What Is Classical Conditioning Psychology?
Classical conditioning, or Pavlovian conditioning, is a form of learning developed by the Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov in the early 20th century. This form of psychology is now known as behaviorism, which is based on the idea that the environment can shape behavior and that all learning happens through interactions with your environment.
Classical conditioning psychology: Pavlov's dogs
If you have never heard of Pavlov, then you may not know about Pavlov's dogs. These canines were laboratory animals used in testing his theory. In the late 1800s, Pavlov was working with dogs to determine why dogs salivated when being fed, and he accidentally discovered the classical conditioning response. Pavlov hypothesized that the canines would salivate when they were given their food, and a small tube was placed into their cheek to measure it. However, it was found that the dogs started drooling before they got their food. They would salivate when they heard the footsteps of the person bringing them the food.
After recording this reaction many times, Pavlov decided to try to condition the dogs to another stimulus and see if the salivating response could be learned. He used a clicking metronome to see if the dogs would salivate when hearing it, and, of course, they did not. Then, Pavlov introduced the metronome clicking every time the dogs were fed for several weeks. He once again introduced the metronome clicking to see if the dogs would start salivating, and they did, proving that his conditioning response worked. He went on to use other stimuli to see if he could condition the dogs to other noises, such as the ringing of a bell, which worked just as well as the footsteps and metronome clicking.
The three stages of classical conditioning
- Before conditioning, the unconditioned stimulus produces an unconditioned response in a person. In other words, something in the environment produces an automatic response that is unlearned (unconditioned) and is a natural response. For instance, the smell of vanilla may make you feel hungry, or the sound of birds singing may make you happy.
- During conditioning, a stimulus that does not produce a response is associated with an unconditioned stimulus, making it the conditioned stimulus. For example, the smell of a certain perfume may be associated with a certain person who typically wears that scent.
- After conditioning, the conditioned stimulus is associated with the unconditioned stimulus and creates a new conditioned response.
Five key principals of classical conditioning counseling
There are five key principles of classical conditioning, which include acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, stimulus generalization, and stimulus discrimination.
- Acquisition is the first stage of learning, when the response is established and strengthened. During this step, a neutral stimulus is repeatedly combined with an unconditioned stimulus. This causes an individual to associate the two and begin to show behavior in response to the stimulus.
- Extinction is the stage when the episodes of a conditioned response start to decrease or disappear. This typically happens when a conditioned stimulus is no longer linked to an unconditioned stimulus. If you continue to remove the conditioned stimulus from the unconditioned stimulus, the response will disappear completely.
- Spontaneous recovery happens on its own for no obvious reason. This is the learned response suddenly coming back after a period of extinction. For instance, if you have trained a dog to drool when you ring a bell and then stop reinforcing that behavior, the response eventually becomes extinct. However, if after some time you ring the bell and the dog drools, that is spontaneous recovery.
- Stimulus generalization is when the conditioned stimulus causes a similar response after the original response has been established. In other words, the dog you have trained to drool when you ring a bell may also drool when he hears a similar sound, such as a telephone or a doorbell.
- Stimulus discrimination is the ability to separate a conditioned stimulus from other stimuli that have not been linked to the unconditioned stimulus. For instance, if the dog you trained to drool at the sound of a bell ringing could differentiate that sound from other similar sounds like a doorbell or telephone ringing, that would be stimulus discrimination.
Little Albert
Ivan Pavlov's classical conditioning research did not stop with animals. Although it would be completely unethical to do today, some associates of Pavlov decided to apply his classical conditioning theory to human beings. Using a baby named Little Albert, a behaviorist named John B. Watson and his graduate student Rosalie Rayner decided to try to condition the fear response in the toddler. Researchers showed Albert a group of stimuli that included burning newspapers, masks, a monkey, a rabbit, and a white rat.
The white rat
When first introduced, Little Albert did not show fear to any of these stimuli. However, the next time the child was introduced to the white rat, Watson or Rayner would make a loud sound by hitting a steel pipe with a hammer. This scared the boy and caused him to start crying. After this was done several times, Little Albert would cry every time he saw the white rat.
Criticisms of the experiment
The researchers found that it was not just the rat that Little Albert feared as he started to fear many different white and furry objects. Although the Little Albert Experiment was one of psychology's most famous and is prominent in many different psychology courses, it has been widely criticized for many reasons. For example, causing a child undue fear to prove a theory is considered unethical. Also, Watson and Rayner did not carefully construct or develop the objective means for the process of evaluating Little Albert's reactions.
Classical conditioning and phobias
Similar to the Little Albert experiment, phobias and anxiety disorders can be caused by classical conditioning. A phobia is an irrational fear of a situation, activity, or specific object. One example is a person who has a fear of driving an automobile because they once had a panic or anxiety attack while they were driving. Experts have found that individuals do not develop a phobia of just anything. Even though some people can develop a driving phobia, people are more likely to develop a phobia of objects such as bugs, spiders, or places like closed spaces or heights.
Classical conditioning and post-traumatic stress disorder
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a serious anxiety disorder that may develop after an individual is exposed to a traumatic event such as a violent assault or attack, a natural disaster like a flood or earthquake, severe abuse, or a terrorist attack. The condition typically happens when a person develops an association between the things related to the traumatic event and the trauma itself. For example, an individual with PTSD who has been exposed to war may become afraid when they see a military uniform. Because of classical conditioning, the individual may have a panic attack when being exposed to or just thinking about the traumatic event. Knowing this, therapists and other mental health care professionals have discovered that by exposing the individual to the conditioned stimulus (military uniforms) many times without the unconditioned response (war), they can reduce their fear of the uniforms.
