Classical Conditioning Flashcards
What is classical conditioning?
classical conditioning as a three-phase process that
results in the involuntary association with a neutral
stimulus
How does classical conditioning work?
A person will originally have no initial reaction to a stimulus (NS)
Over time and with a repeated action, a person will begin to associate something with a feeling
After a while a person will have an involuntary reaction to a stimulus bc they’ve been conditioned to associate it with something
Neutral stimulus (NS)
a stimulus that does not initially create a response
neutral or irrelevant
Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
Unconditioned stimulus is unlearned/automatic and existed before conditioning
activates an involuntary reflex or response
(flinching/blinking/gasping/drooling)
Unconditioned response (UCR)
a natural, automatic behaviour to a given stimulus that existed before conditioning
Conditioned stimulus (CS)
Originally the NS, now creates a response similar to the UCR due to the repeated association with the UCS
Conditioned Response (CR)
a response caused by the conditioned stimulus
Stimulus generalisation
when learner demonstrates the conditioned response to stimuli that is
similar to the conditioned stimuli
a dog is conditioned to salivate to a bell ringing, but will also salivate to anything generally sounding like a bell
Stimulus discrimination
when the learner only demonstrates the conditioned response to the
conditioned stimulus
Ringing a door bell but the dogs wont drool, they don’t associate the door bell with food
Extinction
when the conditioned response weakens over a period of time because the unconditioned stimuli has not been paired with the conditioned stimuli
Spontaneous Recovery
the spontaneous return of a previously extinguished conditioned response
Give examples of classical conditioning
Feeling hungry when hearing the school bell because you associate it with having a meal break
the ‘Little Albert’ experiment - stimulus generalisation
What are the 3 Stages of Classical Conditioning?
The before conditioning
The during conditioning
The after conditioning
The before conditioning stage includes…
Neutral Stimulus
Unconditioned stimulus
Unconditioned response
These all exist before conditioning
What happens in the ‘During Conditioning’ stage?
Neutral stimulus is paired with unconditioned stimulus that produces an unconditioned response
Timing and order of stimulus play big part in role of conditioning
must be a repeated action so that subject begins to associate the Neutral stim with action
