Classical Conditioning

HUNGRY DOG

• Dog sees food
• Dog salivates
• Seeing food --> salivating
• Natural sequence, unconscious, uncontrolled and unlearned relationship

HUNGRY DOG BELL SCENARIO

• Present food to hungry dog (before the dog salivates)
• Ring bell
• Thus, Bell with food --> Salivation
• Repeat multiple times...

HUNGRY DOG BELL SCENARIO

• Ring bell with no food
• Dog salivates
• Bell --> salivate

HUNGRY DOG

• Bell elicits same response as sight of food
• Dog has LEARNED to associate bell with food
• Now bell has same power to produce same response as food
• CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

Classical Conditioning

• Start with two things that are already connected (food & salivation)
• Then add a third thing (bell) for several trials
• Eventually, third thing may become strongly associated
• Has power to produce old behavior

Food ---> Salivation
Unconditioned Stimulus--> Unconditioned Response

Unconditioned

• Unconditioned: stimulus and response are naturally connected
• ex: horse & carriage, love & marriage
• Stimulus: elicits a response
• ex: stimulus: wind/response: putting on a jacket

Bell --> SalivationConditioned Stimulus --> Conditioned Response

Conditioned

• Attempt to associate or bond something new with old relationship
• Bell --> Salivation
• Association is unnatural, unlike unconditioned

Review

• Unconditioned Stimulus: thing that can already elicit a response
• Unconditioned Response: a thing that is already elicited by a stimulus
• Unconditioned Relationship: an existing stimulus-response connection
• Conditioning Stimulus: a new stimulus we deliver at the same time 
• Conditioned Relationship: the new stimulus-response relationship we created

History

• Pavlov discovered these important relationships
• created first learning theory which precedes reinforcement theory
• Classical conditioning says nothing about rewards and punishments
• Built upon creating relationships by association over trials
• First type of learning to be discovered in behaviorism (CLASSICAL)

TAKE HOME MESSAGE

• Classical conditioning is Stimulus causes Response
• Adding Neutral Stimulus (bell) paired with Unconditioned Stimulus (food)
• Reflex (involuntary behavior) or Unconditioned Response (salivation)
• multiple trials
• NS becomes Conditioned Stimulus which elicits Conditioned Response