Classical Conditioning

Ivan Pavlov:
1. What was Pavlov actually studying when he developed his theory of classical conditioning?
=  He was studying salivation in dogs.                                                         
2. Explain (in detail) how Pavlov's experiment was conducted.
=Pavlov put his dogs in an experimental chamber, were presented with meat powder and they had their saliva collected via a surgically implanted tube in their saliva glands. Over time, he noticed that his dogs who begin salivation before the meat powder was even presented, whether it was by the presence of the handler or merely by a clicking noise produced by the device that distributed the meat powder.
Fascinated by this finding, Pavlov paired the meat powder with various stimuli such as the ringing of a bell. After the meat powder and bell were presented together several times, the bell was used alone. Pavlov’s dogs, as predicted, responded by salivating to the sound of the bell without the food. The bell began as a neutral stimulus. However, by pairing the bell with the stimulus that did produce the salivation response, the bell was able to acquire the ability to trigger the salivation response.
3. Identify the conditioned stimulus, the unconditioned stimulus and the conditioned response from Pavlov's experiment.
= The meat powder is considered an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) and the dog’s salivation is the unconditioned response (UCR). The bell is a neutral stimulus until the dog learns to associate the bell with food. Then the bell becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS) which produces the conditioned response (CR) of salivation after repeated pairings between the bell and food.
4. Explain what extinction means in relation to classical conditioning.
= In relation to classical conditioning extinction is when Classical Condition is absence from the unconticional statement. The Conditional statement loses the capacity to cause conditional response. This is also called spontaneous recovery.
5. Explain what stimulus generalization means in relation to classical conditioning.
= Stimulus generalization is when the tendency for the conditioned stimulus to suggest similar responds for the ones who have been conditioned.
6. Explain what stimulus discrimination means in relation to classical conditioning.
= Stimulus Discrimination means that the organism's ability to perceive differences among stimuli and respond to only one or a few such stimuli. Discrimination produces signals the behavioral course proper to the situation.7. Explain at least two limitations of this experiment.= -He only worked with dogs
   -He required surgical procedure
8. Explain what Pavlov theorized about how we learn.= Pavlov said that when a natural stimulus is paired with a neutral the neutral is learned providing the natural stimulus evoking the responds of the neutral.


John B. Watson:
1. Explain (in detail) how Watson's "Little Albert" study was conducted.
=Watson studied Albert, an 11 month old infant child. The goal of the study was to condition Albert to become afraid of a white rat by pairing the white rat with a very loud, jarring noise. First, Albert showed no sign of fear when he was presented with rats, but once the rat was repeatedly paired with the loud noise, Albert developed a fear of rats. It could be said that the loud noise induced fear. The implications of Watson’s experiment suggested that classical conditioning could cause some phobias in humans.
2. Identify the conditioned stimulus, the unconditioned stimulus and the conditioned response from Watson's study
= (CS)— Rat
   (UCS)- Loud noise
   (UCR)-Fear
3. Explain at least two limitations of this study.= -He only used one baby.
    -There were other sounds around.
4. Explain Watson's law of frequency.= Watson’s law of frequency stated that the more often two things are linked the association will be       more powerful.
5. Explain Watson's law of recency.= Watson’s law of recency states that responds occur immediately after the stimulus.
6. Explain the basic assumptions of behaviorism according to Watson.=   He said that all behavior can be reducing to its basics components.


http://www.learning-theories.com/classical-conditioning-pavlov.html
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Pavlov's_Classical_Conditioning-definition
http://www.jstor.org/pss/1423074