Components of Classical Conditioning

The easiest place to start is with a little example. Consider a hungry dog that sees a bowl of food.
Something like this might happen:
FOOD SALIVATION
The dog is hungry, the dog sees the food, and the dog salivates. This is a natural sequence of events,
an unconscious, uncontrolled, and unlearned relationship. See the food, and then salivate.
ow, because we are humans who have an insatiable curiosity, we experiment. !hen we present the
food to the hungry dog "and before the dog salivates#, we ring a bell. Thus,
BELL & FOOD SALIVATION
!e repeat this action "food and bell given simultaneously# at several meals. $very time the dog sees
the food, the dog also hears the bell. %ing&dong, 'lpo.
ow, because we are humans who like to play tricks on our pets, we do another experiment. !e ring
the bell "%ing&dong#, but we don(t show any food. !hat does the dog do) *ight,
BELL SALIVATE
The bell elicits the same response the sight of the food gets. +ver 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. "'nd, 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. ,t really is that simple. -ou start with two things that
are already connected with each other "food and salivation#. Then you add a third thing "bell# for
several trials. $ventually, this third thing may become so strongly associated that it has the power to
produce the old behavior.
ow, where do we get the term, .Conditioning. from all this) /et me draw up the diagrams with the
official terminology.
FOOD SALIVATION
UNCONDITIONED STIMULUS (US) UNCONDITIONED RESPONSE (UR)
Unconditioned simply means that the stimulus and the response are naturally connected. They 0ust
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 or the customer or voter or whomever we1re
toying with.
Stimulus simply means the thing that starts it while response means the thing that ends it. ' stimulus
elicits and a response is elicited. "This is circular reasoning, true, but hang in there.#
'nother diagram,
(BELL)
CONDITIONING STIMULUS
&
UNCONDITIONED STIMULUS
(FOOD)
!e already know that Unconditioned means unlearned, untaught, preexisting, already&present&
before&we&got&there. Conditioning 0ust means the opposite. ,t means that we are trying to associate,
connect, bond, or link something new with the old relationship. 'nd we want this new thing to elicit
"rather than be elicited# so it will be a stimulus and not a response. 2inally, after many trials we hope
for,
(BELL)
CONDITIONING STIMULUS
/et(s review these concepts.
Unconditioned Stimulus (US): Something which can already elicit a response.
Unconditioned Response (UR): Something that is already elicited by a stimulus.
Unconditioned Relationship: 'n existing stimulus&response connection.
Conditioning Stimulus (CS): ' new stimulus which is delivered at the same time as the US.
Conditioned Response (CR): The behavior, identical to the UR, but elicited by the CS.
Conditioned Relationship: The new stimulus&response relationship created by associating a new
stimulus with an old response.
,n other words, we start with an existing relationship, 3nconditioned Stimulus 3nconditioned
*esponse. Second, we pair a new thing "Conditioning Stimulus# with the existing relationship, until
the it has the power to elicit the old response (Conditioned Response.
A Little Histor and A Comparison
The example we used here is from the first studies on classical conditioning as described by ,van
4avlov, the famous *ussian physiologist. 4avlov discovered these important relationships around the
turn of the 56
th
century in his work with dogs. 7e created the first learning theory which precedes the
learning theory most people know quite well, reinforcement theory "'8' operant conditioning#. !e
will look at reinforcement theory later, but for now , do want to make a point.
The point is this: Classical conditioning says nothing about rewards and punishments, which are key
terms in reinforcement theory. ,n our basic example, there is nothing mentioned 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 *einforcement Theory. To keep them separated 0ust look for the presence of
rewards and punishments.
UNCONDITIONED RESPONSE
(SAL!"A#!O$)
(SAL!"A#!O$)
CONDITIONED RESPONSE
E%erda Classical Conditioning
Classical Conditioning is extremely common. ,f you have pets and you feed them with canned food,
what happens when you hit the can opener) Sure, the animals come running even if you are opening
a can of green beans. They have associated the sound of the opener with their food.
Classical conditioning works with people, too. 9o to 8&:art and watch what happens when the blue
light turns on. Cost conscious shoppers will make a beeline to that table because they associate a
good sale with the blue light. "'nd, the research proves that people are more likely to buy the sale
item under the blue light even if the item isn(t a good value.#
Classical conditioning works with advertising. 2or example, many beer
ads prominently feature attractive young women wearing bikinis. The
young women "Unconditioned Stimulus# naturally elicit a favorable,
mildly aroused feeling "Unconditioned Response# in most men. The beer
is simply associated with this effect. The same thing applies with the
0ingles and music that accompany many advertisements. The music may
be patriotic, sad, or take us back to the days of our youth when we were
wild and free and tomorrow belonged to me. Then they connect the product or service with the
feeling elicited by the music and %ing&dong, 'lpo.
Clearly, classical conditioning is a pervasive form of influence in our world. This is true because it is
a natural feature of all humans and it is relatively simple and easy to accomplish.
Classical Conditioning !n #he &orld
!e can see applications of this theory in the teaching and learning of classroom rules and discipline.
Teachers will flip the lights off and on to signal the class to be quiet. ow flashing lights clearly will
not naturally cause children to be quiet. This is an association the teacher taught the students. The
same reasoning applies with our use of bells and whistles and other signals. !e use classical
conditioning to train our students in very basic procedures.
These are fairly obvious applications of conditioning and they are also quite useful. 7owever, ,
would like you to be aware of another important instance of conditioning.
4erhaps the strongest application of classical conditioning involves emotion. Common experience
and careful research both confirm that human emotions condition very rapidly and easily.
4articularly when the emotion is intensely felt or negative in direction, it will condition quickly.
2or example, when ;the author of this article< was in college ;he< was robbed at gun point by a
young man. ,t was an unexpected and frightening experience. This event occurred 0ust about dusk
and for a long time thereafter, ;he< often experienced moments of dread in the late afternoons
particularly when ;he< was 0ust walking around the city. $ven though ;he< was quite safe, the
lengthening shadows of the day were so strongly associated with the fear ;he< experienced in the
robbery, that ;he< could not but help feel the emotion all over.
The same process occurs with students or employees or clients "like in medical or hospital settings#.
=ecause of threatening tests or aggressive teachers> surly, rude, and obnoxious supervisors> cold,
perfunctory health care workers, some students, employees, or clients will feel a great deal of fear or
anxiety. 'nd when they experience the fear, it gets associated with other things in the situation. Thus,
student fear gets tied up with taking tests, with certain teachers, and in extreme cases, with school
itself. Then, whenever that student takes a test or sees that teacher or walks into the building, the fear
is triggered.
ow, of course, the conditioning properties of emotion also apply to positive feelings. !hen people
experience positive affect, that emotion gets conditioned to other factors in the situation. 'nd, then,
whenever those other factors are present, the positive emotion can be triggered.
=ecause Classical Conditioning is so obvious, simple, and transparent, it is sometimes hard to see it
in operation, but clearly it is a fundamental path of persuasion and influence. /ook around in your
life and consider how it affects you. Consider now how you use it to affect others.
2007 Steve Booth-Butterfield - - - www.Healthynfluence.com - - - communication for a chan!e