CLASSICAL CONDITIONING PROCESS – THE THEORY OF LEARNING
The "Little Albert" experiment was a famous psychology experiment conducted by behaviorist
John B. Watson and graduate student Rosalie Raynor. Previously, Russian physiologist Ivan
Pavlov had conducted experiments demonstrating the conditioning process in dogs. Watson was
interested in taking Pavlov's research further to show that emotional reactions could be
classically conditioned in people. The participant in the experiment was a child that Watson and
Rayner called "Albert B.", but is known popularly today as Little Albert.
Around the age of nine months, Watson and Rayner exposed the child to a series of stimuli
including a white rat, a rabbit, a monkey, and masks and burning newspapers and observed the
boy's reactions. The boy initially showed no fear of any of the objects he was shown. The next
time Albert was exposed the rat; Watson made a loud noise by hitting a metal pipe with a
hammer. Naturally, the child began to cry after hearing the loud noise. After repeatedly pairing
the white rat with the loud noise, Albert began to cry simply after seeing the rat.
The instant the rat was shown, the baby began to cry. Almost instantly he turned sharply to the
left, fell over on [his] left side, raised himself on all fours and began to crawl away so rapidly
that he was caught with difficulty before reaching the edge of the table." In addition to
demonstrating that emotional responses could be conditioned in humans, Watson and Rayner
also observed that stimulus generalisation had occurred. After conditioning, Albert feared not
just the white rat, but a wide variety of similar white objects as well. His fear included other
furry objects including Raynor's fur coat and Watson wearing a Santa Claus beard.
a. Classical conditioning is a learning process that occurs through associations between an
environmental stimulus and a naturally occurring stimulus, demonstrate with own
example the learning process of classical conditioning.
One example of classical conditioning is when a person associates a specific smell with a feeling of nausea. Let's say that someone eats a particular type of food that makes them sick and causes them to vomit. The smell of that food then becomes a conditioned stimulus. Even just smelling a similar scent to that food, such as a certain spice or ingredient, can trigger feelings of nausea.
In this example, the unconditioned stimulus is the food that initially caused the person to feel sick, and the unconditioned response is the feeling of nausea and vomiting. Through repeated pairings of the food with the smell, the person comes to associate the smell as a conditioned stimulus that triggers the conditioned response of feeling nauseous.
Over time, the person may start to feel nauseous even when they encounter the smell without actually eating the food. This is because the conditioned stimulus (the smell) has become associated with the unconditioned stimulus (the food) and elicits the same response.
In this case, the classical conditioning process has occurred by forming an association between the environmental stimulus (the smell) and a naturally occurring stimulus (feeling sick) to create a learned response (nausea).
Sure! Here's an example of classical conditioning:
Let's say you have a pet dog named Max. Every time you ring a bell, you give Max a treat. Initially, Max doesn't have any specific reaction to the sound of the bell. However, after repeating this process several times, Max starts associating the sound of the bell with the treat.
After a while, if you ring the bell without giving Max a treat, he might still start salivating or showing excitement, anticipating the treat. In this scenario, the bell ringing is the conditioned stimulus (CS) because it initially did not elicit any response on its own. The treat, on the other hand, is the unconditioned stimulus (US) that naturally produces the response of salivation or excitement in Max.
Through the repeated pairing of the bell (CS) with the treat (US), Max has learned to associate the bell with the treat, and the bell has become a conditioned stimulus that elicits the conditioned response of salivation or excitement even without the presence of the treat.
In summary, classical conditioning is the process by which an individual learns to associate a neutral stimulus (bell) with an unconditioned stimulus (treat) to elicit a conditioned response (salivation or excitement).
Sure! I'd be happy to explain classical conditioning with an example.
Let's say you have a dog, and every time he hears the sound of a whistle, you give him a treat. Initially, the dog doesn't have any specific response to the sound of the whistle. However, after repeatedly pairing the sound of the whistle with the treat, something interesting happens.
Over time, the dog begins to associate the sound of the whistle with getting a treat. So, even if you don't give him a treat immediately, just hearing the whistle becomes enough to make him excited and expectant. This is because the dog has now learned to associate the sound of the whistle with the reward (treat).
Now, whenever you blow the whistle, the dog salivates and becomes excited, even if there is no food present. The sound of the whistle has become a conditioned stimulus because it elicits a response (salivation and excitement) that was initially only triggered by the naturally occurring stimulus (the actual treat).
In this example, the whistle is the conditioned stimulus, the treat is the unconditioned stimulus (naturally occurring stimulus), and the dog's salivation and excitement are the conditioned response.
This process of associating a neutral stimulus (whistle) with a naturally occurring stimulus (treat) to elicit a learned response (salivation and excitement) is what classical conditioning is all about.