5.2 Classical Conditioning
Notes
Discovered by Ivan Pavlov, who noticed dogs salivating before food arrived.
- Unconditioned stimulus (US): naturally triggers a response (food). Unconditioned response (UR): the natural reaction (salivation).
- Neutral stimulus (NS): no response at first (a bell).
- After repeated pairing, the NS becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS) and triggers a conditioned response (CR), which is the learned reaction.
- Example: A student gets a shock from a pencil sharpener (US) and feels fear (UR). After several shocks, the sound of the sharpener (CS) causes fear (CR).
- Order: NS is presented just before the US for best learning.
Practice
In Pavlov's experiment, the dog salivating at the sound of the bell alone is the:
Salivating to the bell is the learned response (CR). The bell is the CS.
Every time Rosa hears a dentist's drill (which has been paired with pain), she tenses up. The drill sound is the:
The sound became a CS after being paired with pain; tensing is the CR.
Which of these is an unconditioned stimulus?
A US triggers a response naturally without learning.
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