The Conditioned Reflex

Pavlov, I. P. (1928). Lectures on conditioned reflexes.(Translated by W.H. Gantt) London: Allen and Unwin.

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 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

Respondent conditioning occurs when a neutral stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus. The unconditioned stimulus elicits an unconditioned response, such

Classical conditioning is learning by association, was discovered accidentally by Ivan Pavlov in 1902 whilst he was performing an experiment on salivation in dogs in response to being fed. Pavlov observed that over time the dog would salivate upon Pavlov entering

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

Classical Conditioning; “conditioning in which the conditioned stimulus (as the sound of a bell) is paired with and precedes the unconditioned stimulus (as the sight of food) until the conditioned stimulus alone is sufficient to elicit the response (as salivation in a dog)” (Webster). The original person that has been credited with this finding is Russian psychologist, Ivan Pavlov.

The dogs would start to salivate just by hearing the bell ringing, which normally would not produce this response. The first part of the process involves an unconditioned response, like blinking or salivating. The next part needed for classical conditioning is an unconditioned stimulus. The unconditioned stimulus is one that automatically produces the unconditioned response, such as the smell of food triggering salivation. During conditioning, the neutral stimulus, like the bell in Pavlov’s case, is repeatedly paired with the unconditioned stimulus, or the meat powder. After a while, the neutral stimulus becomes the conditioned stimulus. The conditioned stimulus then produces a conditioned response, since the subject of the experiment has associated the conditioned stimulus with the unconditioned response. Many interesting experiments have been conducted using classical conditioning. Another scientist that preformed an experiment with classical conditioning is John B. Watson. Watson used classical conditioned to make a young boy fear white fluffy objects. He scared the child by making loud noises every time the child was presented a white rat.

Ivan Pavlov was an innovative Russian physiologist who paid strict attention to detail. This precision of detail allowed him to notice that the dogs he was experimenting with began salivating to the sound of a researcher's footsteps instead of to the food that the researcher was bringing to the dog. The realization that the dogs anticipated receiving food before seeing the food prompted him to conduct more research and eventually create the methods of classical conditioning. Classical conditioning has been used since the early twentieth century in order to see how animals and humans learn to predict that a particular stimulus leads to a particular event. There are many different methods of learning that are heavily influenced by classical conditioning

The unconditioned response was an unlearned response, where the conditioned response was learned through the process of Pavlov's experiments. He then went to expand on the types of stimulus that could created conditioned responses such as a light touch, or the sight of a circle. Pavlov's demonstration of associative learning although simple, was expanded with five conditioning processes such as 1) acquisition, the beginning stage when a link between an NS, the tone, and an US, the food, triggers the CR, salivation from the tone. 2)Extinction, when the US, the food, no longer follows after a CS, the tone, diminishing the CS, salivation with the tone. 3)Spontaneous recovery, after a resting period, the reintroduction of the CS, the tone, again creates the once extinguished CR, salivating without the food.

This reaction is also apparent in humans, as well as most other animals. This excerpt could show that even though humans are higher developed than other animals, they can both be trained to react to a stimulus with a conditioned response.

In his most remarkable experiment, Pavlov used a bell to train the dogs to salivate. Naturally, dogs salivate when they eat to help them swallow food. This is known as the unconditioned response because it is happening automatically. A few trials later, the dog associates the ringing bell with food. This is known as the conditioned stimulus because the dog finally learned to associate the ring of the bell with food.

Pavlov presented dogs with food, and measured their salivary response (how much they drooled). Then he began ringing a bell just before presenting the food. At first, the dogs did not begin salivating until the food was presented. After a while, however, the dogs began to salivate when the sound of the bell was presented. They learned to associate the sound of the bell with the presentation of the food. As far as their immediate physiological responses were concerned, the sound of the bell became equivalent to the presentation of the food.

Ivan Pavlov was a psychologist in Russia in the early twentieth century. He was doing research on the salivation in dogs in response to being fed. He noticed that his dogs would begin to salivate whenever he entered the room, even when he was not bringing them food. At first he did not think much of this, but he decided to look more into this. He did more experiments with the dogs and different stimuli. Through his new experiments he came up with the theory of classical conditioning. Classical conditioning is learning that occurs when a neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with an unconditioned stimulus; because of this pairing, the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus with the same power as the unconditioned stimulus to elicit

Conditioning humans is not as easy as say conditioning an animal; such as a dog. Unlike most of their fellow mammals (ie. dogs, horses, cats, moneys, ect.), humans have an elite way of telling wither or not they are being messed with or "trained" to do something. Conditioning is more than normally used to train animals to respond to different sounds as a que for things such as food, or bathroom time. Humans on the other hand tend to have their own time table for things such as food or when they need to use the restroom or even when they are dismissed from something like a class. Like any animal over time humans can be conditioned to respond to a que such as three knocks to something like a bell signaling the end of a class period.