Classical Conditioning

Kent Van Cleave, Ph.D.

 Overview
 I will tell you how I classically conditioned a
baby squirrel.
 We will discuss some ways you get classically
conditioned.
 I will tell you about how Watson classically
conditioned an emotional response…
 …and how Watson took his technique to the
marketplace.
 You will truly understand classical conditioning.
How I classically conditioned a squirrel

We found an infant
squirrel in back yard.

Went to squirrel rescue

sites online to see best
way to raise him.
 Fed with
syringe
and puppy
formula;
initially,
five times
a day.
 The setup…

 All mammals have a reflex called the

gastro-colic reflex.
 When they eat, they have a reflexive urge
to excrete.
The squirrel rescue sites add that mother
squirrels clean their babies after feeding to
stimulate that reflex.
 This is necessary, they state, to prevent the
baby from developing fatal obstructions.
 Procedure
 I would get the squirrel out of his cage…
 Then I would feed him…
 Then I would wash him with a warm, wet paper
towel.
 As he grew, the feeding schedule
lightened up.
 Soon I was feeding him three times a day,
though he was eating more.
 I crushed up Cheerios and mixed into the
formula…
 …and began putting cracked nuts and
whole Cheerios in his cage.
 The solid foods began disappearing, and
one morning he refused his formula.
 Then he chewed the end off of the
syringe!
 At this point, he was weaned.
 The knockdown…
 Recalling what
Kretch, Rozenzwig,
Diamond and others
learned about
environment and
brain development, I
continued to get the
squirrel out of his
cage several times a
day to play.
 But a strange thing started happening…
Every time I would get him out of his
cage, he would poo in my hand!
 Hmmmm….
 I thought about this for a while,
and then I remembered a
similar situation a Russian
physiologist found himself in a
century earlier.

Ivan Pavlov…
Pavlov was studying the gastric function (and
salivation) of dogs. He externalized a salivary gland in
each of his dogs, and collected the saliva for analysis.
To trigger salivation, he blew a meat powder with chili
powder into their mouths.
But he noticed that they also salivated from the sound of
footsteps of his technicians on the platform on which the
dogs were placed—before they were given meat powder.

Initially calling this “psychic secretions”, he set out to

find out why they did this.
 Pavlov had discovered classical
conditioning…
Meat powder (UCS) Salivate (UCR)
Add to this event which comes just before or at
the same time…
Footsteps (CS) (CR)
Meat powder (UCS) Salivate (UCR)

An association gets made between the footsteps

and salivation…
 Back to the squirrel…
Feed (UCS) Excrete (UCR)
Add to this event which comes just before or at
the same time…
Get out of cage (CS) (CR)
Feed (UCS) Excrete (UCR)

An association gets made between getting the

squirrel out of the cage and excretion…
Fortunately, when the CS is presented
repeatedly without the UCS…
…the association weakens and the conditioned
response becomes extinct.
What are some examples of when
YOU get classically conditioned?
John Watson, and his graduate student,
Rosalie Rayner, used the same paradigm
in the U.S. to condition an emotional
response.

http://www.bdrum.com/p130grp5/albert.html
 Unfortunately, Watson was smitten by his
lovely assistant…
 When his, errrr, indiscretion was
discovered, his academic career was over.
 So he divorced his wife, married his
assistant, and went into advertising!
 Watson’s genius…
 Watson created an advertising
campaign that has been used down to
the present day
 The paradigm that he used –
conditioned emotional response – is
now more widely used than ever.
 The campaign…
Baby (UCS) Awwwwww! (UCR)
Add to this event which comes just before or at
the same time…
Baby powder (CS) (CR)
Baby (UCS) Awwwwww! (UCR)

An association gets made between the baby

powder and the Awwwwww! response…
Copycats…
 Why is this such a powerful approach?
When cognitive sales approaches are used, the attempt
to influence us is overt, and we are likely to counter-
argue.
For products with low differentiation, like beer and
insurance, cognitive persuasion is not likely to be
effective, anyway, in part because of brand loyalty –
another concept that Watson pioneered.
With conditioned emotional responses, the persuasion
is covert – we are not aware that we are being
influenced.
 Operant Conditioning

Whereas classical conditioning is a passive

paradigm, operant conditioning is an active
paradigm. We “operate” in order to receive some
reward or avoid some punishment.
With classical conditioning, the response comes
after the stimulus.
With operant conditioning, the response comes first.
 Operant Conditioning

With operant conditioning, we may use behavioral

contingencies with the goal of increasing a
behavior. We “reinforce” the behavior.
We also may use behavioral contingencies with the
goal of decreasing a behavior. In this case, we
“punish” the behavior.
 Operant Conditioning
With operant conditioning, too, there are
contingencies that we can add, and there are
contingencies that we can take away.
Think math. The + of addition also is evaluated as
“positive”, and the – of subtraction also is
evaluated as “negative”.
Both of these options are available for either
reinforcement or punishment.
Be careful about the connotation of negative,
however. Adding something that someone does
not like is still positive, even though they will
evaluate it as negative.
 Give me examples, please.
 Positive reinforcement
 Negative reinforcement
 Positive punishment
 Negative punishment
Schedules of Reinforcement