#unconditioned response

[alevelpsychologyrevision]

Classical Conditioning (4.1.1)

[alevelpsychologyrevision]

Classical Conditioning (4.1.1)

In classical conditioning, the response to stimuli are reflex actions, which means that they involve involuntary responses. For example, sneezing when presented with a bunch of flowers. The process begins when when an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) provokes an unconditioned response (UCR). For example James visits his aunt's house and his aunt always has a bunch of flowers in the lounge. Because James has hey-fever he sneezes. Here the UCS is the bunch of flowers and the UCR is James sneezing. It is an unconditioned response because the response to the stimulus is natural. The UCS is then paired with a neutral stimulus (NS), in this case it is James' aunt. The stimulus is neutral because it would not normally produce the UCR. After a few pairings of the NS and the UCR, the NS becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS). Now whenever James sees his aunt he automatically sneezes, regardless of whether the flowers are present or not. James sneezing when just his aunt is present is now a conditioned response (CR).

Related to classical conditioning is extinction and spontaneous recovery. Extinction occurs when the UCS no longer causes the CR. After a few trails of separating the two stimuli the learnt response is extinguished. Spontaneous recovery is when after extinction the association recurs for no apparent reason.

Another aspect of classical conditioning is stimulus generalisation and discrimination. Stimulus generalisation is where a stimulus similar to the specific one can elicit the conditioned response. For example, in our flower example above James might have another aunt and this different aunt might make James sneeze. Discrimination is the opposite to stimulus generalisation. This is where you only want the CR to be present from a specific type of CS. For example, James wants his cat Chumpkins to come to the lounge when he rings a certain type of bell and Chumpkins to come to his room when he rings a different kind of bell. He does not want Chumpkins to generalise all bells to mean come to the lounge/his bedroom.

[studiousness]

5 components of classical conditiong

Unconditioned Stimulus - natural stimulus that reflexively elicits a response without the need for prior learning - Pavlov used food as the UCS because it produced a naturally occurring salivation reflex - remember! "condition" means learned - so an unconditioned stimulus is really an "unlearned" stimulus.

Unconditioned Response - Unlearned response to an unconditioned stimulus - in Pavlov's experiments, the salivation was the UCR

Neutral Stimulus - produces no conditioned response prior to learning - in Pavlov's experiments, ringing a bell was originally a neutral stimulus

Conditioned Stimulus - The conditioned stimulus was originally the NS - but when systematically paired with an UCS (the food) it becomes a conditioned (or learned) stimulus, gaining the power to cause a response (drooling)

Conditioned response - learned response elicited by the CS - Pavlov called the process in which a CS elicits a CR "acquisition"

In Pavlov's experiments: - ringing bell (NS) + food (UCS) =  ringing bell became CS because the dog reacted with the CR of drooling when it heard the bell - dog's salivation was both a UCR and CR * Classical conditioning is most effective when the CS is immediately before the UCS