Dog Phobia Case Study

The extinction burst, is noticed as an increase in frequency, duration and intensity of an unreinforced behavior during the extinction process. Once the extinction process is successful. Then the effect of extinction is known as the disappearance of a previously learned behavior when the behavior is not reinforced. However, the term extinction is mainly associated with operant conditioning as well as respondent conditioning which is:

The question being investigated is, what impact does classical conditioning have on animal or human life? Classical conditioning is the theory of learning that we will be using to investigate this question. The three aspects of the learning process that were evaluated is acquisition, extinction, and spontaneous recovery. During the acquisition, extinction, and spontaneous recovery trials there were different stimulus presented. In the acquisition trial, the US and NS were presented. In the extinction and spontaneous recovery trial, the US were only presented. There were five analysis conducted. In the first analysis it was expected for Sniffy to freeze more frequently in the post-acquisition trial than in the pre-acquisition trial. Second, it was expected for Sniffy to stop and freeze immediately when the light was presented, in extinction trial

Intrinsically, the conditioning only coheres a naturally occurring reverberation to a stimulus and handles visceral responses. It comes with multitudinous variables, making it a herculean task in itself. Having a multiplicity of variables can alter the extent to which this method would or would not occur in various situations, making the researching aspect of this method complex and requiring a lot of attention to be focused on these variables. Furthermore, classical conditioning can elicit the augmentation of phobias pr anxiety in humans. “Research by John B. Watson on Pavlov’s work conducted on an infant child found that the child became afraid of a white rat by pairing the animal with a jarring and loud noise, though the child was not afraid when introduced to the rat alone the first time” (ConnectUs). This study attests to the idea of classical conditioning triggering phobias in

Known as a mental disorder a phobia is a persistent fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that leads to compelling desire to avoid it. Phobias tend to affect the way people live their lives, for example, their working and social environments, considering that they last for a very long time and are capable to cause intense psychological physical stress. It is considered today the most common mental and anxiety disorder in the United States (Matig Mavissakalian & David H. Barlow 1981 pp 2). There are many phobias such as: the fear of aging, fear of changing, fear of clowns, fear of getting fat, fear of being in closed spaces, etc.

Classical conditioning effects everyday life especially in relation to phobias and addiction which will be discussed in this essay. Classical conditioning was founded by Ivan Pavlov. He believed that if a behaviour can be learned, it can also be unlearned too. This essay will highlight the importance of conditioning principles in explaining and treating problem behaviours. Classical conditioning has revolutionised behavioural therapies, such as flooding and systematic desensitisation to treat phobias, and aversion therapies to treat addictive behaviour.

Classical and operant conditioning are two important concepts central to behavioral psychology. While both result in learning, the processes are quite different. In order to understand how each of these behavior modification techniques can be used, it is also essential to understand how classical conditioning and operant conditioning differ from one another. Both classical and operant learning are psychological processes that lead to learning. Here learning refers to the process by which changes in behavior, including actions, emotions, thoughts, and the responses of muscles and glands,

The classical conditioning model was one of the first theories used to describe phobias. Many years ago, scientists observed that one could willingly elicit a fear response in an animal or human through systematic teaching. For example, if every time a rat is presented with a low buzzing noise, it is electrically shocked, eventually, when it hears the noise alone (with no shock), it will exhibit symptoms of fear. (3) Scientists

Phobia in clinical psychology context is an irrational fear of something or situation. The person suffering from phobia will try their best to avoid their phobia. In the extreme case that the person suffering from the phobia cannot avoid it, they will attempt to endure through the situation with a lot of distress ADDIN EN.CITE Swanson1986158(Swanson, 1986)15815817Swanson, Guy E.Phobias and Related Symptoms: Some Social SourcesSociological ForumSociological Forum103-130111986Springer08848971http://www.jstor.org/stable/684555( HYPERLINK l "_ENREF_2" o "Swanson, 1986 #158" Swanson, 1986). Phobias can cause difficulties in a person performing their daily activities.

