CLASSICAL CONDITIONING: OPERATION AND EXAMPLES - PSYCHOLOGY - 2024

The classical conditioning or Pavlovian conditioning consists in the association of a conditioned neutral stimulus (CS) with an unconditioned stimulus (US). After this association, the conditioned stimulus can elicit a conditioned response (CR).

For example, a bell sound (EC) occurs together with food (EI) and they are associated, the bell being capable of causing salivation or conditioned response (CR). Before food (EI) caused salivation (unconditioned response or IR).

1-The dog salivates seeing the food. 2-The dog does not salivate at the sound of the bell. 3-The sound of the bell is shown next to the food. 4-After conditioning, the dog salivates with the sound of the bell.

This type of associative learning was discovered by Ivan Pavlov, theorist of behaviorism, in his research with dogs where he associated an unconditioned stimulus, food, with a neutral stimulus, the sound of a bell. After a series of tests, he observed that the dog responded by salivating to the sound of the bell.

Pavlov is especially known for formulating these investigations and especially for defining the conditioned reflex, which he developed after suggesting that salivation in dogs could be the result of psychic activity.

Ivan Pavlov laid the foundations of classical conditioning, which were developed in posterity by other authors of the behaviorist current such as John Watson.

How classical conditioning works

This theory is one of the fundamental principles of learning and one of the most basic ways to understand associative learning.

This conditioning was studied above all with dogs to which salivary fistula techniques were applied, specifically with those that learned to anticipate the arrival of food. The animals functioned with two stimuli: a tone that would act as the neutral stimulus, and a stimulus that would act as the unconditioned that would directly provoke the unconditioned or reflex response.

In this way, the style of food would function as unconditioned since only with its presentation would the unconditional salivation response be produced in the animal.

On the other hand, the tone acted as a neutral stimulus whose effectiveness was influenced by the repeated presentation of the previous stimulus: food. Thus, the stimuli and responses that did not depend on previous trials would be unconditional, and those that did depend on trials of this type would be conditional.

Here is the definition of the main terms used by Ivan Pavlov in his discoveries:

Key concepts

Learning

From behavioral psychology, learning is understood to be those observable changes in the subject's behavior. They are changes that occur in behavioral repertoires as a consequence of previous experience and the association between specific stimuli and responses.

In this sense, Iván Pavlov maintains that knowledge is acquired thanks to the association of stimuli.

Association

It is the connection between the mental representation of two stimuli or of a stimulus and a response in such a way that the presentation of one of them directly evokes the other.

Classical conditioning

Classical conditioning is a type of learning in which the behavior that occurs and is maintained is reinforced.

It is a learning process through which an association is established between an unconditioned stimulus and a conditioned one, the latter being capable of provoking the conditioned response after learning.

Unconditioned stimulus

Stimulus or specific event that triggers an immediate and involuntary response in the body.

That is, it is a stimulus that, without prior learning, triggers an involuntary response that does not need to be learned. Also, unconditioned stimulation can be appetizing if it is pleasant and aversive if it is unpleasant.

Neutral stimulus

It is a stimulus or event that by itself would not trigger any type of response in the body, not showing the unconditioned response that would occur in the face of the unconditioned stimulus.

Conditioned stimulus

Stimulus or event that was previously neutral and that did not provoke any type of response in the body.

After the continued association with a stimulus that is unconditioned, it results in the response in the organism after this conditioning. In this case it would also be a conditioned response, since it is the result of conditioning.

Unconditional answer

Response or reaction that arises automatically and does not require prior learning or conditioning to occur.

Conditioned response

Learned response or reaction to a given stimulus thanks to a learning process.

Through this, an unconditioned stimulus and a neutral stimulus are associated, which after a temporary link becomes conditioned.

Ways of acting

To understand this type of Pavlov's conditioning, a series of relevant aspects must be taken into account:

• First, the conditioned stimulus is presented and then the unconditioned one (EC-EI).
• Each pairing between stimuli is called a conditioning trial, and the time that elapses between the start of the conditioned stimulus and the start of the unconditioned stimulus is called the inter-stimulus interval.
• Afterwards, there must be a spatial and temporal contiguous relationship so that they can be represented by us as an association.
• Furthermore, the pairing has to be causal and not accidental, within a certain margin of probability. There must be a so-called inter-trial interval or time necessary between each trial for the events to be processed and fixed by the subjects as an association.
• By experimental session is meant the set of successive trials isolated temporarily.

Key points

• An unconditioned stimulus or EI automatically elicits an unconditioned response or IR.
• A neutral or EN stimulus does not by itself produce an unconditioned response or IR.
• When a neutral stimulus was presented together with an unconditioned stimulus, after several trials and due to their pairing, the neutral stimulus would become a conditioned stimulus or CD.
• After the conditioning, the conditioned stimulus would provoke the response, being a conditioned response or CR because it is due to the conditioning.

Fear conditioning

It is a type of classical conditioning. Through the conditioning of fear, threats from the environment can be recognized that previously would not be detected automatically.

The conditioning of emotional reactions constitutes one of the main centers of classical conditioning. It was carried out by Watson and Rayner in 1920 by means of a simple procedure where the fear response in a 9-month-old boy was conditioned by presenting him with a laboratory rat. This gave rise to the famous "Little Albert" experiment.

The authors of this experiment tested various stimuli to find out which stimuli the child was afraid of. The discovery was that little Albert was alarmed when a hammer hit a steel bar causing a loud sound. They used that unconditional fear reaction to condition the fear of the rat.

Each test consisted of first showing the rat and then hitting the steel bar. After five conditioning trials, it was observed that there was an emotional reaction of fear when the animal was presented.

This fear response did not occur when their toys were presented, but it did generalize this fear response to other objects that could be similar to a rat such as a rabbit, a piece of cotton, among others.

As a curiosity, there was an interest in how fear and anxiety were acquired, what are their neural mechanisms and how they can decrease with treatment.

Therefore, for this research, laboratory rats were used, using a short electric shock as unconditioned aversive stimulus, and a tone or light as a conditioned stimulus.

Fear in rats

On the other hand, in rats we observe that fear has been conditioned when they are paralyzed. In this case, this response is a specific defense mechanism such as an anticipatory response to aversive behavior.

However, in general, researchers do not measure this freezing response directly, but instead use an indirect measurement technique of conditioned fear using the conditioned emotional response or conditioned suppression (REC), designed by Estes and Skinner.

First, the rats are taught to press a bar inside an experimental chamber in order to obtain food; the reward. Thus they learn to press the bar in a regular way after several conditioning trials.

When this learning has occurred, fear conditioning begins and in each trial the conditioned stimulus is presented for 1 or 2 minutes, followed by a brief shock.

Rats do not press the lever when paralyzed by fear, making this procedure useful for measuring suppression of the fear-induced response.

Thus, the acquisition of this induced fear causes the rats to stop pressing the lever to obtain food, and there is a specific formula to quantitatively measure the conditioned suppression.

On the other hand, allowing a suppression reason to be calculated to show a greater conditioned fear response.

References

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