Lecture 7 - Classical Conditioning PDF

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING Christopher Gade, PHD  BEHAVIORISM AND CLASSICAL CONDITIONING In the last class, we examined In this class, we’ll look at how the way we perceive and researchers first examined react to stimuli responses to those...

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING Christopher Gade, PHD  BEHAVIORISM AND CLASSICAL CONDITIONING In the last class, we examined In this class, we’ll look at how the way we perceive and researchers first examined react to stimuli responses to those stimuli Please note: some of you might think that these To do this, we’ll be exploring theories are limited in scope, behaviorism but that doesn’t mean that this isn’t an important topic  WHAT IS BEHAVIORISM? Behaviorism - an approach to studying psychology that involves studying the observable cause-and-effect relationships between conditions and behavior Assumption: much of our behavior is a result of a stimulus-response relationship Assumption: the mind might play a role in behavior, but examining the observable allows greater scientific exploration of topics “Anger” example  DO ALL AGREE? Radical behaviorism – ALL behavior can be explained as the result of observable encounter between a stimulus and a response Term introduced by BF Skinner (later) Idea pushed by John B Watson (1878-1958) “Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select—doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar- man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors. (1930)” Baby Albert studies TWO MAIN FORMS OF LEARNING Learning how stimuli around us are connected (classical conditioning) (involuntary) Learning the consequences of our actions in different environments (operant conditioning) (voluntary)  THE FIRST BEHAVIORIST Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) Interested in biology and physiology Example: graduate work on the circulatory system Was studying the digestive system of dogs Ran into a bit of a problem with his dogs (“psychic salivations”) From his original problem, he discovered and began studying the concept he later called classical conditioning  Unconditional reflex – unconditional stimulus (UCS) elicits an unconditional response (UCR) Later known as unconditioned stimulus and response Conditional reflex – conditional stimulus (CS) elicits a conditional response (CR) Later known as conditioned stimulus and response Neutral stimulus (NS) – introduced later; in essence, a conditioned stimulus is a neutral stimulus until it has been successfully paired with the unconditioned stimulus CLASSICAL CONDITIONING TERMS The Classical Conditioning Formula  LINKING THIS TO REAL LIFE Unconditional stimulus – stressor Unconditional response – stress/anxiety to stressor Neutral stimulus/conditioned stimulus – environmental cue Conditioned response – stress anxiety to environmental cue Activity: let’s examine some of our own stressors and see if we can find the environments that we’ve come to link to the stressors  NUANCES TO LEARNING Learning Learning (CS+US) curves Spontaneous recovery of Forgetting Forgetting/ CR Extinction (CS alone) Curves Extinction Spontaneous Extinction (CS alone) Recovery Heightened Sensitivity  DIFFERENT FORMS OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONING Trace conditioning NS → (Pause) → UCS → UCR Note: the NS must end for this to be trace Delayed conditioning Extended NS → + UCS → UCR Note: the NS must be sustained for this to be delayed Simultaneous Conditioning NS + UCS → UCR Note: the NS and UCS occur EXACTLY at the same time Backward conditioning (doesn’t work!) UCS → UCR → NS  OTHER RELATED Conditioning occurs more rapidly when the neutral stimulus is relatively unfamiliar DISCOVERIES Conditioning appears to be easier for specific species with specific pairs (pigeons and vision, rats and taste, dogs and smell, etc.) Generalization – an effect that occurs when organisms respond with a CR to a new stimulus that closely resemble the CS Discrimination – an effect that occurs when organisms do not respond to a new stimulus as if it were the same as the CS  WHAT THIS TELLS US ABOUT LEARNING In our next class we’ll However, it doesn’t It tells us how we can revisit the world of inform us about how learn about how our behaviorism from a we know about what minds might pair different perspective; to do and not to do in stimuli with each other from the world of our world operant conditioning