...Running head: Classical Conditioning Classical Conditioning University of Phoenix, Online Learning and Cognition PSY/390 May 1, 2011 Classical conditioning is best explained and defined by analyzing its theorists and their experiments. J.B. Watson and Ivan Pavlov were instrumental in classical conditioning with their experiments of human beings and animals which were ground-breaking to the field of Psychology (Haworth, 1992). We will explore classical conditioning by analyzing both theorist’s experiments as well as introduce a scenario in which classical conditioning would be applicable and demonstrate its effectiveness through a chart illustration. J.B. Watson John Broadus Watson was a psychologist born in Greenville, S.C. in 1878 and died in 1958. He focused his studies and analysis on the observation of human beings. He originated the school of behaviorism which deals with behavior in response to stimuli. He saw psychology as the study of human behavior and the ability to predict and control those behaviors. John B. Watson is very well known for his experiment called “Little Albert” in which he theorized that children have three basic emotional reactions which are fear, rage and love. Through his experiment, he wanted to prove that these three basic emotional reactions could be artificially conditioned in children by operant means. In the Little Albert experiment, Watson took an 11-month old infant...
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...explained through classical conditioning. In other words fears are learned. Learning is any relatively permanent change in the way an organism responds based on its experience. The famous experiment of Watson and Rayner with “Little Albert” shows clearly how classical conditioning can account for irrational fears, or phobias. This example of classical conditioning as well as Aristotle’s laws of association which account for learning and memory that describe the conditions under which one thought becomes connected or associated with another can perhaps help shed light on the genesis of phobias. Another term for classical conditioning is respondent conditioning; it is a procedure by which a previously neutral stimulus comes to elicit a response after it is paired with a stimulus that automatically elicits a response. In the Little Albert experiment, Watson and Rayner used an unconditional reflex, through an unconditional stimulus to produce and unconditioned response one that occurs naturally without any prior learning. Albert was presented with a variety of objects, including a dog, a rabbit, a white rat, a Santa Claus mask, and a fur coat. Albert showed no fear of these objects; in fact he regularly played with the rat. Watson and Rayner then tested Little Albert’s response to a loud noise; Albert reacted by jumping, and whimpering. Watson and Rayner then decided that the white rat would be the conditioned stimulus in their experiment, every time Albert reached out to touch...
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...Phobias and Addictions Chantel Billingsley PSY/300 May 30, 2014 Brian Hawkins Abstract This paper provides a broad overview of phobias and addictions. The difference between classical conditioning and how it relates to phobias will be dicussed, as well as operant conditioning and how it develops into addictions. Distinguishing between classical and operant conditioning, will show the differences between the two. I will cover what extinction means and how it is achieved in both types of conditioning. "Phobia" means "morbid fear" in greek (What is Phobia, 2014). Fear is a natural response to a genuine danger. Phobias are the emotional and physical reactions to feared objects or situations; this fear becomes irrational and excessive. Feelings of horror, panic and terror may occur. Reactions become automatic and uncontrollable, taking over a person's thoughts and sometimes causing physical symptoms. These symptoms can include rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, trembling and overwhelming desire to avoid the feared object or situation. There are three major categories of phobias. First category called specific phobias focuses on certain objects, animals, people and situations. Some of the most recognized phobias fall under this category; the fear of heights (acrophobia), the fear of spiders (arachnophobia) and the fear of enclosed spaces(claustrophobia). The second major category is the fear of open spaces (agoraphobia). Most individual...
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...Introduction to Classical Conditioning Classical conditioning is a type of learning that had a major influence on the school of thought in psychology known as behaviorism. Discovered by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov, classical conditioning is a learning process that occurs through associations between an environmental stimulus and a naturally occurring stimulus. Behaviorism is based on the assumption that learning occurs through interactions with the environment. Two other assumptions of this theory are that the environment shapes behavior and that taking internal mental states such as thoughts, feelings, and emotions into consideration is useless in explaining behavior. It's important to note that classical conditioning involves placing a neutral signal before a naturally occurring reflex. In Pavlov's classic experiment with dogs, the neutral signal was the sound of a tone and the naturally occurring reflex was salivating in response to food. By associating the neutral stimulus with the environmental stimulus (the presentation of food), the sound of the tone alone could produce the salivation response. In order to understand how more about how classical conditioning works, it is important to be familiar with the basic principles of the process. The Unconditioned Stimulus The unconditioned stimulus is one that unconditionally, naturally, and automatically triggers a response. For example, when you smell one of your favorite foods, you may immediately feel very hungry...