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Classical conditioning and addiction
Classical conditioning can be beneficial in understanding how some types of addiction or drug dependency work. For instance, when someone uses a drug regularly for an extended period, the body compensates for it to counterbalance the effect of the drug. As a result, the individual will need a larger amount of the substance to get the effects they desire. With this example, the environmental response (conditional stimuli) causes your body to prepare itself for the drug (conditional response).
Learn more about conditioning and behavior
If you want to learn more about conditioning and how it may affect your behavior, consider talking to a therapist. They can work with you to understand what may be causing your behavior and provide tools to help you change them. If you're experiencing mental health challenges or have a busy schedule, making and keeping an in-person appointment can prove challenging. You may be experiencing debilitating symptoms such as fatigue or social withdrawal that make it hard to leave the house. Online therapy may provide a solution. With internet-based counseling, you can speak to a qualified therapist from the comfort of your home. It's also more convenient since appointments are available outside normal business hours.
Online therapy is not just convenient, though; it's also effective. Research shows that online therapy can be as effective as in-person counseling in addressing a variety of mental health conditions across various populations.
Takeaway
What is an example of classical conditioning?
Modern examples of classical conditioning or respondent conditioning that many people may have experienced is when they hear a smartphone notification. If you hear your ringtone or a text notification, you may reach for your phone, even if the sounds are coming from someone else’s device. These two stimuli are causing you to check your phone. Thinking you feel your phone vibrating in your pocket is another example.
What is the best definition of classical conditioning?
Classical conditioning or behaviorism is learning that happens unconsciously, pairing a specific stimulus with a conditioned response (CR) to create a behavior.
What is the difference between classical and operant conditioning?
The main difference between classical and operant conditioning is whether the behavior is involuntary or voluntary. Classical conditioning pairs a stimulus with an involuntary response while operant conditioning pairs a voluntary behavior with a consequence. Classical conditioning is passive, while operant conditioning involves rewarding or punishing the learner to incentivize them to continue a behavior.
Is classical conditioning good or bad?
The classical conditioning process is neither good or bad; it really depends on what behavior is being changed. In many cases, classical conditioning can be beneficial. For example, a form of classical conditioning called counterconditioning can help people with phobias. Counterconditioning includes techniques like aversive therapy and exposure therapy and can help people overcome challenges in their lives.
But some forms of classical conditioning and creating conditioned stimuli may be considered unethical, like the famous Little Albert experiment.
What is an example of a conditioned response in everyday life?
There are many classical conditioning examples of classically conditioned responses in everyday life: saying “you’re welcome” after someone says “thank you,” saying, “bless you” after someone sneezes, memorizing times tables, or turning to someone when they say your name.
How does classical conditioning work?
An easy way to understand how classical conditioning works is to look at one of the most well-known classical conditioning experiments: Pavlov’s dogs. In the late 1800s, Ivan Pavlov accidentally discovered the classical conditioning response when he realized that dogs started drooling before they got their food, not when they’d received it, as he initially theorized. In fact, the dogs would start drooling when they heard the footsteps of someone bringing them their food.
After noticing this, Pavlov decided to try experiments to see if the salivating response could be conditioned into the dogs in other ways. To do this, he used a metronome to determine if the dogs would drool when they heard the clicks. Initially, they did not. Over the course of the experiment, Pavlov introduced the ticking metronome every time the dogs were fed. Eventually, the ticking metronome caused the dogs to drool even when they weren’t being fed. He repeated this experiment with similar stimuli, like a ringing bell and people's footsteps.
Another type of conditioning to understand is backward conditioning. This is when the unconditional stimulus is presented before the neutral stimulus. In Pavlov’s experiment, this would have occurred had he presented the food to the dogs and then turned on the metronome. This would have prevented the dogs from making the connection between the sound and the food.
What is operant conditioning in simple terms?
Operant conditioning is a method of learning that uses rewards and punishments to alter behavior so that an association develops between the human behavior and its consequence. For example, say if a lab rat pushes a green button, they get a treat. If they push a red button, they get an electric shock. In an experiment like this, the rat will learn to push the green button and stay away from the red button.
What are the characteristics of classical conditioning?
Classical conditioning has many characteristics. It requires a previously neutral stimulus that doesn’t get a response, like the metronome in Pavlov’s experiment, and an unconditioned stimulus that causes the automatic response. For Pavlov, the unconditioned stimulus was the food.
Classical conditioning also requires an unconditioned response or unlearned response, which is an automatic response that occurs when the unconditioned stimulus is present, like the drool in Pavlov’s experiments.
The conditioned stimulus CS is the substitute stimulus that triggers the same response as the unconditioned stimulus, and the conditioned response is the learned response to the neutral stimuli. So, Pavlov’s conditioning stimulus was the dogs learning to salivate when they heard the metronome and the conditioned response was the drool itself.
Is classical conditioning conscious or unconscious?
Classical conditioning is unconscious or automatic learning.
Is classical conditioning manipulative?
Classical conditioning can be considered manipulative, depending on the situation. This behavioral learning process can be useful in situations where people are trying to overcome a phobia, but it can also be manipulative and even unethical in other cases, as in the famous Little Albert experiment.
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