Thinking About Psychology: The Science of Mind and Behavior

1. Thinking About Psychology: The Science of Mind and Behavior Charles T. Blair-Broeker Randal M. Ernst

2. Chapter 07 Learning

3. Classical Conditioning Module 15

4. Introduction Module 15: Classical Conditioning

5. Learning • A relatively permanent change in behavior due to experience

6. Classical Conditioning • A type of 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

7. Stimulus-Response • Stimulus - anything in the environment that one can respond to • Response – any behavior or action

8. Stimulus-Response Relationship

9. Stimulus-Response Relationship

10. Behaviorism • The view that psychology should restrict its efforts to studying observable behaviors, not mental processes. • Founded by John Watson

11. Components of Classical Conditioning Module 15: Classical Conditioning

12. Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) • A stimulus that triggers a response automatically and reflexively

13. Unconditioned Response (UCR) • The automatic response to the unconditioned stimulus • The relationship between the UCS and UCR must be reflexive and not learned

14. 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.

15. Conditioned Response • The response to the conditioned stimulus • Usually the same behavior as the UCR

16. Classical Conditioning Processes: Acquisition Module 15: Classical Conditioning

17. Acquisition • The process of developing a learned response • The subject learns a new response (CR) to a previously neutral stimulus (CS)

18. Acquisition

19. Classical Conditioning Processes: Extinction and Spontaneous Recovery Module 15: Classical Conditioning

20. Extinction • The diminishing of a learned response • In classical conditioning, the continual presentation of the CS without the UCS

21. Extinction

22. Spontaneous Recovery • The reappearance, after a rest period, of an extinguished conditioned response

23. Spontaneous Recovery

24. Ivan Pavlov’s Discovery Module 15: Classical Conditioning

25. Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) • A Russian physiologist who discovered classical conditioning while doing experiments on the digestive system of dogs

26. Pavlov’s Method of Collecting Saliva

27. Pavlov’s Research Apparatus

28. Ivan Pavlov • Play “Classical Conditioning” (3:09) Segment #10 from Psychology: The Human Experience. • Includes segments from John Watson’s Little Albert Experiment

29. Pavlov’s Experiment

30. Pavlov’s Experiment

31. Pavlov’s Experiment

32. Generalization and Discrimination Module 15: Classical Conditioning

33. 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

34. Generalization

35. 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.

36. Classical Conditioning in Everyday Life:Little Albert Module 15: Classical Conditioning

37. 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

38. Little Albert – Before Conditioning

39. Little Albert – During Conditioning

40. Little Albert – After Conditioning

41. Little Albert - Generalization

42. Classical Conditioning in Everyday Life:Taste Aversion Module 15: Classical Conditioning

43. Taste Aversion • Subjects become classically conditioned to avoid specific tastes, because the tastes are associated with nausea. • John Garcia (1917- )

44. Cognition and Biological Predispositions Module 15: Classical Conditioning

45. 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

46. 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.

47. The End