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...history of behaviorism, starting with experiments conducted by Franklin Henry Giddings and Ivan Pavlov, a sociologist and a physiologist whom established the groundwork for behaviorism, particularly in America. In addition, this paper also explains the main components of behaviorism, which are classical conditioning and operant conditioning, connectionism, and the contiguity theory. It moves forward to explain four experiments that are popular through the study of behaviorism: the reason behind conditioned salivation in Ivan Pavlov’s dogs, conditioned responses in humans through Watson’s little Albert experiment, Thorndike’s research with cats and a puzzle box to demonstrate the law of effect through the use of reinforcements, and B.F. Skinner’s experiment with rats to prove how an organism learns through operant conditioning. Finally, this paper examines how, according to behaviorists, there are three principles of learning new and intricate behaviors, known as shaping, chaining, and fading. Behaviorism and Its Effect on the Understanding of Learning Behaviorism suggests that an organism learns from its environment. It is the result of the association between a stimulus and a response. An organism learns new behavior through classical or operant conditioning. It is a theory that does not base its ideals on emotions or prior knowledge. Some say behaviorism came about accidentally, specifically within the works of Ivan Pavlov and his experiment with dogs. Watson, known as the father...
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...Homework: Little Albert. 1. Did the results of Watson and Rayner's experiment support their hypothesis? - Yes, it did. The hypothesis was that most human behaviours and emotional reactions are built up on conditioned response. The result from the conditioning Watson and Rayner subject Albert to proves this hypothesis because Albert responded to the unconditioned stimulus which was brought around by the unconditioned response that is also known as fear. After combining these specific factors, the rat became the conditioned stimulus and that elicited a conditioned response from Albert. A conditioned response in this case, is fear. 2. How did Albert's response become generalised? - Albert’s response became generalised after he was subjected to ‘conditioning’ by Watson and Rayner when he was eleven years old. They instill the fear of rats within Albert and not soon after, they present him with the same toys back when he was nine years old. Albert was afraid of the toys that look even remotely furry such as a dog, a rabbit and a Santa Claus mask. However, Albert was not afraid of the blocks that were presented to him and from there, both Watson and Rayner have concluded that Albert is afraid of furry objects and therefore they have generalised his fear based upon the results of their experiment that was conducted on him. 3. How were the principles of classical conditioning used to reduce Peter's fear of rabbits? - The principles of classical conditioning were used to create...
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...Phobias and Addiction For several decades, researchers and behaviorists have tried to determine what the best way to condition behaviors might be; however, the outcomes are still vast even with all the experiments that have been performed. Classical and operant conditioning are the main forms of tests or research that is used today. By definition, classical conditioning is the process of learning through a stimulus that brings about an elicited response in which it occurs as a consequence caused by an unconditioned stimulus (Colman, 2009). Operant conditioning is the exact opposite in learning; it is the process where the frequency of a response increases as a result of rewards or reinforcement that is dependent upon the response being emitted (Colman, 2009). According to John B. Watson, classical conditioning can cause a phobia to become established due to the fear factor that is related to that phobia. Phobias are unrealistic, long-lasting intense fears of certain objects or situations (Colman, 2009). Watson believed that phobias can be learned through repeated introduction of different stimuli. He tested this theory on a little infant named Albert. Albert was not afraid of rats before the simulation was started, but after stimuli that scared him along with the association of the rat, he became fearful of the rat (Kowalski, 2011). Other phobias such as agoraphobia, which is the fear of having a panic attack in a public situation in which it would be difficult to escape, occur...
