Learning is the process of acquiring through experience new and relatively enduring information or behaviors.
In associative learning, we learn that certain events occur together.
In classical conditioning, we learn to associate two or more stimuli (a stimulus is any event or situation that evokes a response). Automatically responding to stimuli we do not control is called respondent behavior.
In operant conditioning, we learn to associate a response and its consequences. These associations produce operant behaviors.
Through cognitive learning, we acquire mental information that guides our behavior. For example, in observational learning, we learn new behaviors by observing events and watching others.
Ivan Pavlov’s work on classical conditioning laid the foundation for behaviorism, the view that psychology should be an objective science that studies behavior without reference to mental processes. The behaviorists believed that the basic laws of learning are the same for all species, including humans.
Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, created novel experiments on learning. His early twentieth-century research over the last three decades of his life demonstrated that classical conditioning is a basic form of learning.
Classical conditioning is a type of learning in which an organism comes to associate stimuli and anticipate events. The process involves stimuli and responses:
A UR is an event that occurs naturally (such as salivation), in response to some stimulus.
A US is something that naturally and automatically (without learning) triggers the unlearned response (as food in the mouth triggers salivation).
A CS is originally an NS (neutral stimulus, such as a tone) that, after association with a US (such as food) comes to trigger a CR.
A CR is the learned response (salivating) to the originally neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus.
In classical conditioning, the first stage is acquisition, or associating an NS with the US so that the NS begins triggering the CR.
Acquisition occurs most readily when the NS is presented just before (ideally, about a half-second before) a US, preparing the organism for the upcoming event. This finding supports the view that classical conditioning is biologically adaptive. Through higher-order conditioning, a new NS can become a new CS.
Extinction is diminished responding, which occurs if the CS appears repeatedly by itself (without the US).
Spontaneous recovery is the appearance of a formerly extinguished response, following a rest period.
Generalization is the tendency to respond to stimuli that are similar to a CS.
Discrimination is the learned ability to distinguish between a CS and other irrelevant stimuli.
Pavlov taught us that significant psychological phenomena can be studied objectively, and that classical conditioning is a basic form of learning that applies to all species.
Classical conditioning techniques are used to improve human health and well-being in many areas, including therapy for those recovering from drug addiction and for some types of psychological disorders. The body’s immune system may also respond to classical conditioning.
Pavlov’s work also provided a basis for Watson’s idea that human emotions and behaviors, though biologically influenced, are mainly a bundle of conditioned responses. Watson applied classical conditioning principles in his studies of “Little Albert” to demonstrate how specific fears might be conditioned.
Multiple-Choice Questions
Which of the following is the best example of learning?
A dog salivates when food is placed in its mouth.
A honeybee stings when the hive is threatened.
A child cries when his brother hits him.
A child feels ill after drinking sour milk.
A child flinches when he sees lightning because he is afraid of thunder.
A family uses the microwave to prepare their cat’s food. The cat comes running into the room when the microwave timer sounds, but not when it hears the oven timer. The cat is demonstrating the concept of
generalization.
discrimination.
spontaneous recovery.
extinction.
habituation.
In classical conditioning, a person learns to anticipate events by
associating a response with its consequence.
avoiding spontaneous recovery.
using operant behaviors.
associating two stimuli.
employing cognitive learning.
In classical conditioning, the conditioned stimulus
naturally triggers a response.
is a naturally occurring response.
is initially neutral, and then comes to trigger a response.
prompts spontaneous recovery.
is a reward offered for completing a behavior.
Students are accustomed to a bell ringing to indicate the end of a class period. The principal decides to substitute popular music for the bell to indicate the end of each class period. Students quickly respond to the music in the same way they did to the bell. In this example, the music is a(n)
conditioned response.
conditioned stimulus.
unconditioned response.
unconditioned stimulus.
habituated response.
Students in a school are accustomed to moving to the next class when music plays. After a period of time, the principal replaces the music with a bell to signal the end of class. If one day he plays the music by mistake and the students leave class, which of the following is being shown?
Acquisition
Generalization
Habituation
Spontaneous recovery
Operant conditioning
Practice FRQs
A researcher paired the sound of a whistle with a puff of air to the eye to classically condition Ashley to blink when the whistle alone was sounded. Explain how the researcher could demonstrate the following.