Classical Conditioning UNIT 1 CLASSICAL CONDITIONING BY By Pavlov PAVLOV Structure 1.0 Introduction 1.1 Objectives 1.2 Concept of Classical Conditioning 1.3 Pavlov’s Experiment on Classical Conditioning 1.3.1 The Experiment 1.3.2 Interpretation of the Results of the Experiment 1.3.3 Principles of Classical Conditioning 1.4 Implications of Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning in Understanding Personality 1.4.1 Conditioned Emotional Responses – the Case of Little Albert 1.4.2 Classical Conditioning of Social Attitudes 1.4.3 Psychopathological Conditions Explained by Classical Conditioning 1.5 Applications of Classical Conditioning in Psychotherapy 1.6 Critical Evaluation of Classical Conditioning 1.7 Let Us Sum Up 1.8 Glossary 1.9 Unit End Questions 1.10 Suggested Readings 1.11 Answers to Self Assessment Questions 1.0 INTRODUCTION Does your baby daughter start crying whenever she sees a man with big moustache? Does your brother fall helplessly in love with every lady who uses a particular perfume? The fear of your child, the blind attraction of your brother, may have at their bases, the principles of classical conditioning. Both of them may have been behaving precisely like ‘Pavlov’s dog’. How did your daughter develop the fear? You may recall the incident when your uncle with a pair of long moustache visited your house. Holding your daughter in his big burly arms, he had bellowed ‘Hey there - my sweetie’. Even you jumped up at the sudden sound. Your little girl was terrified and cried out in fear. Your uncle was a bit embarrassed and tried to soothe the baby. ‘Now, NO - NO… No more crying ..’ he roared. The baby now got so scared that you had to intervene and take her from the boisterous grandfather’s arms. Since then she had been scared of any man who happens to have a bunch of bushy hair below his nose, causing your anxiety and your uncle’s mortification. What had happened? The sudden loud sound caused a startle response in the baby generating the emotion of fear. Every time the frightening sound emerged, the baby 5 Learning and saw a pair of dancing bushy moustaches – the most prominent feature on your Cognitive Theories of Personality uncle’s face. So this innocent growth of hair, the sign of pride for your uncle, became the sign of danger to your daughter. She anticipated the frightening roar whenever she encountered any man with moustache and cried even before the sound came. The fact that your daughter has thus acquired this new and uncomfortable association of the moustache and the sound is an instance of Classical conditioning. But you can erase this learning, or put new learning in her also. In this Unit, you will know about Classical conditioning. Classical conditioning is one basic model of learning which was a landmark in the history of understanding behaviour. The man behind it was a Russian physiologist named Ivan Petrovich Pavlov. In this Unit, you will learn about Pavlov’s basic experiment, the concepts emerging thereof, and the application of classical conditioning in personality theory and psychopathology. 1.1 OBJECTIVES After going through this unit, you should be able to: l Define classical conditioning; l Describe Pavlov’s experiment in classical conditioning; l Differentiate among unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, conditioned stimulus and conditioned response; l Draw a schematic diagram of classical conditioning experiment with its essential elements; l Explain the implications of Pavlov’s classical conditioning in understanding personality; and l Discuss the applications of classical conditioning in psychotherapeutic settings. 1.2 CONCEPT OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONING Classical conditioning is a learning paradigm from behavioural point of view. Consider any stimulus (S1) capable of eliciting a natural response (R1). Imagine any other neutral stimulus (S2) that does not elicit this particular response. Suppose within the experimental situation, these two stimuli (S1 and S2) are consistently presented together. After a few exposures of S1 and S2 together, the natural response to the first stimulus (R1) would occur in the presence of the second stimulus (S2) also, even if the first stimulus (S1) is absent. Thus after conditioning, the second stimulus, originally incapable of eliciting the specific response, becomes capable of doing the same. Consider the example of the boisterous uncle. The loud voice was the natural stimulus (S1) that elicited the natural fear response (R1) in the child. The moustache was, originally, a neutral stimulus (S2) incapable of eliciting fear. But, as it always accompanied the big sound, it gradually became capable of eliciting the fear, even when the sound was absent. The term classical conditioning is define as learning by association, whereby a neutral stimulus, by virtue of its occurrence in close time and space with a natural stimulus that gives rise to a natural response, becomes capable of eliciting that natural response, even in absence of the natural stimulus. Classical conditioning is applicable only for reflexive and spontaneous responses, and not for 6 voluntary responses. The phenomenon of classical conditioning was discovered by him in the course of Classical Conditioning By Pavlov his work during the turn of the last century. This was reported elaborately in his paper in 1927 and also illustrated in detail in 1928. In the following section we would study in more detail the best known experiment by Pavlov. 