Behavioral Psychology: Antecedent Conditioning

After the meat powder and bell were presented together several times, the bell was used alone. Pavlov’s dogs, as predicted, responded by salivating to the sound of the bell without the food. The bell began as a neutral stimulus (i.e. the bell itself did not produce the dogs. However, by pairing the bell with the stimulus that did produce the salivation response, the bell was able to acquire the ability to trigger the salivation response. Pavlov therefore demonstrated how stimulus-response are formed. He dedicated much of the rest of his career further exploring this finding. In technical terms, the meat powder is considered an unconditioned stimulus and the dog’s salivation is the unconditioned response. The bell is a neutral stimulus until the dog learns to associate the bell with food. Then the bell becomes a conditioned stimulus which produces the conditioned response of salivation after repeated pairings between the bell and food. John B. Watson further extended Pavlov’s work and applied it to human beings. Around 1921, Watson studied Albert, an 11-month-old infant child. The goal of the study was to condition Albert to become afraid of a white rat by pairing the white rat with a very loud noise. Behavior modification is a technique concerning the change in the undesired behavior and enhancing desired behavior. It is an approach that aims to modify the behavior of a

Classical conditioning is formally defined as the basic learning process that involves repeatedly pairing a neutral stimulus with a response producing stimulus until the neutral stimulus elicits the same response (Hockenbury, et al., 183). Brought about by Russian scientist, Ivan Pavlov, classical conditioning (also known as Pavlovian conditioning) deals with behaviors that are elicited automatically by some stimulus (Hockenbury, et al., 183). A famous example of this is Pavlov’s experiment with salivating dogs. Unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned responses, conditioned stimulus, and conditioned responses are the four principles of this theory. The unconditioned stimulus is the natural stimulus that reflexively brings forth a

Our understanding of classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning has allowed us to unlock many of the answers we sought to learn about human behavior. Classical conditioning is a technique of behavioral training, coined by Ivan Pavlov, which basically states that an organism learns through establishing associations between different events and stimuli. This helps us understand human behavior in an assortment of ways. It makes it clear that almost everything we do is based on patterns of stimulus and response. For example, if you were bitten aggressively by a dog as a child, you may be still scared of dogs today. That is because the dog caused you pain, which in turn caused you have anxiety towards dogs.

Classical Conditioning is a type of learning process of an individual when they come in contact with certain stimuli. According to Pavlov, a Russian psychologist, he developed several experiments on learning and he discovered that classical condition is the basic form of learning for an individual. However, according to Pavlov, behaviorism is the view that psychology should be the main objective science that studies behavior without including mental processes of an individual in the investigation. Behaviorism is more about the person’s behavior and how they were influenced to act a certain why, including their surroundings. Thus, from this learning process many behaviorist believes that the basic laws of learning are similar for all different species, including humans. Furthermore, the two major characteristics that distinguish classical conditioning from operant conditioning is that in classical conditioning, an unconditioned response is an event that happens naturally in response to some stimuli such as salivation. Another characteristic is an unconditioned stimuli, which is a process where an individual naturally discovers something without learning the process and reacts to the unlearned response, For instance, when someone put food in there mouth this causes salivation. A conditioned stimuli in classical

In Psychology learning is seen as a change in behaviour caused by an experience. Behaviorism, is seen as a learning theory; an attempt to explain how people or animals learn by studying their behaviour. The Behaviourists Approach has two theories to help explain how we learn, Classical conditioning and operant conditioning. In this task I will attempt to describe and evaluate this approach.

Classical conditioning is often associated with physiologist Ivan Pavlov’s experiment with the salivating dog (Hutchinson, 2015). This experiment focused on conditioning the dog to associate food with the bell while salivating, and eventually salivates when the bell is rung even without the presence of food. Operant conditioning theory is changed behavior as the result of a reinforcement (Hutchinson, 2015). In our society, we associate positive reinforcements with compliments, smiles, high-fives in order to encourage a behavior more. Negative reinforcement involves jail, detention, and grounding, and this is to stop a behavior from continuing. A cognitive social learning theory states that behavior can be learned through observations, beliefs, expectations, and imitation of others (Hutchinson, 2015). A major difference between cognitive social learning theory and the others, is a lack of manipulation to encourage the individual to follow through with a behavior. Rather, cognitive social learning theories suggest that a change in thinking can ultimately result in a change in behavior (Hutchinson, 2015).

