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MCAT
Course: MCAT > Unit 11
Lesson 9: Learning- Learning questions
- Classical and operant conditioning article
- Classical conditioning: Neutral, conditioned, and unconditioned stimuli and responses
- Classical conditioning: Extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalization, discrimination
- Operant conditioning: Positive-and-negative reinforcement and punishment
- Operant conditioning: Shaping
- Operant conditioning: Schedules of reinforcement
- Operant conditioning: Innate vs learned behaviors
- Operant conditioning: Escape and avoidance learning
- Observational learning: Bobo doll experiment and social cognitive theory
- Long term potentiation and synaptic plasticity
- Non associative learning
- Biological constraints on learning
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Classical conditioning: Neutral, conditioned, and unconditioned stimuli and responses
Created by Jeffrey Walsh.
Want to join the conversation?
- @"I now feel obligated to give my guinea pig a carrot..." Are you sure it is the guinea pig that has been conditioned in this example? 5:40(99 votes)
- Classical conditioning notes that all animals learn through association, humans are no exceptions. You're exactly right, the owner was conditioned as well as the guinea pig. It's harder to see this because we are aware of our thoughts and motives, but in behaviorism, we respond to the environment just like everything else..(16 votes)
- Can more than one neutral stimulus become conditioned stimuli in sequence? For example, If Dr. Walsh knocked on his refrigerator door, then "popped" it open, and then gave his guinea pig a carrot, could the knock become CS and the guinea pig starts becoming excited once the knock happens? Furthermore, could the popping noise be taken out, but the guinea pig still be conditioned to the sound of the knock, or do both stimuli have to be heard?(5 votes)
- Yes, a "knock" in this sense could become another conditioned response. Also, no, both stimuli do not need to be heard as both stimuli contribute to the same outcome either stimuli will trigger the conditioned response.
True real world example: I have a rabbit. I feed him timothy hay and alfalfa. He knows when I approach his cage with a bag of hay, it means food. However, the alfalfa bag makes more of a crinkly sound, like a potato chip bag. So, now if I start to open a potato chip bag or any other crinkly bag, he gets super excited even though he doesn't see his alfalfa bag.
So, he is conditioned to respond to not only the sight of his bags of hay, but now crinkly sounds, too.
I hope that helps.(4 votes)
- didnt ivan pavlov use dogs to propound his classical conditioning theory??(4 votes)
- Yes he did. This is just a fun example of classical conditioning.(3 votes)
- Still i am confused between ns UCS,UCP,CR CS help me plz with simple example(4 votes)
- Is my excitement for learning new things a conditioned response? Or is being excited about something new an unconditioned response for all people?(4 votes)
- what is the difference between respondent learning/conditioning and Pavlovian-conditioning? is there a difference?(2 votes)
- In psychology the terms respondent and Pavlovian conditioning/learning can be used interchangeably, so no there is no difference between these two terms.(0 votes)
- Is it just me or do all pets like carrots a lot? My dog likes them and a lot of my friend's pets like them, except for cats.(1 vote)
- Carrots have a ton of sugar (glucose) in them, so it makes them very tasty. That's why they like them.(2 votes)
- Is money a conditioned or unconditioned stimuli?(1 vote)
- You need to be more specific. What behaviour are you considering when you mention money?(2 votes)
- Dr, have you bought a new fridge now?(1 vote)
- Pls I need your help on this
Lydia was on her way through her maize farm when it began to rain.A few meters to her house her skin itching her badly when she got home,it became worse.Sh developed tiny rashes the following day.Lydia was wondering what might have caused her condition.She then remembered that she started feeling the irritation after a frog crossed her path and she almost stepped on it.Lydia developed phobia for frogs that incident and would never go out when there is any sign of rain,for fear of seeing frogs.Using the most appropriate learning principle ,explain how Lydia's phobia had developed and stating clearly the proceesses involve.(1 vote)
Video transcript
So I have a pet guinea pig. And here she is. And one thing that guinea
pigs love, like all pets do, is when they get a treat. Now, my guinea pig
happens to love carrots. And whenever I give her a
carrot, she acts very excited. It's actually really cute
to see her so excited. And it makes me kind
of jealous because I wish I could get so excited
about a raw vegetable because imagine how much
healthier I would be. But for her, that
excitement comes naturally. I never had to train
her to enjoy carrots. When she was first
living in my apartment, I used to like to surprise
her by getting a carrot out of the refrigerator and
bringing it over to her cage. Now the thing you need to
