Classical conditioning: Encyclopedia II - Classical conditioning - Overview

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.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Overview", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki