Classical Conditioning AKA: Pavlovian conditioning
What is it? A type of learning where a stimulus gains the power to cause a response because it predicts another stimulus that already produces that response. Translation?? In classical conditioning we learn to associate two stimuli and thus, to anticipate events. For Example
Lightning and Thunder Example One Stimulus - anything in the environment that one can respond to Response any behavior or action
How??? The Japanese Rancher Example 2 A clever Japanese Rancher herds his cattle to the barn at dinner time by outfitting them with pagers. When he calls the pagers from his cell phone, the cows know that dinner awaits and head in. After one week of training, the cows learn to associate two stimuli 1) The beep on their pager 2) the arrival of food.
Ivan Pavlov: The King of Classical Conditioning Most people think of Ivan Pavlov when it comes to classical conditioning. He discovered it while doing experiments on the digestive system of dogs. 1849-1936 Russian physician/ neurophysiologist Nobel Prize in 1904 Studied digestive secretions
Pavlov and Dogs After studying saliva secretion in dogs Pavlov knew that when he put food in a dog s mouth it would salivate. He also noticed that, if he worked with the same dog repeatedly, the dog would salivate at the mere sight of food.
Pavlov and Dogs At first, Pavlov found this annoying because it interfered with his digestion experiments. Then he realized that they pointed to a simple form of learning which he studied from that time on.
After placing the dog in a secluded room, secured in a harness (to avoid extraneous stimuli) and attaching an instrument that led the saliva down a glass tube to be measured, they paired various neutral stimuli, with food in the mouth to see if the dog would begin salivating the neutral stimuli by itself, in this case it was a tone. Pavlov s Apparatus
Pavlov s Experiment How it Worked From the next room they would either slide in the food or blow it into the dogs mouth from a meat blower; making feeding unpredictable and spontaneous. However, just before placing the food in the dog s mouth Pavlov sounded a tone. After being introduced to the food after the tone a few times, they paired the sounding of the tone with the food and began salivating to the sound of the tone alone. Because salivation in response to food in the mouth was unlearned Pavlov called it an Unconditioned Response (UCR). Food in the mouth automatically, unconditionally, triggers a dog s salivary reflex. Thus Pavlov called the food stimulus anunconditioned stimulus (UCS).
Pavlov s Experiment
Acquisition The process of developing a learned response. The initial stage in classical conditioning. The phase associating a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus comes to elicit a conditioned response. In operant conditioning, the strengthening of a reinforced response. (The subject learns a new response (CR) to a previously neutral stimulus (CS))
Extinction The diminished responding that occurs when the CS (tone) no longer signals an impending UCS (food). Pavlov found that after sounding the tone again and again without presenting food, the dogs salivated less and less.
Spontaneous Recovery The reappearance of a (weakened) CR after a rest pause. If Pavlov allowed several hours to go by before sounding the tone again, the salivation to the tone would reappear spontaneously.
Generalization Tendency (once a response has been conditioned) for stimuli similar to CS to elicit similar responses. Pavlov noticed that a dog conditioned to the sound of one tone also responded to the sound of a different tone although it was never paired with food. Likewise, a dog conditioned to salivate when rubbed would also salivate when scratched.
Discrimination A process in which an organism produces different responses to two similar stimuli The subject learns that one stimuli predicts the UCS and the other does not. Pavlov s dogs learned to respond to the sound of a particular tone and not to other tones.
Watson and Behaviorism John B. Watson viewed psychology as objective science generally agreed-upon consensus today recommended study of behaviorwithout reference to unobservable mental processes not universally accepted by all schools of thought today 1878-1958
Little Albert Little Albert was an11- month-old infant. Watson and his assistant, Rosalie Rayner, conditioned Albert to be frightened of white rats Their experiment led to questions about experimental ethics.
Little Albert Experiment http://asooke.com/videos-baby-albert-experiments-%5b0fkzayt77zm%5d.cfm
Little Albert Before Conditioning During Conditioning
Little Albert After Conditioning Generalization
Examples of Classical Conditioning Taste Aversion Almost everyone becomes classically conditioned to avoid specific tastes, because the tastes are associated with nausea. John Garcia (1917- ) For example: we avoid tastes that, at one time, may have been our favorite foods. This might be caused by bad experiences of eating this particular food while having the flu and vomiting. We come to relate that food to throw up and it might even make our stomach churn just to look at it. In Everyday Life Nausea Conditioning in Cancer Patients
Cognition and Biological Predispositions Robert Rescorla(1940- ) 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 Biological Perspective We are predisposed to learn things that affect our survival. 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.