Developmental psychology.pdf

184 Learning and Information Processing
Figure 7.9
Conditioning in School. The pairing
of books and punishment leads to an
aversive reaction to books.
US
(punishment)
>- UR/CR
(aversion)
"In late May of my junior year in
high school, just after my last
semester exam, I went for a drive
in the country to celebrate the
beginning of summer. While
enjoying the fresh air and heavy
fragrance of yellow jasmine, one of
the spring flowers blooming at the
time, an oncoming car careened
from its side of the highway directly
into my lane. There was no headon
collision, but the impact sent my
car to the right into a field of yellow
jasmine; the other car, whose driver
had fallen asleep, also ended up in
the field. No one was seriously hurt,
except the cars, but now, whenever
I smell yellow jasmine, my stomach
tightens up as it does when
something frightens me, and I have
chills.
Learning Emotional Reactions The most widespread influence of classical
conditioning lies in the development of attitudes and feelings. In fact, there is reason
to think that all classical conditioning involves some emotional reaction. The conditioned
response includes not only physiological aspects, such as salivation, goose pimples, or
a change in heart rate, but also a diffuse emotional reaction on the pleasure-pain
continuum (Tarpy, 1975).
A century after Lope de Vega wrote of the Spanish monk, this learning of
emotional reactions was described by the brilliant English philosopher John Locke. In
reading the following passage, remember that schoolchildren were corrected for mistakes
by a beating, which is an unconditioned stimulus for the response of pain and
discomfort. The neutral stimuli were textbooks, which preceded the beating and hence
became conditioned stimuli:
Many children imputing the pain they endured at school to their books they
were corrected for, so join those ideas together, that a book becomes their
aversion .... reading becomes a torment to them, which otherwise
possibly they might have made the great pleasure of their lives. There are
rooms convenient enough, that some men cannot study in, and fashions of
vessels, which though ever so clean and commodious, they cannot drink out
of, and that by reason of some . . . ideas which are annexed to them, and
make them offensive. (Locke, 1690; Figure 7.9)
In most cases, the conditioned emotional reaction is built up through a series
of pairings, but it can occur after just a single trial, provided that the unconditioned
stimulus is of sufficient intensity. This outcome is called one-trial conditioning. After
a car accident, for example, without any other highway experiences, an individual might
readily fear roadways, signs, a certain color, or any other stimulus associated with the
accident.*
Positive feelings also can be acquired through classical conditioning. One of
the authors entered an animal psychology laboratory and encountered what he considered
to be the usual foul odor. His daughter exclaimed, "Oh, I love that smell."
Then she added, "It reminds me of Snoopy." Snoopy was a pet white rat that provided
warmth and cuddliness in her younger days. Odors commonly become conditioned
stimuli.
RESPONDENT AND OPERANT BEHAVIOR
A careful distinction must be made at this point, for despite Pavlov's optimism, his
discoveries are not adequate to explain the whole situation of the cats and monk. At
the monk's cough, the animals became fearful and experienced certain visceral changes;
perhaps their hair stood on end, backs became arched, and claws extended reflexively.
The cough induced this fear, but it did not necessarily make the cats run away. Similarly,
the bell induced salivation in Pavlov's dogs, but it did not necessarily make them
eat the meat, nibble at it, or ignore it. In short, the cats and dogs were aroused through
classical conditioning, but what they did about their aroused states is another matter,
which brings us to a very different type of behavior.