Posted: April 11th, 2015

Classical conditioning assignment

Introduction

Psychology is a science that helps to study and understand mental functions and different behaviors of different organisms (Pastorino & Doyle-Portillo, 2012). It is a research undertaking ries to understand how organisms react to different situations that they experience. Classical conditioning assignment was a procedure that was first studied by Pavlov. He showed how a dog would react to a bell when given food. In the daily experiences, classical; conditioning can be examined by taking a scenario where a child colors the walls of the house. The child does not know if it is wrong. If the child is punished every time s/he colors the wall. This can be done using a cane. If he or she repeats this act, the mother spanks the child until he or she starts to associate the coloring with pain (Barlow & Durand, 2012).

Unconditioned stimulus

In the case of the child coloring the walls of the house, the unconditioned stimulus in this scenario would be represented by the beating of the child by the mother (Barlow & Durand, 2012).

Unconditioned Response

The unconditioned response in this case would be the child taking some time to learn that coloring his or her mother’s house is wrong. The child would continue to undertake the exercise until he or she starts to have coordinated response regarding the coloring and the beating (Barlow & Durand, 2012).

Neutral Stimulus

In this scenario, the neutral stimulus is the act of the child’s mother picking up the cane every time the child begins to draw the walls with her crayons, and it would not elicit any response except to focus attention. The neutral stimulus is not associated in any way with the unconditioned stimulus. However, it is intended to be used together to elicit the conditioned response and thus becomes the conditioned stimulus. Consequently, the mother would use the cane when the child draws on the walls. After doing this exercise for several times, the child would learn that the cane means she is about to be beaten thereby causing the conditioned response (Barlow & Durand, 2012).

Conditioned Stimulus

The cane would be the conditioned stimulus whereby in this learning, it is the stimulus that the subject (the child) is made aware (Barlow & Durand, 2012).

Conditioned Response

In this scenario, the conditioned response would be the pain and fear elicited by the child as a result of beating that would help them learn that they should not draw on the walls.

Stimulus Generalization                                                              

In classical conditioning, there is also the aspect of stimulus generalization. In this case, the subject responds to one or a group of stimuli that are similar although not identical to the conditioned stimulus. In this case, such a stimulus would be the child’s mother raising her voice every time the child begins to draw on the wall, or even making a clapping sound intended to alert the child to make her stop drawing (Barlow & Durand, 2012). This example can be illustrated as below:

NS (Natural Stimulus)                                  Response

Cane                                                              Fear

UCS (Unconditioned Stimulus)                      UCR (Unconditioned Response)

Beating                                                            Pain and fear

During Conditioning

NS

Cane                                                                Fear

UCS                                                                UCR

Beating                                                            Fear and pain

After Conditioning

CS                                                                  CR

Cane                                                                Fear: hence no drawing on the wall

Conclusion

Classical conditioning is a theory that has been applied in behavioral science, and it is effective in learning favorable behavior over unfavorable behavior. Unlike in Pavlov’s case, which was an experiment, the theory helps to replace the bad behavior with good behavior using environmental stimulus and natural stimulus. It is indeed one of the remarkable theories of psychology used today.