Discussion on Classical Conditioning as an Explanation of Learning

He deciphered that dogs like humans salivate (reflex response) when they see food; it is a natural physiological reflex response. However he also demonstrated that a signal such as using a bell (stimulus) just before he gave the dog food would eventually lead the dog to salivate at the sound of the bell even if there was no food present. Pavlov verified by pairing or associating another stimulus (the bell) with food he could train the dogs to salivate. This theory could then be applied to people as well. According to Richard et al (2007) it was found that pairing one stimulus with another stimulus could also provoke a reflexive response in people. This is also called a stimulus – response theory of learning.

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

Ivan Pavlov and B.F. Skinner both studied learning, in which they both did different experiments on different animals and with different conditioning. Classical conditioning is the process in which two stimuli become linked; once this association has been recognized, an originally neutral stimulus is conditioned to provoke an involuntary response. The dogs in Pavlov’s studies learned to associate countless stimuli with the expectation of food, which caused in them salivating when the stimuli were presented. Pavlov revealed how such associations are learned, and referred to this process as conditioning. While the

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

Classical conditioning is a type of associative learning which occurs when two stimuli are paired together repetitively and therefore become associated with each other eventually producing the same response. Classical conditioning was developed from the findings of Ivan Pavlov to account for associations between neutral stimuli and reflexive behavior such as salivation. Pavlov (1927) accidently discovered that dogs began to salivate before they had tasted their food. To support his theory, he carried out experiments using dogs which involved measuring the amount of saliva they produced. In his experiments, food started off as an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) which produced salivation, an unconditioned response (UCR). They are both unconditioned as they occur naturally without being learned. The dogs were presented with a bell (NS), this provided no salivation. The bell and food were presented together and after many trails an

“Classical conditioning is a type of learning in which a stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus”.

In 1903 a Russian physiologist by the name of Ivan Pavlov first developed an experiential model of learning called Classical Conditioning (Lautenheiser 1999). An example if Classical Conditioning would be ringing a bell when it is time for your pet to eat. The pet hears the bell and over time is conditioned that when the bell rings its dinner time thus begins to salivate, and eventually learns to be conditioned to responding to the bell in a specific manner. The bases was that neutral stimulus would be put together with an excitatory one and over time the neutral stimulus would, at some point down the line elicit the response that was associated with the original unlearned response. Pavlov later added an element known as the nonexcitatory, conditioned stimulus which is but together with an unconditioned stimulus (Lautenheiser 1999).

Ivan Pavlov developed a theory called classical conditioning which proposes that learning process occurs through associations between an environmental stimulus and a naturally occurring stimulus. Classical conditioning involves placing a neutral signal before a naturally occurring reflex like associating the food with the bell in Pavlov experiment. In classical conditioning, behavior is learnt by association where a stimulus that was originally neutral can become a trigger for substance use or cravings due to repeated associations between those stimuli and substance use (Pavlov, 1927).

Classical conditioning was described by Pavlov who found that it was possible to condition a reflexive response to a stimulus that didn't evoke this response originally by using a stimulus that evoked a reflexive response. Classical conditioning is the

Classical conditioning is learning that occurs trough association can be defined as a type of learning in which a conditioned stimulus (sound of a bell, Pavlov) is paired with an unconditioned stimulus (food) to evoke a response. In the early twentieth century Pavlov’s research included dogs that would start to salivate when food was presented. Pavlov suggested that salivation was a learned response. During the research a bell was rang when the food was presented, the dog salivated

Classic Conditioning, defined by Richard A. Griggs, is learning that one stimulus signals the arrival of another stimulus. (141) A stimulus is a phenomenon perceived by the senses. When an initial stimulus is presented within a setting, the response to stimulus is referred to as a reflex. A reflex is a natural and automatic response to the initial stimulus without conscious thinking involved. The first encounter of a given stimulus is referred to as an unconditioned stimulus and the reflexive response is the unconditioned response. However, if the initial stimulus is repetitive, it will become a learned pattern referred to as a conditioned stimulus. When the conditioned stimulus is presented then the reflexive response becomes a learned habit, the conditioned response, as a result of constant repetition of the cyclical phenomenon. (142-143)

4)Generalization, when once a response has been conditioned, other stimulus similar to the original conditioned stimulus can also create a similar response, as seen with the child and the white

Classical conditioning says that we learn behaviours by associating the response to the stimulus. An example of this can be found from the work of Ivan Pavlov. In the 1890s Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, carried out some experiments with a dogs. He noticed that when a dog eats food, they salivate: this is an unconditional response to an

Classical Conditioning was founded by a Russian physiologist, Ivan P. Pavlov, in the early 1900s. At first, He assumed that animals have automatic connections called unconditioned reflexes, which is a reflection between a fixed stimulus and response such as the food and secreting digestive juices. He speculated that the stimulus can be transferred from one to another. After that, Pavlov did the experiments and get the conclusion. In the process, he gave a dog food and the dog salivated. The connection between the food and the salivation was automatic requiring no training. The food was called unconditioned stimulus (UCS) and the salivation was called unconditioned response (UCR). The UCS is an event that automatically elicits an UCR. In other words, the UCR is the action that the UCS elicits. Next, Pavlov introduced a new stimulus, such as a metronome. At the beginning, the dogs heard the metronome but did not salivate. In this period, the metronome was a neutral stimulus (NS) about salivation. After

Classical conditioning is a form of leaning in which a neutral stimulus is paired repeatedly with an unconditioned stimulus that naturally elicits an unconditioned behavior (Cacioppo & Freberg, 2013). When a