Home Forums Blogs Articles Photos Videos Contact FAQ

Classical conditioning

Classical conditioning: Encyclopedia - Classical conditioning

Classical conditioning, also called Pavlovian conditioning or respondent conditioning, is a type of learning found in animals, caused by the association (or pairing) of two stimuli or what Ivan Pavlov described as the learning of "conditional" behavior, therefore called conditioning. The simplest form of classical conditioning is reminiscent of what Aristotle would have called the law of contiguity. Essentially, Aristotle said, "When two things commonly occur together, the appearance of one will bring the other to min ...

Including:

Classical conditioning - Overview

Classical conditioning - Pavlov's experiment

Classical conditioning - Behavioral therapies based on classical conditioning

Classical conditioning - Aversion therapy

Classical conditioning - Systematic desensitisation

Classical conditioning - See Also

Classical conditioning, Classical conditioning - Aversion therapy, Classical conditioning - Behavioral therapies based on classical conditioning, Classical conditioning - Overview, Classical conditioning - Pavlov's experiment, Classical conditioning - See Also, Classical conditioning - Systematic desensitisation, Rescorla-Wagner model of conditioning

Classical conditioning: Encyclopedia - Classical conditioning

Classical conditioning

Classical conditioning, also called Pavlovian conditioning or respondent conditioning, is a type of learning found in animals, caused by the association (or pairing) of two stimuli or what Ivan Pavlov described as the learning of "conditional" behavior, therefore called conditioning. The simplest form of classical conditioning is reminiscent of what Aristotle would have called the law of contiguity. Essentially, Aristotle said, "When two things commonly occur together, the appearance of one will bring the other to mind."

Classical conditioning - Overview

Classical conditioning is short-term, usually requiring little time with therapists, and patients need not be as proactive, unlike in humanistic therapies. The therapies (mentioned in the last paragraph), either cause aversive feelings to something, or reduce the aversion altogether. Classical conditioning is based on a repetitive behaviour system.

Classical conditioning - Pavlov's experiment

The most famous example of classical conditioning involved the salivary conditioning of Pavlov's dogs. Pavlov's dogs naturally salivated to food. Pavlov therefore called the one-to-one correlation between the unconditioned stimulus (food) and the unconditioned response (salivation) an unconditional reflex. If a tone (generated by a tuning fork, for example) was reliably sounded for a few seconds before food, however, the tone eventually came to elicit salivation even when the tone was presented alone. Because the one-to-one correlation between the conditioned stimulus (tone) and the conditioned response (salivation) involved learning, Pavlov referred to this relationship as a "conditional reflex". The conditional reflex (food-related behaviour elicited by a stimulus that has been reliably paired with food) is said to be developed through classical conditioning.

The origins of the two reflexes are different. The food (unconditional stimulus) [UCS] causing salivation (unconditional response) [UCR] reflex has its origins in the evolution of the species. The tone (conditional stimulus) [CS] causing salivation (conditional response) [CR] reflex has its origins in the experience of the individual organism.

Rescorla-Wagner model of conditioning

Classical conditioning - Behavioral therapies based on classical conditioning

The implications for therapies and treatments using classical conditioning vary from operant conditioning. Therapies associated with classical conditioning are aversion therapy, flooding, Systematic desensitization, and implosion therapy. Implosion therapy and especially "flooding", which is forcing the individual to face an object/situation giving rise to anxiety, has been criticized for being unethical, since they cause extreme trauma in some cases.

Classical conditioning - Aversion therapy

This is a form of psychological therapy that is designed to eliminate sexual behaviour by associating an aversive stimulus, such as nausea, with it. Because the aversive stimulus performs as a unconditioned stimulus (UCS), and produces a unconditioned reflex (UCR), the association between the stimulus and behaviour leads to the same consequences each time. Then, if the treatment has worked, the patient will not have a complusion to engage in such behaviours again. This sort of treatment has been used to treat alcoholism and drug addiction, but it has also, controversially been used for treatment of homosexuality and sexual perversions. Adams et. al (1981), states that this treatment involved administering electric shocks to homosexuals to reduce the response to male nudes, and encouraging a heterosexual response to female nudes.

Classical conditioning - Systematic desensitisation

Patients might learn that the object of their phobias or fears, are not so fearful if they can relive the feared stimulus. However, the anxiety obstructs such a recovery. This obstruction is overcome by introducing the fear producing object gradually. A person imagines a series of advancing fearful situations while the person is languid. The responses of irrational fear to the object are eventually rendered incompatible known as, "reciprocal inhibition", and the fear is eventually removed, if the therapy is performed accurately, and correctly.