1. EXPLORING PSYCHOLOGY EIGHTH EDITION IN MODULES David Myers PowerPoint Slides Aneeq Ahmad Henderson State University Worth Publishers, © 2011

2. 2 Learning

3. Classical Conditioning Module 17 3

4. 4 How Do We Learn? Classical Conditioning Pavlov’s Experiments  Acquisition  Extinction and Spontaneous Recovery  Generalization  Discrimination

5. 5 Extending Pavlov’s Understanding  Cognitive Processes  Biological Predispositions Pavlov’s Legacy  Applications of Classical Conditioning

6. 6 How Do We Learn? We learn by association. Our minds naturally connect events that occur in sequence. 2000 years ago, Aristotle suggested this law of association. Then 200 years ago Locke and Hume reiterated this law.

7. Learning is a relatively permanent change in an organism’s behavior due to experience. Although associative learning - learning that certain events occur together – had long been discussed, it wasn’t until Ivan Pavlov that it was confirmed. 7 Classical Conditioning

8. 8 Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov, with the most famous of psychological experiments, discovered the phenomena we call classical conditioning - learning to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events. His work provided a basis for behaviorism - the view that psychology (1) should be an objective science that (2) studies behavior without reference to mental processes. Classical Conditioning Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)

9. 9 Pavlov’s Experiments Before conditioning, food (Unconditioned Stimulus, US) produces salivation (Unconditioned Response, UR). However, the tone (neutral stimulus, NS) does not. During conditioning, the neutral stimulus (tone) and the US (food) are paired, resulting in salivation (UR). After conditioning, the neutral stimulus (now Conditioned Stimulus, CS) elicits salivation (now Conditioned Response, CR)

10. 10 Pavlov’s Experiments

11. 11 Acquisition Acquisition is the initial learning stage in classical conditioning in which an association between a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus takes place. 1.In most cases, for conditioning to occur, the neutral stimulus needs to come before the unconditioned stimulus. 2.The time in between the two stimuli should be about half a second. In higher-order conditioning a previously conditioned stimulus is paired with a new neutral stimulus, creating a new (often weaker) conditioned stimulus.

12. 12 Acquisition The CS needs to come half a second before the US for acquisition to occur.

13. 13 Extinction and Spontaneous recovery Extinction occurs when the US (food) does not follow the CS (tone) and the CR (salivation) diminishes. After a rest period, an extinguished CR (salivation) spontaneously recovers, but if the CS (tone) persists alone, the CR becomes extinct again.

14. 14 Generalization Tendency to respond to stimuli similar to the CS is called generalization. Pavlov and his students noticed that a dog conditioned to salivate to one tone, would also respond to a somewhat to a different tone.

15. 15 Discrimination Pavlov’s dogs also learned to respond to one tone and not to another. Discrimination is the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and other stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus.

16. 16 Extending Pavlov’s Understanding Pavlov and Watson considered consciousness, or mind, unfit for the scientific study of psychology. However, they underestimated the importance of cognitive processes and biological constraints.

17. 17 Cognitive Processes Early behaviorists believed that learned behaviors of various animals could be reduced to mindless mechanisms. However, later behaviorists suggested that animals learn the predictability of a stimulus, meaning they learn expectancy or awareness of a stimulus (Rescorla & Wagner, 1972).

18. 18 Biological Predispositions Pavlov and Watson believed that laws of learning were similar for all animals. Therefore, a pigeon and a person do not differ in their learning. However, behaviorists later suggested that learning is constrained by an animal’s biology.

19. 19 Biological Predispositions John Garcia Garcia showed that the duration between the CS and the US may be long (hours), but yet result in conditioning. A biologically adaptive CS (taste) led to conditioning but other stimuli (sight or sound) did not. Courtesy of John Garcia

20. 20 Biopsychosocial Influences on Learning

21. 21 Pavlov’s greatest contribution to psychology is isolating elementary behaviors from more complex ones through objective scientific procedures. Pavlov’s Legacy

22. 22 1.Former crack cocaine users should avoid cues (people, places) associated with previous drug use. 2.Through classical conditioning, a drug (plus its taste) that affects the immune response may cause the taste of the drug to invoke the immune response. Applications of Classical Conditioning

23. 23 Watson believed that human emotions and behaviors are mainly a bundle of conditioned responses. He showed how specific fears can be conditioned with the controversial “Little Albert” experiment in which an 11- month-old boy was conditioned to fear a rat. Applications of Classical Conditioning John B. Watson Brown Brothers