Ivan Pavlov s Classical Conditioning - 1149 Words

Learning is defined as a relatively permanent change in behavior due to experience. A stimulus is anything that comes in through your senses. A response is anything that goes out through your muscles (anything you do). Habituation is a decrease in response to a repeated stimulus. Classical conditioning: Ivan Pavlov, J. B. Watson; works on reflexes and emotional behaviors through the repeated pairing of two stimuli. Operant conditioning: E. L. Thorndike, B. F. Skinner; works on all other behaviors by following a response with reinforcement or punishment. Cognitive Learning: Albert Bandura; works on any observable behavior when people learn by observing the behavior of others. Ivan Pavlov s classical conditioning In classical†¦show more content†¦This is called classical extinction. During extinction, the response will sometimes come back after a rest period. This is called spontaneous recovery. After conditioning an animal to respond to a particular stimulus, the animal will also react to other, similar stimuli. This is called generalization. Sometimes, an animal will respond to one stimulus but not to another. We call this discrimination. We can also present one stimulus with the unconditioned stimulus and another stimulus without the unconditioned stimulus. Over time, the animal will learn to respond to the first one and not respond to the second one. This is called discrimination training. When a person learns an emotional response through classical conditioning (such as learning to fear the sound of the dentist s drill), we call it a conditioned emotional response. The technique of systematic desensitization is based on classical extinction and can be used to help overcome fears. Mary Cover Jones used this technique to help a boy called Peter overcome his fear of rabbits. Psychologist Martin Seligman suggests that we are easily conditioned to fear things that were a threat to our ancestors, such as snakes and spiders. This is called biological preparedness. Robert Rescorla s work suggests that conditioning sometimes works better if the stimulus is logically connected to the response. Leon