Unit 6-1 An Introduction to
Behaviorism and Classica
Conditioning
Let’s begin with a couple of questions…
Do you usually follow the speed limit when
you drive?
What is your favorite food? What is your
least favorite food?
The key follow-up question
for each of your answers:
WHY?
Because you learned it…
Behaviorism
John B. Watson (1878-1958)
The mind, thinking, and emotions don’t
matter in psychology because they are
unseen and unable to be measured.
Viewed psychology as objective science
that should be based on observable
behaviors.
The types of learning we are looking at in
this unit all fall under the behavioral
perspective.
John
“Chainsaw Killa”
Watson
Behaviorism is all about learning
Learning
a relatively permanent change in an organism’s
behavior due to experience
One of the primary ways that we learn is
through association.
mentally connecting the occurrence of two events
with each other
Two types of associative learning:
Classical conditioning
Operant conditioning
Classical Conditioning
Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)
Russian physician/
neurophysiologist
studied digestive systems
of humans and animals
stumbled upon the
concept of classical
conditioning
The “feisty” Ivan Pavlov
Classical Conditioning
Here’s how he did it:
Classical Conditioning
Classical Conditioning
subject comes to automatically associate two stimuli
A neutral stimulus that signals an unconditioned stimulus begins
to produce a response that anticipates and prepares for the
unconditioned stimulus.
Stimulus - an event that triggers a response
Response - a behavior that occurs due to a stimulus
Stimulus -------> Response
Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning
Experiment
Before Conditioning
UCS (food
in mouth)
Neutral
UCR stimulus No
(salivation) (tone) salivation
Acquisition Period After Conditioning
UCS (food
in mouth)
Neutral CS
stimulus UCR (tone)
(tone) (salivation) CR (salivation)
Classical Conditioning Components
Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)
stimulus that automatically and naturally triggers a response
the dog food
Unconditioned Response (UCR)
the naturally occurring response to the unconditioned stimulus
salivation when seeing and smelling the food
Neutral Stimulus (NS)
stimulus that initially causes no response – is paired with the
unconditioned stimulus
the tuning fork before conditioning
Classical Conditioning Components
Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
originally irrelevant stimulus (NS) that, after association with
an unconditioned stimulus, comes to trigger a conditioned
response
the tuning fork after conditioning
Conditioned Response (CR)
learned response to a previously neutral conditioned stimulus
salivation when hearing the sound of the tuning fork
Classical Conditioning Terms
Acquisition
the period during which conditioning develops
the phase associating a neutral stimulus with an
unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus
comes to elicit a conditioned response
the time when the NS becomes the CS
Classical Conditioning Terms
Extinction
weakening of a CR
in classical conditioning, when a UCS does not
follow a CS
This would occur if we took one of Pavlov’s
conditioned dogs and repeatedly rang the tuning fork
without giving the dog any food.
Eventually, the dog would stop salivating at the
sound of the tuning fork.
Classical Conditioning Terms
Spontaneous Recovery
the reappearance, after a rest period, of an
extinguished CR
Acquisition
Strength (CS+UCS)
of CR
Spontaneous
Extinction recovery of
(CS alone) CR
Extinction
(CS alone)
Pause
Classical Conditioning Terms
Generalization
tendency for stimuli similar to CS to elicit similar
responses
Imagine that you got sick once after eating lobster.
An aversion to eating all seafood in the future would
be an example of generalization.
Classical Conditioning Terms
Discrimination
the learned ability to distinguish between a CS and
other meaningless stimuli
Pavlov conditioned his dogs to a specific pitch of
tuning fork.
When he tried using other pitches, the dogs did not
salivate.