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...“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom.” Viktor Emil Frankl, M.D., Ph.D (Man's Search for Meaning; 1946 ) Everyone of us, Human or animal alike, have been living in this world since the primordial time. Coping with every change that had happened and developing new routine in everyday life. Routines that may soon be etch with in our system. That will eventually turn out to be a habit. A habit that will consume our senses until it will all become our Behavior. As to Psychologists, Behaviorism is more concerned with behavior than with thinking, feeling, or knowing. It focuses on the objective and observable components of behavior. Behaviorism focus on behaviors that can be observed only. Behaviorism deals with the consequences of behavior and those behaviors can be rewarded or punished. (Huitt, W., & Hummel, J. (2006). An overview of the behavioral perspective. Educational Psychology Interactive. Valdosta, GA: Valdosta State University. ) HISTORY Behaviourism is derived from the belief that free will is an illusion. According to a pure behaviourist, ( John B. Watson (1878-1958)) human beings are shaped entirely by their external environment. Alter a person's environment, and you will alter his or her thoughts, feelings, and behaviour. Provide positive reinforcement whenever someone perform a desired behaviour, and soon they will learn to perform the behaviour...
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...2011). Addiction is compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance. Both phobias and addictions are learned by association and by learning methods such as classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Some phobias are believed to be developed through classical conditioning. If a neutral stimulus is paired with and unconditioned stimulus that creates an unconditioned response that causes fear, a conditioned stimulus of fear will occur every time you encounter the neutral stimulus. In a study performed by JohnWatson, the founder of American behaviorism, he tested the theory of phobias developed through classical conditioning. Choosing a healthy nine month old baby, Little Albert, he experimented with a rat and loud banging of a steel hammer. After being presented with the rat, Little Albert played with the rat and had no fear. After being presented with the steel being banged, he became scared. After a few months of combining the rat with the loud banging, Little Albert became very fearful of the rat. Little Albert learned to associate the loud banging with the rat. This classical conditioning produced a conditioned stimulus or an emotional response of fear and a phobia. Addiction is a learned behavior because the initial pleasure or enjoyment is rewarding. According to the principles of operant conditioning, rewarded behaviors will increase with usage of certain substances. Drugs are substances that cause addictions in humans. Drugs are mostly addicting because they...
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...abnormality. The behavioural approach to abnormality focuses on observable behaviour not what is in the mind. This approach says that behaviour is learned through a process called conditioning. There are three types of conditioning these are; classical, operant and social learning. The first type of conditioning is classical. Classical conditioning says that behaviours are learnt through a stimulus-response association. This means when someone has an experience (stimulus) and it causes a reaction (response) then that person might associate that stimulus and response every time. For example if someone saw a snake (stimulus) and someone screamed (Response) then a child could associate snakes with screaming and become scared. Classical conditioning is believed to be the cause of phobias. This was shown in the study of Little Albert. The next type of conditioning is operant. Operant conditioning is the child being conditioned by reinforcement and reward/punishment. Operant conditioning is based on two types of reinforcement, positive and negative. Positive reinforcement is behaving in a particular way because it brings a rewarding feeling, whereas negative reinforcement is behaving in a particular way to avoid a punishing feeling. This was looked at by Skinner and was tested in experiments like Skinner’s rats and Pavlov’s dogs. This theory can be also used to explain conditions like OCD. This is because being tidy as a child could have been rewarded (positive reinforcement)...
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...Little Albert and Classical Conditioning Classical conditioning may be defined as; a kind of associative learning where two stimuli happen in a combined as well as frequent manner because of which, they ultimately become linked with each other. The outcome of this union is that each stimulus sooner or later generates an identical response. In fact, this technique is applied in behavioral training in which Unconditioned Stimulus (US) is paired with and leads towards the Conditioned Stimulus (CS) until the conditioned stimulus unaccompanied is enough to bring out the response (Abell et al., 1999). To understand it clearly, there is need to recall the experiment performed by John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner in 1920. Watson suggested that psychological researches should be based merely on apparent behaviors and due to this viewpoint, his research was related with conditioning of fear (learned). He demonstrated above conditioning via usual procedures including association of stimuli, and research subject chosen by him for the purpose was an 11-month old child Albert. Albert was an extremely firm infant who hardly ever exhibited fear of anything involving the white rat present in laboratory, but Watson and Rayner noticed that he was afraid of loud noises (Unconditioned Stimulus). They decided to implement this innate fear response (Unconditioned Response (UR)) shown by Albert as a tool in their study. So; they created piercing sound by striking a big steel pipe with hammer. ...