1.3 PAVLOV’S EXPERIMENT ON CLASSICAL CONDITIONING 1.3.1 The Experiment Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849 - 1936) was a Russian physiologist. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Pavlov and his associates were working in a laboratory at St. Petersburg on the digestive process of dogs. Pavlov was studying the gastric secretion of the dogs by placing meat powder in their mouth and measuring the saliva. For the sake of precision of measurement, Pavlov had arranged to give a signal of light or sound of bell just before placing the meat powder in the animal’s mouth. However, after a few trials, unexpectedly, the dog started salivating in anticipation of meat powder. It began to salivate at the signal - light or sound, even before the meat powder had been given. Thus its salivary response, which should come naturally only after the meat powder touches the taste buds, started to be elicited by a neutral visual or auditory stimulus even before the meat powder was given. Pavlov also noted that the amount of salivation in response to the light or sound was less in amount than the salivation that occurred in response to meat powder. Pavlov was disturbed by the phenomenon. He considered this ‘psychic secretion’ a hindrance to his scientific work. Later on, however, he attempted to explain the unexpected turn of affairs. Initially he tried to go by the introspective method and tried to guess what the dog was ‘thinking’. Soon he abandoned this effort and emphasised on the association between the natural and neutral stimuli to interpret the findings. Before conditioning : Food being shown to the dog ——— The dog salivates Ring a bell —————non-salivating dog During conditioning : Ring the bell ——— Give the food —— Dog salivates (Repeat this many times so that the dog is able to associate the bell with the food and salivate) After conditioning : Ring the bell ————Dog salivates You can see the experiment by Pavlov in the internet by clicking <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpoLxEN54ho&feature=related> He tried out the above experiment in the same manner with a light also. That is light appearing just before the food is produced. However when the results were seen, Pavlov noticed as compared to the bell the response to light was not as strong. 1.3.2 Interpretation of the Results of the Experiment You must be aware by this time that the association between the food (meat powder used by Pavlov) and bell in time and place was crucial for the results that Pavlov obtained. The anticipatory salivation was not a natural response to the bell. But after 7 Learning and the association was established, the dog elicited the saliva in response to the bell. Cognitive Theories of Personality Thus, it was a new learning for the dog. Pavlov identified four essential elements of the learning processes. They are: i) Unconditioned stimulus (UCS): The natural stimulus that elicits a natural response. In Pavlov’s experiment, the meat powder was the UCS. ii) Unconditioned response (UCR): The natural response elicited to the natural stimulus. In Pavlov’s experiment, the salivation was the UCR. iii) Conditioned stimulus (CS): The neutral stimulus that does not naturally elicit the target response, but may do so after being associated with the UCS for a number of times. In Pavlov’s experiment, the light or the sound of the bell was the CS. iv) Conditioned response (CR): The target response similar to the UCR that originally occurred to the UCS only, but after conditioning occurred to CS, even in absence of the UCS. In Pavlov’s experiment, the salivation that occurred in response to the light or bell was the CR. You must remember here that the UCR and the CR are similar but not the same. Pavlov noticed that the amount of salivation was less in response to the light / bell in comparison to the original salivation in response to meat powder. Box 1 Before conditioning: UCS (food) ————UCR (salivation) NS (bell) ————————No salivation During conditioning CS (bell) ———— UCS (food) ————UCR (salivation) After conditioning CS (bell) ————CR (salivation) (UCS -unconditioned stimulus, UCR- unconditioned response, NS- neutral stimulus, CS- conditioned stimulus, CR -conditioned response) You must remember that classical conditioning is not limited to salivation and similar other anticipatory approach responses only. One may condition anticipatory withdrawal responses as well.