LECTURE:9

Learning

Definition
Classical

conditioning

DEFINITION

Any relatively permanent change in behavior brought about through

experience that is through interactions with the environment.
Not all changes in behavior are the result of learning. The term is
restricted to the relatively permanent as opposed to temporary,
changes that are the result of experience , rather than changes due
to biological causes such as drugs, fatigue, maturation and injury.
The definition also does not restrict its usage to intentionally
produced changes in behavior or even or to desirable changes in
behavior.
For instance , if you begin to loathe fish sandwiches because you
got sick after eating one, learning has occurred . The new disgust for
sandwiches is undesirable and certainly unintentional , but its
still the result of learning.

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:
LEARNING BY ASSOCIATION

The scientific study of classical conditioning began in Russia around the turn of the
twentieth century with an accidental discovery made in the laboratory of Ivan Pavlov ,
who received a Nobel prize for his work on the role of saliva in digestion.
To study salivation , Pavlov surgically implanted tubes in the cheeks of his dogs. This
allowed him to measure the amount of saliva produced when food was placed in their
mouths.
Pavlov noticed that after a few days dogs in the experiment started salivating when the
attendants entered the room with the food dish before food was placed in their mouth.
The sights (and probably sounds) of the attendant had come to elicit (evoke or produce)
a reflexive response that only the food had originally elicited.
This fact would have gone unnoticed had the saliva-collection tubes not been placed in
the dogs cheeks that is the accidental part of the discovery.
Pavlov recognized that an inborn reflexive response to food, which was
biologically wired into the dogs nervous systems, had come under the
control of an arbitrary stimulus the sight of the attendants.

ASSOCIATION: THE KEY ELEMENT

IN CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

More than 2,000 years before Pavlov, Aristotle

noted that two sensations repeatedly experienced
together become associated.
For example if you have frequently visited a
restaurant with a friend, visiting the restaurant
alone may trigger memories of that friend.
Learning through association is a common part
of our lives.

CONTD.

Pavlov tested this explanation in a series of studies in

which a clicking metronome was repeatedly paired
with the presentation of meat powder.
As a result the metronome soon came to elicit the
response of salivation.
In general when a neutral stimulus is repeatedly
paired with another stimulus that elicits an unlearned
response, the previously neutral stimulus will begin to
elicit the same or a very similar response.
This form of learning is called classical conditioning.

TERMINOLOGY OF CLASSICAL
CONDITIONING
1.

2.

Unconditioned Stimulus: The meat powder

was the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) in
Pavlovs experiment. This is a stimulus that can
elicit the response without any learning. In
other words, the response to an unconditioned
stimulus is inborn.
Unconditioned Response: Salivation was the
unconditioned response(UCR) Its an unlearned,
inborn reaction to the unconditioned stimulus.

CONTD.
3. Conditioned Stimulus: Originally the
metronome was unable to elicit the response of
salivation, but it acquired the ability to elicit the
response because it was paired with the
unconditioned stimulus. It was the conditioned
stimulus (CS) in Pavlovs studies.
4. Conditioned Response: When the dog began
salivating to the conditioned stimulus, salivation
became the conditioned response (CR). When a
response is elicited by the conditioned stimulus ,
it id referred to as the conditioned response.

CONTD.

To summarize, the meat powder was the

unconditioned stimulus (UCS); the metronome
was the neutral stimulus that became the
conditioned stimulus (CS); salivation was the
Unconditioned response(UCR) ; and when the
salivation was elicited by the conditioned
stimulus , it became the conditioned response
(CR).

DEFINITION OF CLASSICAL
CONDITIONING

The term classical conditioning simply refers to the fact that Pavlov
performed the classic laboratory studies of learning. For the same
reason classical conditioning is also referred to as Pavlovian
conditioning.
Classical conditioning is a form of learning in which a previously
neutral stimulus (CS) is followed by a stimulus (UCS) that elicits an
unlearned response (UCR).
As a result of these pairings of the CS and UCS The CS comes to elicit
a response (CR) that, in most cases, is identical or very similar to the
UCR.
For classical conditioning to take place , a CS must also serve as a
reliable signal for the occurrence of the UCS. For example the sound of
the metronome is always followed by food, salivation will be stronger
than if the metronome is followed by food only some of the time.

CONTD.

Classical conditioning is considered to be a form

of learning not because a new behavior has been
acquired but because old behavior can be elicited
by a new stimulus , behavior is changed only in
that sense.
The critical elements in classical conditioning are
that the CS and the UCS are closely associated in
time and that the CS is a reliable predictor of the
UCS.

IMPORTANCE OF CLASSICAL
CONDITIONING
Classical conditioning is helpful in a understanding a number of important and
puzzling issues concerning human behavior.
In 1920, behaviorist John B. Watson and his associate Rosalie Rayner
published what is probably the most widely cited example of classical
conditioning in Psychology.
Watson was convinced that many of our fears were acquired through classical
conditioning and tested this idea by teaching a fear to an 11-month old child,
Little Albert .
Albert was first allowed to play with a white laboratory rat to find out whether
he was afraid of rats: He was not at that time .
Then as he played with the rat , an iron bar was struck loudly with a hammer
behind Alberts head.
As might be expected the noise caused Albert to cry fearfully.
After 7 such pairings , Albert showed a strong fear response when the rat was
placed near him.
He had learned to fear the rat through classical conditioning.
This study is considered unethical by todays standards. It is particularly
distressing that Watson and Rayner did not reverse the conditioning of Little
Albert.

CONTD.

In a subsequent study, however, Mary Cover

Jones and Watson successfully reduced fear of
rabbits in another small child by gradually
pairing the rabbit(CS) with cookies(UCS).
This method of reversing a classically conditioned
response by pairing the CS (rabbit) with UCS
(cookies) for a response (eating the cookies) that
can not occur at the same time as the undesirable
CR (crying fearfully) is called
counterconditioning.

CONTD.

Classical conditioning also has been useful in

explaining several questions about our health.
When the body is exposed to threats to health,
such as viruses , a number of blood cells that
attack the invading germs, are produced.
As strange as it may seem , it is now clear that
the bodys immune system responses can be
classically conditioned.