classical conditioning

Question 1

classical conditioning

Answer 1

Classical conditioning involves learning new behaviour through association between 2 stimuli.
Concept was formulated by Pavlov, who investigated the response of having food placed on a dog’s tongue. He noticed that dogs salivated in response to anything associated with the feeding routine (e.g. dish). By ringing a bell prior to feeding Pavlov could condition the dogs to salivate just in response to the bell.

Question 2

process

Answer 2

1) Unconditioned stimulus (food) → unconditioned response (salvation)
2) Neutral stimulus (tuning fork) → no response
3) Neutral stimulus (tuning fork) + unconditioned stimulus (food) → unconditioned response (salvation)
4) Conditioned stimulus (tuning fork) → conditioned response (saliva)

At the beginning of the experiment, the conditioned stimulus does not cause a reflex response by itself. After multiple pairings, with the unconditioned stimulus eventually the dog salivates to just the tuning fork

Question 3

evaluation - little Albert

Answer 3

Evidence to support classical condition comes from Little Albert study
He was only scared of loud noises.
Tested his reactions to neutral stimuli (rabbit, monkey, rat, dog)
The white rat and steel bar being struck was repeated.
Caused him to begin to cry to the rat without the loud noise , showing that they had conditioned a phobia
He then also had a fear of fur, dogs, rabbits, cotton wool balls and the Father Christmas mask.

Question 4

evaluation - over simplified

Answer 4

Classical conditioning has over-simplified the learning process as it ignores important influences on learning such as thought processes.

Question 5

evaluation - lab experiment

Answer 5

Low ecological validity - used dogs - therefore results could not be generalised. The study was well-controlled, could establish cause and effect and the results were scientific therefore reliable.