I’m still learning about unconditioned and conditioned stimulus and responses, so I just wanted to make sure I got this correct.
What are the following elements using the story below?
You love cookies. You love cookies as much as the cookie monster loves cookies. You bake your favorite cookie every day. It takes approximately 15 minutes for you to prepare and bake the cookies. Each day, you get a reward after waiting for those 15 minutes.
My answer:
Unconditioned stimulus: your love for cookies.
Unconditioned response: baking cookies daily
Conditioned stimulus: 15 minutes to prepare and bake the cookies
Conditioned response: getting your reward ( the cookies)
Your answer is partially correct. Let me break it down for you:
Unconditioned stimulus (US): This is something that naturally triggers a response without any prior learning. In this scenario, your love for cookies serves as the unconditioned stimulus. It is an innate preference or desire for cookies.
Unconditioned response (UR): This is the natural response that occurs to the unconditioned stimulus. In this case, your unconditioned response is baking cookies daily. It is an automatic behavior that you engage in because of your love for cookies.
Conditioned stimulus (CS): This is something that becomes associated with the unconditioned stimulus through learning. It initially has no significance until it becomes linked with the unconditioned stimulus. In the given story, the 15 minutes that it takes to prepare and bake the cookies can be seen as the conditioned stimulus. Initially, it may not have any inherent meaning, but due to its consistent association with the unconditioned stimulus (your love for cookies), it starts to trigger a response.
Conditioned response (CR): This is the learned response that occurs to the conditioned stimulus. It is a behavior that is acquired through the repeated pairing of the conditioned stimulus with the unconditioned stimulus. In this scenario, the conditioned response is getting your reward (the cookies) after waiting for the 15 minutes. This behavior has become conditioned because you have learned to associate the time spent baking with the reward of enjoying your favorite cookies.
To summarize:
- Unconditioned stimulus (US): Your love for cookies.
- Unconditioned response (UR): Baking cookies daily.
- Conditioned stimulus (CS): The 15 minutes it takes to prepare and bake the cookies.
- Conditioned response (CR): Getting your reward (the cookies) after waiting for the 15 minutes.
Overall, the process described here follows the principles of classical conditioning, where a neutral stimulus (the 15 minutes) becomes a conditioned stimulus by being consistently paired with an unconditioned stimulus (your love for cookies), leading to a conditioned response (getting the reward).