The Concept and Factors that Affect Classical Conditioning The innovation of classical conditioning is accredited to Ivan Pavlov, who is well-known for the broad research done in this area. This is why classical conditioning is also called Pavlovian conditioning after the way Pavlov trained dogs to drool when they heard a bell. In a normal trial with dogs, Pavlov pose an unbiased aural stimulus like a metronome instantaneously prior to putting sand or food powder to the tongue of the dog. With Pavlov doing this act with the dog, salivation was produced. Classical conditioning functions in this ways as before conditioning occurs the unconditioned stimulus (US) and the conditioned stimulus (CS) function disjointedly.
After many trials of pairing, with the light or the bell, with the food, eventually the dogs began to associate being feed with the stimuli if the light or the bell. Upon making the association with the light or bell with the food, the dogs would then begin to salivate when the light turned on or when the bell was rung. The dogs had been conditioned to salivate at the sight of the light being turned on, or at the sound of a bell being rung. Pavlov’s discovery of conditioned reflexes led to the modern day theory of classical conditioning. Classical conditioning considers stimuli and response: unconditioned stimuli, unconditioned response, conditioned stimuli, and conditioned
Classical conditioning is a theory of learning founded by Ivan Pavlov, It is a way of learning through past association, he accidentally stumbled upon this theory as he was studying the digestive system of the dog and then applied it to human psychology. It involves an unconditioned stimulus and an unconditioned response. He tested his theory with a dog, food being the stimulant (UCS) and salivation being the response (UCR) and a bell as a neutral entity to which there was no response until combined with the food. The final test in the his theory is to reintroduce the the bell without food (UCS) and which this time causes the salivation (UCR). This reveals the dogs mind is remembering the past association with the bell and the food.
It was around the turn of the century and Pavlov had been studying the process of digestion. He noticed that when a hungry dog got the smell or sight of food that it would began to salivate. He then changed his motive from digestion to how the dog anticipated the food before the food was presented, so he decided to make an experiment out of it. When he first began his experiments he got a tuning fork and meat powder to get the dog to salivate. First he would ring the tuning fork then directly after put the meat powder on the dog’s tongue.
Learning is through operant, classical or instrumental conditioning. Behaviourists view instrumental and operant conditioning as having a slight difference on the constructs they observe for each of these. Cognitivists view learning as through classical conditioning, operant (instrumental) conditioning or observational learning. Ivan Pavlov a Russian psychologist studied classical conditioning, which is a valid means of learning to both groups. In his classic studies Pavlov rang a bell each time before giving his dogs food and eventually the dogs were conditioned to salivate when they heard the bell in expectancy of food.
Pavlov’s dog is a most famous example. Ivan Pavlov used his dog to prove that he could evoke a conditioned response (salivation) as a result of a neutral stimulus (the ringing bell). He demonstrated this theory by ringing a bell before he would present food to his dog. Naturally, the presentation of food makes a dog salivate. Pavlov found that if he presented a neutral
This can be anything that is not naturally related to a particular response. In Pavlov's experiment the neutral stimulus was the bell. (Olson & Hergenhahn, 2009) Next we look at the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) which is the natural stimulus used to produce the response desired. This was easy enough to see in Pavlov's experiment, it was the food the dog ate that naturally created an instance of drooling for the dog. This natural reaction to the food or unconditioned response (UCR) and is the result of a natural reaction to a stimulus.
P1-explaining the basic psychological approaches Behaviourist One of the best-known aspects of behavioural learning theory is classical conditioning. Discovered by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov, classical conditioning is a learning process that occurs through associations between an environmental stimulus and a naturally occurring stimulus. It's important to note that classical conditioning involves placing a neutral signal before a naturally occurring reflex. In Pavlov's classic experiment with dogs, the neutral signal was the sound of a tone and the naturally occurring reflex was salivating in response to food. By associating the neutral stimulus with the environmental stimulus (the presentation of food), the sound of the tone alone could produce the salivation response.
Pavlov used dogs to further prove his theory. He decided to use the tone of the bell (CS) and paired it with food (US) which caused the dogs to salivate (UR). After repeatedly pairing the bell with food, the bell alone caused the dogs to salivate (CR). The dogs orienting response – also referred to as the orienting reflex – to the tone of the bell is that they perk up their ears and turns its sensors to where the sound is coming from. After repeated presentation of the bell, the dogs then got used to the tone of the bell and ignores it because the stimulus is of no consequence, a process he refers to as habituation.
In classical conditioning, Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936), conducted an experiment on the eating habits of dogs. In the experiment, Pavlov rang a bell whenever he gave his dog food. After repeating this procedure several times, he realized than whenever the bell rang, the dog could start salivating. The dog had associated food with the sound of the bell. Pavlov concluded that the dogs demonstrated classical condition, whereby the bell was a neutral stimulus and by itself could not produce a response such as salivating (Coon, Mitterer, Talbot & Vanchella, 2010).