Operant behavior may eventually fade off and possibly even stop if reinforcement is discontinued. This is an important concept to the clinical side of behavior because the problem behavior will eventually decrease in frequency, duration, and intensity. It is important for individuals running extinction to know that the process of the extinction of a problem behavior may have side effects which include the response burst, the response variation, aggression, emotional behavior, and spontaneous recovery (Vollmer & Athens, 2011).

This experiment was designed in order to explore whether false memories generated by the fear conditioning technique could generate an observable active fear response through conditioned place-avoidance (CPA).

Food was the unconditioned stimulus, the bell was the conditioned stimulus, and salivation was the conditioned response. Pavlov’s work showed that the conditioned response could be reduced or eliminated by presenting the conditioned stimulus without the unconditioned stimulus. Generally this required several pairings or a pairing for an extended period of time to be successful. This process is called extinction. John Watson, in his famous Little Albert experiment, was able to build on Pavlov’s work when he conditioned a young child to fear a white rat using a loud noise. Joseph Wolpe studied Watson’s work. Wolpe was able to reduce fear in cats by feeding them in various feeding situations (Abramowitz, Deacon, & Whiteside, 2010). He created a hierarchy of feared situations for the cats. He began by feeding the cats in the least threatening situation and gradually was able to move to the most threatening situation (Abramowitz, Deacon, & Whiteside, 2010). He noticed that the cats became

This is known as the unconditioned stimulus (UCS). Meat is the unconditioned stimulus because at the sight of the meat the dogs begin to salivate (Feldman, 2010).   The dog’s response to the meat educes salivation and is known as the unconditioned response (UCR). An unconditioned response is defined as a reflexive and natural response that is not connected to prior learning. Unconditioned responses always occur in the presence of the unconditioned stimulus (Feldman, 2010).   While conditioning the dogs, Pavlov would ring a bell right before the presentation of meat. Eventually, the dogs would associate the ringing of the bell with the meat. Therefore, the dogs would begin to salivate at the sound of the bell. At this point, Pavlov could state that he had classically conditioned his dogs. The bell which was a prior neutral stimulus had now become the conditioned stimulus (CS) that brought forth the conditioned response (CR) of salivation (Feldman, 2010). Moreover, we have to ask what would happen if these poor dogs were never again received food upon the ringing of the bell. This would lead to extinction. Extinction occurs when a prior conditioned response decreases in frequency and eventually disappears (Feldman, 2010).   In order for Pavlov to unconditioned his dogs he would have to break their association with the sound of the ringing bell and the presentation of food. To do so he

The nine month year old subject, Albert, was put through a series of tests to determine if fear can be conditioned, and to determine the effects of variability and time in these tests.

Behavioral theorist believe that environmental forces determine the trajectories of our lives as we come into contact with, and are influenced by, one environmental factor after another (Cervone & Pervin, 2013). Wherein, the overarching goal of behavior therapies is to help clients develop flexible behavioral repertoires that are sensitive to environmental contingencies and are maximally effective for the individual (Vandenbos, Meidenbauer & Frank-McNeil, 2014). Behavioral theorists also agree that classical (Pavlovian) conditioning is applicable to a wide variety of behaviors, and clinical examples include the development and treatment of phobias and anxiety. Whereas, the concept of operant (Skinnerian) conditioning explains why people with

Every living organism experiences the world differently, and those experiences and different stimuli have an effect on the way living things learn. Learning is a basic method of survival because it allows living organisms to avoid dangerous situations, food, and a variety of other things in the world that can be fatal. The process of learning can be observed or broken down into different methods, but the two most prominent methods are known as classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning can best be described as observing how different stimuli can affect certain behaviors, and operant conditioning is described as the effect rewards and punishments have on influencing the recurrence or avoidance of specific behaviors. After learning about classical and operant conditioning, I am better equipped to observe it in my own life and to compare it to other scientific examples.