THEORY
What is Classical Conditioning?
Classical Conditioning is the process of learning by associating two stimuli. People learn to associate two stimuli when they occur together, such that the response elicited by one stimulus is transferred to another. The person learns to produce an existing response to a new stimulus. Classical Conditioning applies to reflex responses only.
STUDY
Key Research: Pavlov (1927)
Ivan Pavlov was a physiologist interested in digestion in dogs. He developed a technique for collecting and measuring the saliva secreted from dogs. Pavlov noticed that the dogs would salivate before food was given (simply seeing the food or noticing the bucket of food or even just hearing the footsteps of the person who fed them).
Pavlov decided to investigate why this happened, by attempting to use classical conditioning to get the dogs to associate food, (which naturally causes the dogs to salivate) with the sound of a bell (which did not).
Pavlov's Method Proved to be:
Pavlov explained this as:
Before conditioning: The food is an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) and salivation (automatic, reflexive response) is the unconditioned response (UCR). The bell is a neutral stimulus (NS) because it produces no response.
During conditioning: Pavlov repeatedly paired the bell (NS) with the food (UCS) and the dog salivated (UCR). The dog initially salivated because the food was presented.
After conditioning: The dogs salivated on hearing the bell. Salivation was now a conditioned response (CR) because it is being produced by the presence of the bell, the conditioned stimulus (CS).
Pavlov decided to investigate why this happened, by attempting to use classical conditioning to get the dogs to associate food, (which naturally causes the dogs to salivate) with the sound of a bell (which did not).
Pavlov's Method Proved to be:
- Scientific
- Objective
- Replicable
- Empirical
Pavlov explained this as:
Before conditioning: The food is an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) and salivation (automatic, reflexive response) is the unconditioned response (UCR). The bell is a neutral stimulus (NS) because it produces no response.
During conditioning: Pavlov repeatedly paired the bell (NS) with the food (UCS) and the dog salivated (UCR). The dog initially salivated because the food was presented.
After conditioning: The dogs salivated on hearing the bell. Salivation was now a conditioned response (CR) because it is being produced by the presence of the bell, the conditioned stimulus (CS).
Pavlov's other significant discoveries about Classical Conditioning:
- Generalisation - the conditioned response (CR) transfers spontaneously to stimuli similar to, but different from, the original conditioned stimuli. For example, changing the pitch of the bell higher/lower will still result in the dog salivating.
- Discrimination - the conditioned response will not generalise to stimuli that are very different to the original conditioned stimulus. For example, changing the bell to a totally different one will not produce the conditioned response.
- Extinction - if the conditioned stimulus continues to be presented without the unconditioned stimulus, the classically conditioned response begins to fade. For example, if dogs are conditioned to salivate to a bell, and the bell is repeatedly presented without the food, the conditioned response weakens and eventually becomes extinct.