7.2 - Classical Conditioning: One Thing Leads to Another Flashcards
Classical Conditioning
When a neutral stimulus produces a response after being paired with a stimulus that naturally produces a response; first studied by Ivan Pavlov
Unconditioned Stimulus (US)
Something that reliably produces a naturally occurring reaction in an organism
(The food for Pavlov’s dogs)
Unconditioned Response (UR)
A reflexive reaction that is reliably produced by an unconditioned stimulus.
(The salivation of Pavlov’s dogs when they see or smell food)
Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
Stimulus that is initially neural and produces a reliable response in an organism
(The ring of the bell in Pavlov’s experiment)
Conditioned Response (CR)
Reaction that resembles and unconditioned response, but is produced by a conditioned stimulus
(The dogs drooling after hearing the bell)
Acquisition
The phase of classical conditioning when the CS and the US are presented together
What is Associative Learning?
Occurs when you learn something based on a new stimulus. The most famous example is Ivan Pavlov’s use of dogs to demonstrate that a stimulus, such as the ringing of a bell, leads to a reward, or food. Two types of associative learning exist: classical conditioning, such as in Pavlov’s dog; and operant conditioning, or the use of reinforcement through rewards and punishments
Second-Order Conditioning
A type of learning where a CS is paired with a stimulus that became associated with the US in an earlier procedure.
(Pavlov used a black square in his experiment)
Unconditioned Stimulus + Neutral Stimulus = ?
Natural Response
Extinction
Gradual elimination of a learned response that occurs when the unconditioned stimulus is no longer presented
Spontaneous Recovery
Tendency of a learned behaviour to recover from extinction after a rest period
Generalization
The CR is observed even though the CS is slightly different from the CS used during acquisition.
(A different bell is rung by Pavlov?)
Discrimination
Capacity to distinguish between similar but distinct stimuli
Similar but different stimuli are distinguishable
What was John B. Watson and Rayner’s conditioning experiment?
Little Albert
Conditioning 9-month old Albert to fear a white rat by striking a steel bar whenever he was presented with the rat!
(Little Albert also showed stimulus generalization)
The Rescorla-Wagner Model
Suggests that classical conditioning only occurs when an organism already has an “expectation”
The expectation in turn leads to an array of behaviours associated with the presence of the conditioned stimulus
