Psychology: An Introduction Chapter 5 -- Chapter Review

Chapter 5: Learning
Chapter Review

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

Pavlov's Conditioning Experiments

Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov hit upon classical (or Pavlovian) conditioning almost by accident when studying digestive processes. He trained a dog to salivate at the sound of a bell by presenting the sound just before food was brought into the room. Eventually the dog began to salivate at the sound of the bell alone.

Elements of Classical Conditioning

Figure 5-2

Classical conditioning involves pairing a response naturally caused by one stimulus with another, previously neutral stimulus. There are four basic elements to this transfer: The unconditioned stimulus (US), often food, invariably causes an organism to respond in a specific way. The unconditioned response (UR) is the reaction (such as salivation) that always results from the unconditioned stimulus. The conditioned stimulus (CS) is a stimulus (such as a bell) that does not initially bring about the desired response; over the course of conditioning, however, the CS comes to produce the desired response when presented alone. Finally, the conditioned response (CR) is the behavior that the organism learns to exhibit in the presence of a conditioned stimulus.

Classical Conditioning in Humans

Humans also learn to associate certain sights or sounds with other stimuli. John Watson and Rosalie Rayner conditioned a little boy, Albert, to fear white rats by making a loud, frightening noise every time the boy was shown a rat. Using much the same principle, Mary Cover Jones developed a method for unlearning fears: She paired the sight of a caged rat, at gradually decreasing distances, with a child's pleasant experience of eating candy. This method evolved into desensitization therapy, a conditioning technique designed to gradually reduce anxiety about a particular object or situation. Recently, scientists have discovered that the immune system may respond to classical conditioning techniques, thus allowing doctors to use fewer drugs in treating certain disorders.

Classical Conditioning Is Selective

Some kinds of conditioning are accomplished very easily, whereas other kinds may never occur. Research demonstrating that we develop phobias about snakes and spiders, for example, but almost never about flowers or cooking utensils illustrates Seligman's principles of preparedness and contrapreparedness, respectively. The ease with which we develop conditioned food (or taste) aversions also illustrates learning preparedness. Conditioned food aversions are exceptions to the general rules about classical conditioning. Animals can learn to avoid poisonous food even if there is a lengthy interval between eating the food and becoming ill. In many cases, only one pairing of conditioned and unconditioned stimuli is necessary for learning to take place.