Understanding Classical Conditioning – The Science of Associations

 Understanding Classical Conditioning – The Science of Associations

But we are study of classical conditioning in easy way and with examples:

Classical Conditioning

 Ivan Pavlov was a Russian scientist who investigated the digestive system of dogs by presenting them with meat powder and measuring the amount of saliva they produced. 
Pavlov found that the dogs began to salivate even before the meat powder was presented as they associated the feeder with the meat powder. This led Pavlov to conclude that the dogs were conditioned to respond to the feeder through classical conditioning.

Examples:

Example 1: School Bell and Students' Behavior

Scenario: When the school lunch bell rings, students immediately open their bags to eat, even if they are not feeling hungry at that moment.

Classical Conditioning Explanation:

v                      Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): Lunch break time (naturally triggers hunger).

v                      Unconditioned Response (UCR): Feeling hungry and eating food.

v                      Conditioned Stimulus (CS): The sound of the school lunch bell.

v                      Conditioned Response (CR): Opening their bags and preparing to eat just by hearing the bell.

Association: Students associate the sound of the bell with lunchtime.

Example 2: Mobile Notification Sound

Scenario: When a phone notification sound plays, people often check their phones immediately, even if the notification is not important.

Classical Conditioning Explanation:

v                  Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): Receiving an important message or notification.

v                  Unconditioned Response (UCR): Checking the phone.

v                  Conditioned Stimulus (CS): The notification sound.

v                  Conditioned Response (CR): Picking up the phone as soon as the notification sound is heard.

Association: The notification sound becomes linked with important messages, prompting a reaction.

            The device used by Pavlov to demonstrate the effect of conditioning on dog salivation

Ethical Conditions in Conditioning Human Behaviour

 Classical conditioning: This type of learning involves the repeated association of a previously neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus, to elicit a conditioned response Researchers Watson and Raynor wanted to test the idea that fear could be acquired through classical conditioning. Their subject was Little Albert, an eleven-month-old son of a female employee at the clinic.The child’s mother knew nothing about the experiment. 

 Watson and Raynor presented Albert with a white laboratory rat while sounding a loud noise. Little Albert soon associated the loud noise with the white rat and was conditioned to fear the rat. This fear was then generalised to other fluffy white objects such a Santa's Beard and a sealskin coat.

It is not known whether this intense fear was reversed. There were many ethical issues in this experiment that were overlooked. Ethical guidelines for psychological research have certainly improved and are much different today.

Key Terms in Classical Conditioning

 Some key terms in classical conditioning include:

Neutral stimulus (NS)

    Neutral stimulus (NS) - a stimulus which, prior to conditioning, would evoke no response. This always becomes the conditioned stimulus, e.g. the bell in Pavlov's experiments.

Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)

    Unconditioned stimulus (UCS) - a stimulus which innately produces a response or reflex, such as the meat in Pavlov's experiments.

Unconditioned response (UCR)

    Unconditioned response (UCR) - an unlearned response elicited by an unconditioned stimulus, e.g. the dog involuntarily salivated at the meat (UCS).

Association

    A connection between two events which results in learning. Pavlov's dogs learned to associate the ringing of the bell and the presentation of the meat so that they eventually learned to salivate at the bell alone.

Conditioned stimulus (CS)

    Conditioned stimulus (CS) - After the neutral stimulus has been paired with the unconditioned stimulus many times, the neutral stimulus becomes the conditioned stimulus. It now elicits a learned response such as the bell.

Conditioned response (CR)

    Conditioned response (CR) - a learned response to a conditioned stimulus. Pavlov's dogs learned to salivate at the bell.

The Main Elements in Classical Conditioning

The main elements involved in classical conditioning are:

1-Extinction 

     when a conditioned response is no longer reinforced by the unconditioned stimulus, the conditioned response will cease to occur.

 For example, if the bell (CS) is continually presented without the meat (UCS), the dog will eventually stop salivating (CR) at the bell alone.

Daily-Life Example: If someone stops getting a reward for using a loyalty card at a store, they might stop using the card altogether.

2-Stimulus generalisation 

    when an organism has been conditioned to respond to a stimulus, it will often respond to similar stimuli.

 For example, Pavlov's dogs responded to bells of a similar pitch to the original bell.

Daily-Life Example: If a child learns to fear a specific dog, they might start fearing all dogs, even if they’ve never seen those other dogs before.

3-Stimulus discrimination 

    when an organism responds to a conditioned stimulus but detects a difference in other stimuli and therefore doesn't respond to them. Pavlov's dogs did not respond to bell-like stimuli that were quite different from the original bell.

Example: Pavlov’s dogs salivated only to the original bell sound and not to sounds that were quite different.

Daily-Life Example: A person can recognize their own phone ringtone in a crowded room and ignore other similar ringtones.

4-Spontaneous recovery 

     The reappearance of a conditioned response after extinction and a rest period.

Operant conditioning.

Example: If Pavlov’s dogs stopped salivating at the bell after extinction, but then suddenly began salivating again after hearing the bell days later, this would be spontaneous recovery.

Daily-Life Example: If someone overcomes a fear of public speaking but suddenly feels nervous again after a long break, this is spontaneous recovery.

    Operant conditioning is learning where the consequence is dependent on the organism's response. The consequence then influences the likelihood of the behaviour occurring. Skinner studied hungry rats in specially designed 'skinner' boxes. These boxes were equipped with a lever which, when pressed, dispensed food or water. 

    Skinner would place a hungry rat in the box. Eventually, the rat would accidentally press the lever and a food pellet would fall. Each time it accidentally pressed the lever, food would be dispensed. The rat then learned that each time it pressed the lever it would be rewarded with a food pellet; thus; it would constantly press the lever. Other Skinner boxes were equipped with electric shocks to punish the animal for certain responses. 

    In this way, Skinner developed his theory of operant conditioning where he believed that our behaviour operates on the environment and that our behaviour is instrumental in producing the consequences (rewards and punishments).

       An example of a skinner box

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