Transcript Psych B – Module 15

The Cognitive
Domain of
Psychology:
Chapter 7 – Learning
Module 15 – Classical Conditioning
• Learning
– A relatively permanent change in behavior due
to experience
• Classical Conditioning
– Learning where a stimulus gains the power to
cause a response because it predicts another
stimulus that already produces that response
• Form of learning by association
• Stimulus-Response
– Stimulus - anything in the environment that
one can respond to
– Response – any behavior or action
Stimulus-Response Relationship
Stimulus 1 – saying flush, Stimulus 2 – water gets hot
Stimulus-Response Relationship
Stimulus: hear flush, Response: jump from hot water
Behaviorism
• The view that psychology should restrict
its efforts to studying observable
behaviors, not mental processes.
– Learning is a change in behavior.
– Founded by John Watson
• Let’s look at components of classical
conditioning!
Unconditioned
Stimulus (UCS)
• A stimulus that
triggers a response
automatically and
reflexively
Unconditioned
Response (UCR)
• The automatic
response to the
unconditioned
stimulus
• The relationship
between the UCS
and UCR must be
reflexive and not
learned
Conditioned
Stimulus (CS)
• A stimulus that
through learning has
gained the power to
cause a conditioned
response
• The CS must be a
neutral stimulus
before conditioning
occurs.
Conditioned
Response (CR)
• The response to the
conditioned stimulus
• Usually the same
behavior as the UCR
Fun Dip Experiment:
What’s what and did it work?
Classical Conditioning Processes: Acquisition
• The process of
developing a
learned
response
• The subject
learns a new
response (CR)
to a previously
neutral
stimulus (CS)
Classical Conditioning Processes:
Extinction
• The
diminishing
of a learned
response
• In classical
conditioning,
the continual
presentation of
the CS without
the UCS
Classical Conditioning Processes:
Spontaneous Recovery
• The
reappearance,
after a rest
period, of an
extinguished
conditioned
response
Ivan Pavlov
(1849-1936)
• A Russian
physiologist
who
discovered
classical
conditioning
while doing
experiments
on the
digestive
system of
dogs
Pavlov’s method
of collecting saliva
Pavlov’s Research Apparatus
Pavlov’s Experiment
Pavlov’s Experiment
Pavlov’s Experiment
• Unconditioned
stimulus = food
• Unconditioned
response =
salivation
• Unconditioned
stimulus
• Unconditioned
response
• Conditioned
stimulus = bell
• Conditioned
response =
salivation
Parks and Rec
• Pavlovian technique to get over a girl
friend
• http://www.nbc.com/parks-andrecreation/video/tammy-deprogrammingkit/2837949
Module 15: Classical Conditioning
Generalization and
Discrimination
Generalization
• Process in which an
organism produces
the same response to
two similar stimuli
• The more similar the
substitute stimulus is
to the original used
in conditioning, the
stronger the
generalized response
Discrimination
• A process in which an organism
produces different responses to two
similar stimuli
• The subject learns that one stimuli
predicts the UCS and the other does not.
Module 15: Classical Conditioning
Classical
Conditioning in
Everyday Life:
Little Albert
Little Albert
• 11-month-old infant
• Watson and his
assistant, Rosalie
Rayner, conditioned
Albert to be frightened
of white rats
• Led to questions about
experimental ethics
– What’s the UCS, UCR,
CS, CR?
Little Albert – Before Conditioning
Little Albert – During Conditioning
Get this one for your notes!!!
Little Albert – After Conditioning
Little Albert – Generalization
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Module 15: Classical Conditioning
Classical
Conditioning in
Everyday Life:
Taste Aversion
Taste Aversion
• Subjects become classically conditioned
to avoid specific tastes, because the
tastes are associated with nausea.
• John Garcia (1917- )
Module 15: Classical Conditioning
Cognition and
Biological
Predispositions
Robert Rescorla (1940• Developed a theory
emphasizing the
importance of cognitive
processes in classical
conditioning
• Pointed out that subjects
had to determine (think)
whether the CS was a
reliable predictor of the
UCS
)
Biological Perspective
• We are predisposed to learn things that
affect our survival.
• We are predisposed to avoid threats our
ancestors faced--food that made us sick,
storms, heights, snakes, etc.--but not
modern-day threats--cars, water
pollution, etc.