know about my refrigerator is that the door
is always stuck. So I have to pull pretty
hard to get it open. And when I do, that makes
a loud popping sound. So after a few weeks
of my guinea pig living in my
apartment, I discovered that I couldn't
surprise her any more with a carrot because
as soon as she heard the sound of the refrigerator
door being pried open, she was already acting
excited, even before I gave her a carrot. I also noticed that when I
would open the refrigerator to make a snack
for myself, she'd respond to the sound of
the door by acting excited, even if she wasn't
going to get a carrot. This learned response
that she developed to the sound of a
refrigerator door is referred to in psychology
as classical conditioning. Whether you realize it or
not, classical conditioning is a topic that you're
already very familiar with. The concept of
classical conditioning is easy to understand. The challenge is
understanding and applying the correct terminology. So let's talk about
that terminology. So I'm going to
write S for stimulus. And a stimulus is anything
that stimulates your senses. It's anything you can hear,
see, smell, taste, or touch. And stimuli can produce
a response, which I'll write as an R. So a
stimulus produces a response. So let's use this example
to make the terms clear. No one had to
teach my guinea pig to act excited about carrots. It's her normal,
physiologic response. And since no one had to
teach her that about carrots, we can refer to the carrot
as an unconditioned stimulus, which I'll write as UCS. An unconditioned
stimulus triggers some kind of
physiologic response. So in our case, the carrot
triggers excitement. The excitement is the response. And in fact, the
more descriptive way to refer to this
response is to call it an unconditioned response. So an unconditioned
stimulus elicits an unconditioned response. So you might be asking
yourself why complicate things by sticking the term
unconditioned in front of it? Well, as we're
about to see, there are different types of
stimuli and responses. So for now, think of
the word unconditioned as something you
already do naturally. And if something
happens naturally, then it really wasn't learned. It's an innate process. Conditioned, on the other hand,
means something is learned. And remember,
classical conditioning is a type of learning. So you can remember
conditioning means to learn. If you've ever heard someone
use the phrase, I'm conditioning myself to like it,
said differently, I'm learning to like it. So unconditioned means
it happens naturally. Conditioned means
it was learned. Now, think of what
was happening right before she got her carrot. My refrigerator
door opened, which made a loud popping sound. So we can refer to the sound of
the door as a neutral stimulus. A neutral stimulus
is something that you can sense by either
seeing it, tasting it, or in our case hearing it. But it doesn't produce
the reflex being tested. So in our case, the
refrigerator door can be heard. But the sound of the
door doesn't naturally cause excitement. That's something that
had to be learned, which is why she didn't
respond the first few times she heard it. So since the refrigerator
door doesn't cause excitement on its own, we say
the refrigerator door is a neutral stimulus
that is immediately followed by the unconditioned
stimulus of the carrot, which causes the unconditioned
response of excitement. Now, classical
conditioning is established when the neutral stimulus
is presented, followed a short time later by the
unconditioned stimulus, and the presentation of both
stimuli is called a trial. So pairing these
two stimuli together is how you establish
classical conditioning. But see, in my
case I didn't know I was establishing
classical conditioning. But I really was. I was pairing the sound of the
refrigerator door being opened with the presentation
of a carrot. And classical
conditioning actually occurs when the neutral
stimulus, in our case the sound of the
refrigerator door, is able to elicit
the same response as the unconditioned
stimulus, the carrot. So in our example, we can say
classical conditioning had taken place when the sound
of the refrigerator door alone was enough to
cause excitement, even if she didn't
receive the carrot. And when this has
happened, we say the neutral stimulus
is no longer neutral. And now it's the
conditioned stimulus, because its acquired the ability
to elicit a response that was previously elicited by
the unconditioned stimulus, the carrot. So there's that word again,
conditioned and conditioned stimulus, which as I said
earlier means learned. My guinea pig was
conditioned to respond to the sound of the refrigerator
by behaving excited. And the excited
response that's now associated with the
refrigerator door is no longer the
unconditioned response because in this context
she had to learn to respond with excitement
to the sound of the door. So the proper term
for this response is called a conditioned
response because it is a learned response. So that's the idea behind
classical conditioning. And because of it, I now
feel obligated to have to give my guinea
pig a carrot any time I open the refrigerator.