Classical Conditioning Flashcards
What is classical conditioning?
Learning through association and involves stimulus response
Assumes learning is passive and is based on reflex behaviours that all humans and animals have
What is an unconditioned stimulus (UCS)?
Refers to anything that naturally has the power to produce a reflex response in a human or animal
Doesn’t have to be learned
What is an unconditioned response (UCR)?
A natural reflex response to an unconditioned stimulus
Doesn’t have to be learned
What is a neutral stimulus (NS)?
Has no natural potential to cause a reflex response in a human or animal before it is paired with the unconditioned stimulus
What is a conditioned stimulus (CS)?
Results from learning to associate the neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus
What is a conditioned response (CR)?
Learned response to the conditioned stimulus
What is extinction (property of classical conditioning)?
Occurs when an association using classical conditioning is no longer present
Happens because the association between the UCS and NS weakens if conditioning is no longer occurring
What is spontaneous recovery (classical conditioning)?
May occur after extinction whereby an association reappears without any re-conditioning but may be in a weaker form
What is stimulus generalisation (classical conditioning)?
Occurs when a stimulus similar to the CS produces a CR
What is stimulus discrimination (classical conditioning)?
Opposite of stimulus generalisation
The CR will only be produced to the specific stimulus the animal/person has been conditioned with
What are the strengths/supporting evidence of classical conditioning?
Pavlov (1927)
Watson & Rayner (1920)
Psychology as a science
Psychology in society
What are the weaknesses/refuting evidence of classical conditioning?
Generalisation
Reductionism
Nature-nurture debate
Why is Pavlov supporting evidence of classical conditioning?
Demonstrates that animals can produce unnatural responses to novel stimuli by simply creating an association
Why is Watson & Rayner supporting evidence of classical conditioning?
Demonstrated that humans can produce unnatural responses to neutral stimuli by simply creating an association using classical conditioning to create fear in a baby when presented with a previously neutral object
Why is psychology as a science a strength of classical conditioning?
May be viewed as a scientific procedure because it focuses on studying outward, observable behaviour and is not concerned with internal, mental processes which cannot be measured directly
Why is psychology in society a strength of classical conditioning?
Many useful applications have been developed using the principles of classical conditioning
e.g. use of aversion therapy to help treat alcoholism by deliberately creating an association between nausea and alcohol and systematic desensitisation to treat phobias by helping the patient associate relaxation with the phobic object
Why is reductionism a weakness of classical conditioning?
It isolates the response to a stimulus and only focuses on this as an explanation for learning new behaviours
This is simplistic because it ignores other factors such as internal mental processes and genes which are also involved in helping us learn new behaviours
Why is nature-nurture debate a weakness of classical conditioning?
Only focuses on nurture and ignores the influence of nature or the interaction between both
Assumes that all learning happens after birth and through the environment
Why is generalisation a weakness of classical conditioning?
Vast amount of knowledge regarding classical conditioning has been obtained using research with animals e.g. Pavlov dogs
Some psychologists would argue that generalising the findings from animal behaviour to human behaviour has limitations because humans have more complex communication and thought processes
