Classical Conditioning Paper

868 Words4 Pages
Classical Conditioning Paper PSY/390 July 23, 2012 Gary Burk Classical Conditioning Paper The classical conditioning theory contains a conditional stimulus, a conditional response, an unconditional stimulus and an unconditional response. Knowing the difference between all of these factors is a crucial part of understanding the classical conditioning theory. It is in place to help explain cognition, behavior and all human learning. How the classical conditioning works is very interesting as can be seen below. In, addition there is an example to explain how this can be applied to someone today. The Theory of Classical Conditioning “At the most basic level the theory of classical conditioning is the pairing of a stimulus with another stimulus in order to bring about the response to the first stimulus with the presentation of the second stimulus” (Olson & Hergenhahn, 2009). Within the theory of classical conditioning there are a few important factors, a conditional stimulus, a conditional response, a unconditional stimulus and an unconditional response. Differentiating between pre-conditioned titles and post-conditioned titles is an essential part of the breakdown of associative learning. For example, a person is in a pre-conditioned state the unconditioned stimulus draws out an unconditioned response. An unconditional response is a response that is not learned but comes naturally in response to an unconditional stimulus. An example of an unconditional response would be a sneeze or blinking. A conditioned stimulus is something that was a neutral stimulus but is not associated with an unconditional stimulus that at some point becomes a trigger for a conditioned response. For example, if every time a person smelled their favorite food they heard a whistles blow, eventually every time that person heard a whistle blow they would associate
Open Document