For example, if you ring a bell, open the cabinet (“squeak”), use the can opener (“zzhzhz”), and then feed Tiger, Tiger will likely never get excited when hearing the bell alone. It is hard to achieve anything above second-order conditioning. This means you are using the conditioned stimulus of the can opener to condition another stimulus: the squeaky cabinet (Figure 3). Pairing a new neutral stimulus (“squeak”) with the conditioned stimulus (“zzhzhz”) is called higher-order conditioning, or second-order conditioning. Tiger will learn to get excited when she hears the “squeak” of the cabinet. In this case, what are the UCS, CS, UCR, and CR?What if the cabinet holding Tiger’s food becomes squeaky? In that case, Tiger hears “squeak” (the cabinet), “zzhzhz” (the electric can opener), and then she gets her food. This is an example of classical conditioning. What do you think Tiger does when she hears the electric can opener? She will likely get excited and run to where you are preparing her food. Tiger quickly learns that when she hears “zzhzhz” she is about to get fed. ![]() ![]() For every meal, Tiger hears the distinctive sound of the electric can opener (“zzhzhz”) and then gets her food. You keep her food in a separate cabinet, and you also have a special electric can opener that you use only to open cans of cat food. Real World Application of Classical Conditioning How does classical conditioning work in the real world? Let’s say you have a cat named Tiger, who is quite spoiled. Before conditioning, think of the dogs’ stimulus and response like this: The dogs’ salivation was an unconditioned response (UCR): a natural (unlearned) reaction to a given stimulus. The meat powder in this situation was an unconditioned stimulus (UCS): a stimulus that elicits a reflexive response in an organism. In Pavlov’s experiments, the dogs salivated each time meat powder was presented to them. ![]() Through his experiments, Pavlov realized that an organism has two types of responses to its environment: (1) unconditioned (unlearned) responses, or reflexes, and (2) conditioned (learned) responses. He was able to train the dogs to salivate in response to stimuli that clearly had nothing to do with food, such as the sound of a bell, a light, and a touch on the leg. To explore this phenomenon in an objective manner, Pavlov designed a series of carefully controlled experiments to see which stimuli would cause the dogs to salivate. These unusual responses intrigued Pavlov, and he wondered what accounted for what he called the dogs’ “psychic secretions” (Pavlov, 1927). However, dogs don’t naturally salivate at the sight of an empty bowl or the sound of footsteps. Salivating to food in the mouth is reflexive, so no learning is involved. Over time, Pavlov (1927) observed that the dogs began to salivate not only at the taste of food, but also at the sight of food, at the sight of an empty food bowl, and even at the sound of the laboratory assistants’ footsteps. He then measured the amount of saliva produced in response to various foods. In his studies with dogs, Pavlov surgically implanted tubes inside dogs’ cheeks to collect saliva. Pavlov’s area of interest was the digestive system (Hunt, 2007). Physiologists study the life processes of organisms, from the molecular level to the level of cells, organ systems, and entire organisms. ![]() Pavlov was a physiologist, not a psychologist. Pavlov came to his conclusions about how learning occurs completely by accident. Ivan Pavlov’s research on the digestive system of dogs unexpectedly led to his discovery of the learning process now known as classical conditioning. As we discussed briefly in the previous section, classical conditioning is a process by which we learn to associate stimuli and, consequently, to anticipate events. Pavlov (1849–1936), a Russian scientist, performed extensive research on dogs and is best known for his experiments in classical conditioning (Figure 1). Identify the NS, UCS, UCR, CS, and CR in classical conditioning situationsĭoes the name Ivan Pavlov ring a bell? Even if you are new to the study of psychology, chances are that you have heard of Pavlov and his famous dogs.Explain how classical conditioning occurs.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |