Learning approach - Classical conditioning

Question 1

AO1 points on Classical conditioning

Answer 1

• Developed by Pavlov
• Learning by association. A stimulus is something in our environment that affects us; a response is our reaction to a stimulus.
• We all have a natural tendency to react to certain stimuli, for example to start when we hear a loud, unexpected noise or laugh when tickled.
• These are unconditioned responses (UCR) and the things that produce them are unconditioned stimuli (UCS). This sort of stimulus-response doesn’t require a psychological explanation since it’s based on biology.
• However, when a neutral stimulus (NS) that normally doesn’t affect us is paired over a period of time with a UCS, the two become associated. This is learning by association, also known as conditioning.
• After conditioning, the NS becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS) because it produces the same reaction from us that the UCS used to produce.
• There is something artificial about this learned response to a CS, which is why it is known as a conditioned response (CR).
• Conditioned responses don’t feel artificial to the person doing them. Only if you know the history of how they were learned, can you tell they are conditioned and not unconditioned (natural) responses.
• Conditioned stimuli gradually lose their association with the original unconditioned stimulus and they revert back to being a neutral stimulus again. This process is called extinction and it can take a long time.
• Once an association is formed, it is never truly forgotten. Even after extinction, a CR can reappear. This is termed spontaneous recovery.
• Once a CR is formed, there is a tendency for it to appear in response to things other than the original CS. Quite often, people who have learned by association will carry on making associations.
• This is called stimulus generalisation and it means that stimuli that are similar to the CS will produce the CR.
• Once a CR is formed, there is a tendency for it to appear in response to things other than the original CS. Quite often, people who have learned by association will carry on making associations. This is called stimulus generalisation and it means that stimuli that are similar to the CS will produce the CR.
• Watson & Rayner’s (1920) “Baby Albert” study, which uses Classical Conditioning to produce a phobia in a baby boy. This shows that Classical Conditioning explains how humans learn too.
• However, other research into Classical Conditioning has been less successful. David H. Barlow carried out a series of procedures in the USA to ‘cure’ homosexuals of their same-sex attraction.
• The process involved using stomach-churning descriptions and images to produce an urge to vomit – this is the UCS producing a UCR. Then images of attractive same-sex partners were paired with the disgusting imagery.
• This associating of UCS and NS produced a CS instead; a sense of nausea and disgust (CR) was felt whenever the men were presented with a same-sex partner (CS).
• Stimulus generalisation meant this CR was generalised to any same-sex partner. Up to 50% of the young men treated in this way seemed to change their sexual orientation.
• Martin Seligman (1993) reports how these studies generated great excitement in America and prompted many doctors and judges to recommend using conditioning to change the behaviour of homosexuals and paedophiles (homosexuality was illegal at the time many people confused it with paedophilia).
• However, the conclusions were not valid. Most of the men who stopped their homosexual activities after the treatment were bisexuals; among men with exclusive homosexual orientation, the results showed very little success.
• However, many patients reported feeling traumatised and violated by the treatment, especially when other researchers used electric shocks instead of disgusting imagery as their UCS.
• This sad story indicates that Classical Conditioning does not have the same effect on humans as on dogs. Some psychologists suggest that characteristics like homosexuality are ‘essential’ behaviours that cannot be greatly modified by conditioning.
• It is also possible that cognitions are involved in human sexual attraction – feelings like ‘love’ for example – so it is not just a matter of conditioning people not to behave in a particular way; you need to take into account how they feel.