Classical Conditioning

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Classical Conditioning

• Habituation and Sensitization
• Pavlov and His Dogs
• Watson and Baby Albert
• What Happens in the Real World?

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What is Learning

• The process by which experience or practice
  results in a relatively permanent change in
  behavior or potential behavior

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Breaking Learning Down

• Relatively permanent
• Must rule out behavioral changes that result from
  fatigue or change in motivation
• Short-term memory exception
• Change in behavior or potential behavior
• Potential behavior - learning often takes place
  without immediately being shown in behavior
• Under optimal conditions learning may create the
  potential for behavior change (ex. incentive)
• Experience in environment
• Rule out changes that result from natural growth
• Nature nurture ? change in behavior

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Associative Learning

• Can you make the association?
• Bad joke, sorry!!!
• Coming to understand (LEARNING) that certain
  events occur together
• There are many types
• Habituation
• Sensitization
• Classical conditioning
• Operant conditioning

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Habituation and Sensitization
Im not touching youIm not touching you

• Habituation
• Decrease in response as stimulus is presented
  again and again
• This type of learning helps us tune out stimuli
  that are of little importance and focus on what
  is significant
• Sensitization
• Increase in response to stimulus when we are
  anticipating an important stimulus
• This type of learning prepares us for dangerous
  situations

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History of Classical Conditioning

• Type of learning in which a response naturally
  elicited by one stimulus comes to be elicited by
  a different, formerly neutral stimulus
• Who discovers all this?
• IVAN PAVLOV
• Pavlovs research on digestion in dogs lead to
  lifelong research on learning

Key Terms Unconditioned stimulus
(UCS) Unconditioned response (UCR) Neutral
stimulus (NS) Conditioned stimulus
(CS) Conditioned response (CR)
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Do Now

• Write a summary of our class classical
  conditioning experiment from yesterday.

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Classical Conditioning Elements

• Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
• A stimulus that naturally causes an organism to
  react in a specific way
• Example FOOD
• Unconditioned response (UCR)
• A response that takes place in an organism
  whenever the UCS occurs
• Automatic and unlearned
• Example SALIVATION

UCS
UCR
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Classical Conditioning Elements

• Conditioned stimulus (CS)
• Original neutral stimulus (NS) paired with an UCS
  and eventually produces desired response in an
  organism when presented alone
• Example BELL
• Conditioned response (CR)
• Learned response an organism produces when only a
  CS is presented

NS
UCS
UCR
CS
CR
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Pavlovs Procedure
Before Conditioning
Bell (NS)
No Response
Food (UCS)
Salivation (UCR)
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Pavlovs Procedure
During Conditioning
Bell (NS)
Food (UCS)
Salivation (UCR)
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Pavlovs Procedure
After Conditioning
Salivation (CR)
Bell (CS)
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Classical Conditioning in Humans

• Do you remember who John B. Watson is?
• Who was Watsons subject?
• LITTLE ALBERT
• Watson conditioned Albert to fear white fluffy
  objects (mice, Santas beard, cotton balls)

• APPLY
• UCS
• Loud noise
• UCR
• Fear noise
• NS
• Rat
• CS
• Rat
• CR
• Fear of rat

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Higher Order Conditioning

• Also called second order conditioning
• NS becomes a CS and then has the potential to
  become an UCS resulting in new learning
• Lets look at Watson
• Originally the rat was a NS
• The rat became the CS and elicited fear
• Watson could have paired the CS (rat) with a new
  NS (a flower perhaps) until Albert exhibited fear
  of the flower
• The flower is no longer a NS, it is a CS!

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Higher Order Conditioning
Little Albert After Original Conditioning
Fear (CR)
Rat (CS)
Little Albert Begins Higher Order Conditioning
Fear (CR)
Rat (CS)
Flower (NS)
Little Albert After Higher Order Conditioning
Fear (CR)
Flower (CS)
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Variables of Classical Conditioning

• Strength
• The UCS and the NS must be distinct enough to
  produce a response
• Timing
• The UCS and the NS must be paired close
  togetherwhy?
• So that an association can be made!
• Perfect scenario NS comes right before the UCS
• Frequency
• An association cannot usually be made with one
  pairing
• Must pair the UCS and the NS many times

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Predictability

• Blocking
• Earlier learning can prevent conditioning to a
  second stimulus when the stimuli are presented
  together

• Backward conditioning
• NS is presented after the UCS
• Not reliable

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Extinction and Recovery

• Extinction
• CS will return to being a NS when it is not
  presented with the UCS
• When Pavlov sounded the bell over and over
  without presenting food, the dogs slowly stopped
  salivating

• Spontaneous recovery
• Extinction might occur, but that does not mean
  learning is gone
• Extinction does not erase, it pushes the behavior
  to the side
• CR can reoccur after extinction

So am I really extinct?
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Extinction and Recovery
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Generalization and Discrimination

• Generalization
• Organisms will not only respond to a CS, but also
  to another stimuli that is similar to the CS
• You know this already! Little Albert feared a
  whole lot more than rats when Watson finished
  with him
• What else did Albert fear?

• Discrimination
• Learner has the ability to distinguish
  differences between stimuli when only a
  particular stimuli is paired with the UCS

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Taste Aversion
Im never eating that again!!!

• Certain events need to only occur once before we
  can demonstrate learning
• Taste aversion
• Organism becomes sick after eating a particular
  food
• May never be able to eat that food again without
  feeling ill
• Ever happen to you?

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Garcia Effect

• Garcia effect
• John Garcia gives animals specific foods or
  drinks and then induced nausea
• After only one pairing of the CS and the UCS the
  animals chose to avoid the food or drink that
  proceeded the nausea

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Developing Phobias

• Researched by Seligman
• Preparedness
• Easy to train organism to react to CS
• Conditioned behavior works well with organisms
  instinctive behavior
• Explains taste aversion and phobias of snakes,
  sharks, and spiders
• Contrapreparedness
• Difficult to train organism to react to CS
• Conditioned behavior is in opposition to
  organisms instinctive behavior
• Would it be easy to develop an aversion to
  television or socks?

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Treating Phobias

• Phobias are often learned
• This means they can be unlearned
• Systematic desensitization
• Therapist helps patient create a fear hierarchy
  of threatening situations
• Patient is taught relaxation techniques
• Therapist exposes patient to each item on fear
  hierarchy to unlearn phobia
• Flooding
• Patient is brought in direct contact with phobia
• If nothing happens, the patient learns they have
  no reason to be fearful anymore