PSY10004 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Classical Conditioning, The Automatic, Habituation
PSYCH 101 - PSY10005 WEEK 4
LEARNING
Learning is defined as a change in response as a result of experience!
•Change is enduring!
•Change is usually adaptive!
•However, can be maladaptive — eg. Phobia, bad habits, addiction!
Classical Conditioning — Ivan Pavlov!
Classical conditioning refers to a procedure in which a neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with a
stimulus that already triggers a reflexive response. As a result of this pairing, the previously neutral
stimulus itself comes to trigger a response that is similar to that reflex.!
A reflex is a behaviour automatically elicited by a stimulus. !
•Many species have some innate reflexes!
Habituation is the diminishing of a response with repeated exposure to a stimulus. !
The stimulus that elicits a response without conditioning, such as the meat powder in Pavlov’s
experiment, is called the unconditioned stimulus (UCS). !
The automatic reaction to this stimulus is called the unconditioned response (UCR). !
As the neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with the unconditioned stimulus, it becomes a
conditioned stimulus (CS). !
The response it comes to elicit is called the conditioned response (CR).!
Phase 1
UCS = UCR!
NS = NR
Phase 2
NS + UCS = UCR
Phase 3
CS = CR
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
EXTINCTION
Extinction refers to the gradual disappearance of a conditioned response when a conditioned
stimulus is no longer followed by an unconditioned stimulus.!
SPONTANEOUS RECOVERY
Spontaneous recovery is the reappearance of the conditioned response after extinction and
without further pairings of the conditioned and unconditioned stimuli.!
Classical Conditioning — John B. Watson!
Watson expanded on Pavlov’s conditioning and applied it to humans
in researching learnt fear responses (Little Albert study).!
MOUSE (CS) + CRASH (UCS) = FEAR (CR)
Other Terms!
•Preparedness: A concept developed to explain why certain
associations are learned more readily than others. For example,
phobias related to survival, such as snakes, spiders, and heights,
are much more common and much easier to induce in the
laboratory than other kinds of fears.!
•Stimulus Generalisation: A phenomenon in which a conditioned
response is elicited by stimuli that are similar but not identical to
the conditioned stimulus.!
•Stimulus Discrimination: Through stimulus discrimination, people
and animals learn to differentiate among similar stimuli.!
•Higher Order Conditioning: a phenomenon in which a conditioned
stimulus acts as an unconditioned stimulus, creating conditioned stimuli out of events
associated with it.!
•Blocking: the conditioning of an association between two stimuli, a conditioned stimulus (CS)
and an unconditioned stimulus (US) is impaired if, during the conditioning process, the CS is
presented together with a second CS that has already been associated with the unconditioned
stimulus.!
•Latent Inhibition: refers to the observation that a familiar stimulus takes longer to
acquire$meaning$(as a signal or conditioned stimulus) than a new stimulus.!
Other Types of Conditioning!
•Conditioned aversion !
-Tastes and smells particularly !
•Conditioned emotional response !
-Evaluative conditioning !
-Role in phobias, advertising, possibly racism !
•Conditioned immune response !
•Conditioned tolerance !
Operant Conditioning!
Operant conditioning is a process through which an organism learns to respond to the
environment in a way that produces positive consequences and avoids negative ones.!
Operant: a response that has some effect on the world.!
Reinforcer: a stimulus event that increases the probability that the response that immediately
preceded it will occur again.!
Positive Reinforcers: reinforcers stimuli that strengthen a response if they follow that response.!
Negative Reinforcers: unpleasant stimuli, such as pain, that strengthen a response if they are
removed following that response.!
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Learning is de ned as a change in response as a result of experience: change is enduring, change is usually adaptive, however, can be maladaptive eg. phobia, bad habits, addiction. Classical conditioning refers to a procedure in which a neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with a stimulus that already triggers a re exive response. As a result of this pairing, the previously neutral stimulus itself comes to trigger a response that is similar to that re ex. A re ex is a behaviour automatically elicited by a stimulus: many species have some innate re exes. Habituation is the diminishing of a response with repeated exposure to a stimulus. The stimulus that elicits a response without conditioning, such as the meat powder in pavlov"s experiment, is called the unconditioned stimulus (ucs). The automatic reaction to this stimulus is called the unconditioned response (ucr). As the neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with the unconditioned stimulus, it becomes a conditioned stimulus (cs).
