Conditioning a response to a stimulus
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
What do you do when you hear a bell ring? Well most
people will walk to their door to open it, or pick up
their phone if its a phone bell ringing. Well now what
do we do when the tone of the phone ring is similar
to your cell phone. With so many similar cell phones
on the street today it’s no wonder we see hundreds of
heads turn whenever we hear one ring.
Here is a
cool site on this subject!
COMPONENTS OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
The easiest place to start is with a little example.
Consider a hungry dog who sees a bowl of food. Something
like this might happen:
Food ---> Salivation
The dog is hungry, the dog sees the food, the dog salivates.
This is a natural sequence of events, an unconscious,
uncontrolled, and unlearned relationship. See the food,
then salivate.
Now, because we are humans who have an insatiable curiosity,
we experiment. When we present the food to the hungry
dog (and before the dog salivates), we ring a bell.
Thus,
· Bell
· with
· Food ---> Salivation
We repeat this action (food and bell given simultaneously)
at several meals. Every time the dog sees the food,
the dog also hears the bell. Ding-dong, Alpo.
Now, because we are humans who like to play tricks
on our pets, we do another experiment. We ring the bell
(Ding-dong), but we don't show any food. What does the
dog do? Right,
Bell ---> Salivate
The bell elicits the same response the sight of the
food gets. Over repeated trials, the dog has learned
to associate the bell with the food and now the bell
has the power to produce the same response as the food.
(And, of course, after you've tricked your dog into
drooling and acting even more stupidly than usual, you
must give it a special treat.)
This is the essence of Classical Conditioning. It really
is that simple. You start with two things that are already
connected with each other (food and salivation). Then
you add a third thing (bell) for several trials. Eventually,
this third thing may become so strongly associated that
it has the power to produce the old behavior.
Now, where do we get the term, "Conditioning" from
all this? Let me draw up the diagrams with the official
terminology.
· Food --------------------->
Salivation
· Unconditioned Stimulus
---> Unconditioned Response
"Unconditioned" simply means that the stimulus and
the response are naturally connected. They just came
that way, hard wired together like a horse and carriage
and love and marriage as the song goes. "Unconditioned"
means that this connection was already present before
we got there and started messing around with the dog
or the child or the spouse.
"Stimulus" simply means the thing that starts it while
"response" means the thing that ends it. A stimulus
elicits and a response is elicited. (This is circular
reasoning, true, but hang in there.) Another diagram,
· Conditioning Stimulus
· Bell
· with
· Food ----------------------->
Salivation
· Unconditioned Stimulus------>
Unconditioned Response
We already know that "Unconditioned" means unlearned,
untaught, preexisting, already-present-before-we-got-there.
"Conditioning" just means the opposite. It means that
we are trying to associate, connect, bond, link something
new with the old relationship. And we want this new
thing to elicit (rather than be elicited) so it will
be a stimulus and not a response. Finally, after many
trials we hope for,
· Bell --------------------->
Salivation
· Conditioned Stimulus
---> Conditioned Response
Let's review these concepts.
Unconditioned Stimulus: a thing that can already
elicit a response.
Unconditioned Response: a thing that is already
elicited by a stimulus.
Unconditioned Relationship: an existing stimulus-response
connection.
Conditioning Stimulus: a new stimulus we deliver
the same time we give the old stimulus.
Conditioned Relationship: the new stimulus-response
relationship we created by associating a new stimulus
with an old response.
There are two key parts. First, we start with an existing
relationship, Unconditioned Stimulus ---> Unconditioned
Response. Second, we pair a new thing (Conditioning
Stimulus) with the existing relationship, until the
new thing has the power to elicit the old response.
A LITTLE HISTORY AND A COMPARISON
The example we used here is from the first studies
on classical conditioning as described by Ivan Pavlov,
the famous Russian physiologist. Pavlov discovered these
important relationships around the turn of the century
in his work with dogs (really). He created the first
learning theory which precedes the learning theory most
teachers know quite well, reinforcement theory.
