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Classical Conditioning

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Classical Conditioning Paper
Psychology of Learning-PSYCH/550

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to examine and discuss classical conditioning. Much of the material has been covered in class discussion questions based on classical conditioning, allowing for a greater insight from the group of students providing the research of what classical conditioning is. Classical conditioning is defined as, “A process of behavior modification by which a subject comes to respond in a desired manner to a previously neutral stimulus that has been repeatedly presented along with an unconditioned stimulus that elicits the desired response.” (dictionary.com). Now we can see what others on the team had to say about …show more content…

Extinction basically means a decrease in the CR. Extinction does not remove the CS but only buries the response. Spontaneous recovery can happen when the CS is presented to the individual and the CR reappears. Generalization is the “conditioning to a trained CS generalizes to similar stimuli” (Terry; 2009). Generalization can occur with anything: sound, shape, color, tone, or size. Generalization just means that an individual associates similar things to the CS. According to Terry (2009) a crocodile got used to eating marshmallows from the residents in a golf course community so the crocodile associated golf balls with marshmallows and started eating those. Discrimination needs to take place. An individual needs to be able to discriminate between different stimuli because not all stimuli are paired with unconditioned stimuli. “Discrimination opposes the tendency to generalize and is a procedure that can be used to explicitly differentiate among CSs” (Terry; 2009).
The Role of Awareness in Classical Conditioning There are several types of awareness which may or may not play a role in classical conditioning. The different types of awareness can be distinguished. These include self-awareness, external awareness, contingency awareness and demand awareness. External awareness is related to, yet very distinct from self-awareness. Self-awareness is the knowledge of how one’s

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