INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

Application of classical conditioning

Classical conditioning was discovered by Russian psychologist Ivan

Pavlov. It is a basic form of learning in which one stimulus comes to serve as a
signal to serve as a signal for the occurrence of a second stimulus. It occurs when
a conditions stimulus is pared with and unconditioned stimulus. The process of
classical conditioning explains all the aspects of human psychology.
Simply, it is a form of learning whereby a conditioned stimulus becomes
associated with an unrelated unconditioned stimulus in order to produce a
behavioral response known as a conditioned response.

Applications of classical conditioning.

There are many areas where classical conditioning is used. Some of the
application of classical conditioning are as follows:

1. Taste aversion
Humans can develop an aversion to a food if they become sick after eating
it. A conditioned taste aversion can occur when eating a substance is followed by
illness. For example, if you ate samosas for lunch and then became ill, you might
avoid eating samosas in the future, even if it had no relationship to your
illness.The particular food did not physically make them sick, but classical
conditioning teaches them to have an aversion to that food since sickness
immediately followed the consumption of it. We can relate this to Pavlov’s
experiments, like the example where the dog is classically conditioned to salivate
at the sound of a bell, using food.

2. Advertising
Advertising is a marketing communication and an activity that has an
effect on sales. Applied to advertising, the conditioned stimulus is the product. The
objective of the ad from a conditioning perspective is to get the audience to form a
connection between the product and a positive experience. Some advertisements
use popular songs as background music while they show the product. This
presumably causes the audience to be reminded of that advertisement/product
every time they hear that song which makes them think about the product even
more often.

3. Behavioral Therapies
Classical conditioning has been used as a successful form of treatment in
changing or modifying behaviors, such as substance abuse and smoking. Some
therapies associated with classical conditioning include aversion therapy,
systematic desensitization, and flooding. Aversion therapy is a type of behavior
therapy designed to encourage individuals to give up undesirable habits by
causing them to associate the habit with an unpleasant effect. 

4. Treatment of phobias
Phobia is an extreme or irrational fear of or aversion to something.The
treatment of phobia is Systematic desensitization. It is a type of behavioral
therapy based on the principle of classical conditioning. It was developed by Wolpe
during the 1950s.This therapy aims to remove the fear response of a phobia, and
substitute a relaxation response to the conditional stimulus gradually using
counter conditioning.

5. Conditioned drug response

Stimulus that is present when a drug is consumed may eventually evoke a
conditioned physiological response that shows the effect of the drug. This is
sometimes the case with caffeine, habitual coffee drinkers may find that the smell
of coffee gives them a feeling of alertness. For example, if a drug causes the body to
become less sensitive to pain, the compensatory conditioned reaction may be one
that makes the user more sensitive to pain causing drug tolerance. Dangerous
overdose reaction may occur if the CS happens to be absent, so that the
conditioned compensatory effect fails to occur. For example, if the drug has always
been administered in the same room, the stimuli provided by that room may
produce a conditioned compensatory effect, then an overdose reaction may happen
if the drug is administered in a different location where the conditioned stimuli are
absent.

These are some of the areas where classical conditioning are used. Moreover,
there are many other fields where classical conditioning can be applied.

Submitted by:
Bandana Shrestha
Roll no: 197096
BBA 1st sem
Section:A