The point is this: Classical conditioning says nothing
about rewards and punishments which are key terms in
reinforcement theory. Consider our basic example,
· Conditioning Stimulus
· BELL
· with
· Food --------------------->
Salivation
· Unconditioned Stimulus
---> Unconditioned Response
There is nothing in here about rewards or punishments,
no terminology like that, not even an implication like
that. Classical conditioning is built on creating relationships
by association over trials. Some people confuse Classical
Conditioning with Reinforcement Theory. To keep them
separated just look for the presence of rewards and
punishments.
Another way to
look at this is
Classical conditioning was the first type of learning
to be discovered and studied within the behaviorist
tradition (hence the name classical). The major theorist
in the development of classical conditioning is Ivan
Pavlov, a Russian scientist trained in biology and medicine
(as was his contemporary, Sigmund Freud). Pavlov was
studying the digestive system of dogs and became intrigued
with his observation that dogs deprived of food began
to salivate when one of his assistants walked into the
room. He began to investigate this phenomena and established
the laws of classical conditioning. Skinner renamed
this type of learning "respondent conditioning"
since in this type of learning, one is responding to
an environmental antecedent.
Major concepts
Classical conditioning is Stimulus (S) elicits >Response
(R) conditioning since the antecedent stimulus (singular)
causes (elicits) the reflexive or involuntary response
to occur. Classical conditioning starts with a reflex:
an innate, involuntary behavior elicited or caused by
an antecedent environmental event. For example, if air
is blown into your eye, you blink. You have no voluntary
or conscious control over whether the blink occurs or
not.
The specific model for classical conditioning is:
- Unconditioned Stimulus (US) elicits > Unconditioned
Response (UR): a stimulus will naturally (without
learning) elicit or bring about a relexive response
- Neutral Stimulus (NS) ---> does not elicit the
response of interest: this stimulus (sometimes called
an orienting stimulus as it elicits an orienting response)
is a neutral stimulus since it does not elicit the
Unconditioned (or reflexive) Response.
- The Neutral/Orientiing Stimulus (NS) is repeatedly
paired with the Unconditioned/Natural Stimulus (US).
- The NS is transformed into a Conditioned Stimulus
(CS); that is, when the CS is presented by itself,
it elicits or causes the CR (which is the same involuntary
response as the UR; the name changes because it is
elicited by a different stimulus. This is written
CS elicits > CR.
In classical conditioning no new behaviors are learned.
Instead, an association is developed (through pairing)
between the NS and the US so that the animal / person
responds to both events / stimuli (plural) in the same
way; restated, after conditioning, both the US and the
CS will elicit the same involuntary response (the person
/ animal learns to respond reflexively to a new stimulus).
The following is a restatement of these basic principles
using figures of Pavlov's original experiments as an
example.
Before conditioning
In order to have classical or respondent conditioning,
there must exist a stimulus that will automatically
or reflexively elicit a specific response. This stimulus
is called the Unconditioned Stimulus or UCS
because there is no learning involved in connecting
the stimulus and response. There must also be a stimulus
that will not elicit this specific response, but will
elicit an orienting response. This stimulus is called
a Neutral Stimulus or an Orienting Stimulus.
During conditioning
During conditioning, the neutral stimulus will first
be presented, followed by the unconditioned stimulus.
Over time, the learner will develop an association
between these two stimuli (i.e., will learn to make
a connection between the two stimuli.)
After conditioning
After conditioning, the previously neutral or orienting
stimulus will elicit the response previously only
elicited by the unconditioned stimulus. The stimulus
is now called a conditioned stimulus because
it will now elicit a different response as a result
of conditioning or learning. The response is now called
a conditioned response because it is elicited
by a stimulus as a result of learning. The two responses,
unconditioned and conditioned, look the same, but
they are elicited by different stimuli and are therefore
given different labels.
