drug with different foods to create a taste aversion to certain foods

Taste aversion is our brain telling us we’re being poisoned (regardless of whether or not the food made us sick!)

Cognition and Biological

Predispositions

Biological Perspective

We are predisposed to learn things that affect our survivalPreparedness (Martin Seligman)

We are predisposed to avoid threats our ancestors faced--food that made us sick, storms, heights, snakes, etc.--but not modern-day threats--cars, water pollution, etc.

Biological Predispositions

It was once believed that conditioning occurred the same in all animals and that you could associate any neutral stimulus with a response. Nope!

Animals have biological predispositions to associating certain stimuli over others

Ex: You eat a new food and later get sick. You will be conditioned to associate the taste of the FOOD with

getting sick NOT the music playing in the restaurant, the plate it was

served on, or the perfume your neighbor was wearingBirds hunt by sight and will more quickly become

conditioned to the SIGHT of tainted food

Cognition and Robert Rescorla (1940- )

Early behaviorists believed that learned behaviors of various animals could be reduced to mindless mechanisms

Rescorla developed a theory emphasizing the importance of cognitive processes in classical conditioning

Pointed out that subjects had to determine (think) whether the CS was a reliable predictor of the UCS

Example

Therapists give alcoholics drink containing a nausea-producing drug to condition them to avoid alcohol

Because clients KNOW that the drug is what is actually causing the nausea, it doesn’t work so well.

Examples of Classical Conditioning

Conditioned Fears Driving a car (neutral event). Experience a panic attack while

driving associate driving with causing panic responseConditioning of emotional responses Cancer patients associating the chemo room with nausea Treating drug/alcohol addiction by pairing a nausea-

producing drug with the drug of addictionChild who is afraid of rabbits because one bit him when

he was young, expose the child to rabbits in safe environments repeatedly until the behavior is extinguished

Extinguish feelings of anxiety associated with trauma (PTSD)