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...as narcotics, to such extent its cessation causes severe trauma” ("addiciton," n.d). So can a phobia be classical condition or an addiction be operant conditioned into existence? Some scientists believe that it can, but then the question is what is operant and classical conditioning? Also what is extinction mean and how is it achieved in both conditions? These are the topics I will be answer and I will also be giving examples to each phobia and addiction that can happen through classical and operant conditioning. Classical Conditioning “Classical conditioning is when an environmental stimulus leads to a learned response through pairing of an unconditioned stimulus” (Kowalski & Westen, 2009). For example Ivan Pavlov experiment with dogs. He did a study based on dogs and conditioning them to salivate by hearing a bell or a fork being pinged. Basically he would give dogs food after the bell rang. So after a couple tries he would then noticed that the dogs would salivate even without food present if they heard the bell. Another example of classical conditioning was John Watson and Rosalie Rayner experiment in 1920. Their experiment consisted of a little Albert who was a baby and a well lite photo darkroom. Though the experiment was unethical Watson and his colleague wanted to test to see if they could get a well-adjusted, happy baby to fear something through conditioning them. So Watson had a white rat, a rabbit, a fur coat, a dog, and a...
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...Cynophobia , and Ophidiophobia . All of these animals seeming harmless but to their ‘victim’ they are horribly dangerous. A well-known person with ophidiophobia is everyone’s favorite archeologist/professor, Indiana Jones. Most phobias are created at childhood, teenage years or early adulthood (before the age of 35). How phobias are created can be seen through classical conditioning responses. Phobias also represent a process of overgeneralization. An easy way to understand phobias is evaluating the experiment on “Little Albert”, an experiment conducted by Watson and Rayner to show evidence of classical conditioning in humans. In the process, they showed ‘Albert’ (a 9-month-old baby) who did not show any fear to rats. They then put a white rat on the table in front of ‘Albert’ and he did not react. On the second attempt, they placed the rat on the table and also made loud noises. Alberts response was crying. After repeating this process many times Albert was conditioned to cry when the white rat was exposed without a loud noise. They then concluded that this experiment was a prototypical example of classical conditioning....
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...Behaviorism was originally founded by John B. Watson who believed that behavior had the means to be measured, trained and changed (1913) The Behavioural theory is firstly based on experiment and secondly by describing how human behaviour is learnt through principles and rules. Maladaptive behaviour is when an individual is unable to adjust to situations; psychologists use this term to describe patterns of emotional disturbance. Both behavioural and psychoanalytic psychologists use this in different ways. The behavioural theory is based on two main factors being biological drives such as primitive needs and sex drive and what is learnt. The three main principles in the behavioural theory are Stimuli, response and conditioning. Behaviour is believed to be a conditioned response to an environmental stimulus. Individuals are obliged to react to stimuli using their senses such as seeing and hearing. There are short lived unlearned behaviours such as suckling and unlearned grasping. Responses are overt and implicit, learned or unlearned. Response can be foreseen if stimuli are available and stimuli can be predicted from the response. Unlearned responses are automatic such as breathing heavily and perspiring when running. Unlearned behaviours are conditioned soon after birth. Learned responses are due to conditioning and habit forming. Innately, unconditioned stimuli produce response for example looking away from bright light. Outcomes are Dependant on how a response has been conditioned...
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...Ivan Pavlov and His Dog Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) was a Russian scientist interested in studying how digestion works in mammals. He observed and recorded information about dogs and their digestive process. As part of his work, he began to study what triggers dogs to salivate. It should have been an easy study: mammals produce saliva to help them break down food, so the dogs should have simply began drooling when presented with food. However, what Pavlov discovered when he observed the dogs was that drooling had a much more far-reaching effect than he ever thought: it paved the way for a new theory about behavior and a new way to study humans. Classical Conditioning The people who fed Pavlov's dogs wore lab coats. Pavlov noticed that the dogs began to drool whenever they saw lab coats, even if there was no food in sight. Pavlov wondered why the dogs salivated at lab coats, and not just at food. He ran a study in which he rang a bell every time he fed the dogs. Pretty soon, just ringing a bell made the dogs salivate....
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