classical conditioning Flashcards
what is classical conditioning
explains how someone can be conditioned into a response by a stimulus that is not the one that would normally produce that response
what are the rules of classical conditioning
learning by association
applies to reflex responses, not to other forms of behaviour
a natural stimulus is followed by a reflex response
what is a stimulus
something that produces a response
what is a response
how someone responds to a stimulus
what is a reflex
an action that is performed without conscious thought as a response to a stimulus
what is conditioned
learned behaviour
what is the neutral stimulus
what is going to be paired with the unconditioned stimuli to eventually give the same response
what is the unconditioned stimuli
what gives the unconditioned response naturally. a stimulus that gives a reflex response
what is the unconditioned response
term for reflex response
what is the conditioned stimuli
neutral stimuli paired with the unconditioned stimuli
what is the conditioned response
after association has been set up the conditioned stimuli is what gives the response
what is extinction
term used when an association using classical conditioning has been extinguished
what is spontaneous recovery
when after extinction suddenly and without reconditioning an association reappears
what is stimulus generalisation
when a stimulus similar to the specific conditioned one elicits the conditioned response
what is discrimination
the CR is only produced in response to the CS and not to similar stimuli focused on a specific stimulation
what was the procedure of pavlov’s dogs
- salivation is measurable as drops can be counted or measured in a glass tube
- isolated variables that dog may see as stimuli by creating a chamber that blocked out even the sound of footsteps
- in lecture 2 dog heard a metronome and salivated to that. pavlov paired the metronome with the food and then could get the dog to salivate without food present
- discussed the nature of the salivation reflex and argued that the meat in mouth is an inborn link and an unconditioned response is saliva but the metronome is going through higher order paths in cortex making new paths and therefore is a conditioned response.
- an electric buzzer made louder over time and 5-10 seconds after the food was presented did not achieve salivation but an electric buzzer appearing with meat once did give salvation
what were the results of pavlov’s dogs
- in metronome study dogs salivated after 9 seconds and by 45 seconds 11 drops had been collected
- electric buzzer that came after food produced no salivation but when it came before food did produce salivation
- secondary conditioning when the first conditioned stimulus gives the salivation is paired with another neutral stimulus e.g. the buzzer
strengths of pavlov’s dogs
carefully controlled environment with the dogs controlled completely other than the tested variable. results were objective and scientifically credible.
- repeated many experiments on dogs and so his results were reliable. continually found that conditioned stimuli would produce a conditioned response
weaknesses of pavlov’s dogs
- unable to show brain activity in a direct way and had to assume what was happening in the cerebral cortex from his experiments. he felt he had shown in built pathways and new associatiations but could not study the actual mechanism
- ideas about evolution led to pavlov thinking he could generalise results to human which seems justifiable as humans do have reflexes by there are differences so may not be easy to say
- discussed the possible lack of validity as he recognised that he took the naturalness out of the situation. the dog was in a chamber and no other stimuli were present. said work may lack validity but findings could still be applied