Background (key works): Reinforcement theory is rooted in theory of operant conditioning based primarily on the work of the American behavior scientist B.F. Skinner (Borkowski, 2011). In contrast to Ivan Pavlov’ respondent conditioning controlled by

Another behavioural psychologist, Watson (1915) was influenced by Pavlov’s dogs’ (1902). Watson suggested that if reflexes can be conditioned in dogs, then they can be conditioned in human behaviour too (Gross 2010). Watson used Pavlov’s idea of classical conditioning to influence his experiment with Little Albert, where Watson successfully conditioned fear into an 8-month-old boy using a range of different stimuli.

Behaviourists use two types of processes to explain how people learn: classical conditioning (Ivan Pavlov) and operant conditioning (Frederic Skinner).In classic conditioning, individuals learn to associate stimuli when they occur together to a response. Therefore individuals learn to produce an existing response to a stimulus that is presented. Take for instance little Albert. The little boy that was classically conditioned to respond with anxiety to the stimulus of a white ray by Watson and Rayner.

Unit 8: psychological perspectives. Worksheet 1. The behaviourist approach suggest that Behaviour is learned by association. Pavlov used a classical conditioning experiment to prove this theory. During this experiment he used the sound of the bell and the smell of food.

Annotated Bibliography: Behaviorism Clark, R. E. (2004). The classical origins of Pavlov's conditioning. Integrative Physiological and Behavioral Science, 39(4), 279-294. doi: 10.1007/bf02734167 Classical conditioning has a deep influence on the field of psychology and behavioral studies. I.P. Pavlov and E.B. Twitmyer are two influential pioneers in the discovery of classical conditioning.

The behavioral approach is the idea that observable behavior is a result of environmental components and past experiences. These components are known as the stimuli and the behavioral effect that it produces is called its response. The explanation behind this idea is based on how individuals learn, which is through classical and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning is a process that associates two stimuli, which then creates a new learned response every time those stimuli are paired together. The stimuli begins as being neutral, however, proceeds to turn to one that is conditioned. An excellent example of this idea is in Pavlov's dog experiment where the dogs learned to associate a bell with food. Operant conditioning is a process that correlates the likelihood of actions happening based on associating its positive or negative consequences. For instance in Skinner's rat experiment, the rat knew to instantly go to the lever in its box once it figured out it would drop food which was positive reinforcement. Negative reinforcement was also demonstrated when it would be removed and instead the rat would be electrocuted when not on the lever, eventually the rat learned to go to the lever instantly to avoid the electricity. In the story, Dibs: In Search of Self by Virginia Axline, the main character Dibs often supported behaviorism. For instance, when Dibs was in the playroom and began to play with the doll house and the way he would repeat “Dibs

Classical conditioning is the theory that involves a subject learning a new behavior by the process of association. A naturally occuring stimulus (the unconditioned stimulus) is paired with a response (the unconditioned response). Then, a neutral stimulus (the conditioned stimulus) is paired with the unconditioned stimulus and eventually the conditioned stimulus produces the initial response of the unconditioned stimulus without the unconditioned stimulus being present. The response, therefore, becomes the conditioned response. This study had a major influence on the psychological study of behaviorism. “Behaviorism is based on the assumption that learning occurs through interactions with the environment” (Cherry 1). Classical conditioning

During 1920, the unforgettable experiment The Little Albert Experiment was performed by the father of behaviorism, John B. Watson. To him it was an innate unconditioned response. Because of his thought he wanted to test his knowledge. John B. Waston choose to use the principle “classical conditioning”. Classical Conditioning is “a type of behaviourism first demonstrated by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov in the 1890s.Through a series of experiments he demonstrated that dogs which normally salivated when presented with food could be conditioned to salivate in response to any stimulus in the absence of the original stimulus, food. He rang a bell every time a dog was about to be fed, and after a period of time the dog would salivate to the sound of the bell irrespective of food being presented.” ( Saul McLoed, 2008).

A significant piece of several psychological theories in the late nineteenth century was introspection, which is “the examination or observation of one's own mental and emotional processes” (Press, 2013). In retort to this theory behaviorism came about. Behaviorism is predominantly concerned with observable and measurable aspects of human behavior. In other words behaviorism does not look at the biological aspects but it suggests that all behaviors are learned habits and changes in response to the environment. It endeavors to explain how these particular habits are formed. Behaviorism claimed that the causes of behavior was not necessarily found in the complexities of the mind but could be observed in one’s immediate environment, from stimuli that produced, reinforced, and punished certain responses also known later on as conditioning. It wasn’t until the twentieth century that the scientist began to discover the actual systems to learning, thereby laying a foundation for behaviorism. A theorist by the name of Ivan Pavlov was a major contribution to the discovering of significant behavioral theories.