- Hi Kayla, I am glad that you've come to me
for clarification of the classical conditioning concept.
It is a new concept, and it is easy
to get confused when you learn it for the first time.
Well, classical conditioning, simply put
is a process that produces learned response
in an organism
and the response is elicited
by a stimulus that is previously mutual.
It was discovered by Ivan Pavlov
who was a Russian physiologist.
Sometimes people also call it Pavlovian conditioning.
What Pavlov discovered was that if you ring a bell
right before presenting a meat powder to a dog,
the dog can be conditioned to produce salivation
with the sound of the bell alone
without the company of the meat powder.
As long as you build up the association
of the bell and the meat powder repeatedly.
And the conditioning here literally is, training.
And there are three phases in Pavlov's
classical conditioning training procedure.
The first one is before conditioning.
So before conditioning, the meat powder
elicits salivation in the dog.
Meat powder is the unconditional stimulus.
Salivation is the unconditional response.
The key is automatic response.
Meat powder produces automatic salivation in the dog.
In contrast, a neutral stimulus, a bell,
cannot produce salivation in the dog,
or cannot elicit salivation in the dog.
But what's really fun is
Pavlov associated the bell, the neutral stimulus,
with the unconditional stimulus, the meat powder,
and every time he presented the meat powder,
he rang the bell first.
So the bell, meat powder, bell, meat powder,
bell, meat powder,
so that the connection is built up,
that even hear the bell, the sound of the bell,
the dog will salivate.
without the company of the meat powder.
The key during conditioning process is
build up the association between the neutral stimulus
and the unconditional stimulus
and then build up this association repeatedly,
so that the learning can happen,
and the dog learns that just hearing the sound of the bell
means the meat powder is coming.
So salivation is produced and so after conditioning
the sound of the bell is sufficiently enough
to elicit salivation in the dog, specifically.
And the bell changes from a previously neutral stimulus
into a conditioned stimulus.
And the salivation of the conditioning
is the conditioned response,
because it is elicited from the bell,
the conditioned stimulus, rather than
from the meat powder, the unconditional stimulus.
Now, can you tell me,
can you summarize
the definition for the unconditional stimulus,
the conditioned stimulus, unconditional response
and the conditioned response?
Yes, I think you are absolutely right.
Okay, I am going to give you an example,
a scenario and then maybe you can practice
identifying the unconditional stimulus,
conditional stimulus, unconditional response
and the conditional response.
So here is the scenario.
Miss Dean always needs to shout, "Stop talking!"
to her classroom so that they will quiet down.
Usually after she shouted, "Stop talking!"
her students quieted down automatically,
because they were compliant students.
But Miss Dean got tired of always needing to shout
"Stop talking!", so she wanted to do something different.
And what she did was a classical conditioning situation.
What she did was, each time before
she shouted, "Stop talking!",
she clapped her hands three times.
So, clap your hands, stop talking.
Clap your hands, stop talking
She did that for several times,
for several weeks, so by the end of the third week
she was hearing the hand clapping
three times from Miss Dean,
her students quieted down.
Can you tell me what is the unconditional stimulus?
Yes, the request for students to stop talking.
What is the unconditional response?
Right, that students quieted down.
What is the conditioned stimulus?
Correct, hand-clapping three times.
What is the conditioned response?
Correct, quiet down in her students.
Wonderful, I think you are right on, on this concept
and on all the terms.
Now can you think about your own examples,
based on your own learning experience
or life experience, or your interactions
in your family, with your friends?
Why don't you come up with your own example,
and maybe present it in class next time?
So that our students can learn from you
about classical conditioning better.
Great, I look forward to your illustration
of classical conditioning next time in class.
Thanks for coming to meet with me.
Bye!