Classical conditioning

Pavlov's dog conditioning

Classical conditioning (also Pavlovian conditioning) is a type of learning that happens subconsciously.

Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) was the first to show the way in which it works. He did this in an experiment using dogs. Pavlov noticed that the dogs naturally salivated when they saw food. This behaviour did not need to be taught. In this example, the food is an unconditioned stimulus. He paired this unconditioned stimulus (showing food to the dogs) with another, neutral stimulus: the ringing of a bell. Pavlov discovered that, if the two stimuli are presented together again and again, the organism learns that they belong together. As a result, it is enough to show the neutral stimulus to get a conditioned response or reflex.[1]

Classical conditioning is an important factor in everyday life. It can be applied in many areas such as behavioural therapies, responses to drugs and in modern day marketing strategies.

Classical conditioning is different from operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is a different kind of learning. It happens when an individual or animal learns a behaviour as a result of a consequence of that behaviour.[2] For example, a child may learn to open a box to get some sweets. So, when a behaviour has a good result, the organism learns to associate the behaviour with this good result. As such, learning the behaviour and repeating it.

So, operant conditioning explains voluntary changes in behaviour. Classical conditioning explains how reflexes are trained.

  1. Gormezano, I., & Moore, J. W. (1966). Classical conditioning. Experimental methods and instrumentation in psychology, 1, 385-420.[1]
  2. J. E. R. Staddon and D. T. Cerutti, Annual Review of Psychology, Vol. 54:115-144 (Volume publication date February 2003).[2] Archived 2021-11-28 at the Wayback Machine

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