Classical conditioning and its applications

Classical Conditioning

Discuss the four basic phenomena of classical conditioning

Classical conditioning is one of the most famous forms of behavioral 'learning.' It is epitomized in the experiment of Pavlov's dog. The dog was conditioned to salivate at the sound of a bell because the dog associated eating with that particular noise. "Classical conditioning involves placing a neutral signal before a naturally occurring reflex" (Cherry 2011). The signal is located in the subject's environment, which is manipulated from the outside by an experimenter (in the case of Pavlov's experiment). Or, classical conditioning may unintentionally occur in the real world when a signal is paired many times when a physiological reflex occurs.

Classical conditioning contains four basic components. The first component is the unconditioned stimulus, which occurs naturally in the environment and produces a particular response. For example, many people feel hungry when they smell one of their favorite foods. Just like Pavlov's dog began to salivate when presented with some tasty meat, a high school teenager might begin to feel hungry when he passes his favorite pizza parlor after basketball practice and smells the pungent cheese, sauce, crust and garlic odor from the street. The unconditioned stimulus is the smell of the food. The second component is the unconditioned response or "the unlearned response that occurs naturally in response to the unconditioned stimulus" (Cherry 2010). In the case of the dog, the unconditioned response is the salivating. In the case of the teenage basketball player, it is the sensation of hunger that comes from smelling the pizza.

The third component is the conditioned stimulus or the "previously neutral stimulus that, after becoming associated with the unconditioned stimulus, eventually comes to trigger a conditioned response" (Cherry 2010). In Pavlov's experiment, this was the sound of the bell, paired with the dog's meal. In ordinary life, however, this type of 'conditioned stimulus' paring may still occur. For example, take the teen who often feels hungry walking past the pizza parlor. Every day, he might stop for a slice of pizza after basketball practice. He comes to associate feeling hungry and eating pizza with basketball practice. Basketball and a hunger for pizza become associated, just like the sound of the bell with food for Pavlov's dog.

The fourth component is the conditioned response, or the salivating at the sound of the bell in Pavlov's experiment. The conditioned response "is the learned response to the previously neutral stimulus. In our example, the conditioned response would be feeling hungry when you heard the sound of the whistle" (Cherry 2011). In the case of the hungry teenage basketball player, the conditioned response would be the hankering for pizza that comes after basketball practice, even in the absence of smelling the substance and real, physical hunger. For example, the basketball player could graduate but still, in college, every time he played a casual game of basketball with his friends, he might have a hankering for pizza, even in the absence of a pizza parlor and its smells nearby.