Hockenbury Discovering Psychology 5th txtbk

Classical Conditioning185Much of this chapter will focus on a very basic form oflearning, called conditioning. Conditioning is the process oflearning associations between environmental events and behavioralresponses. This description may make you think conditioninghas only a limited application to your life. In fact,however, conditioning is reflected in most of your everydaybehavior, from simple habits to emotional reactions and complexskills.In this chapter, we’ll look at basic types of conditioning—classicalconditioning and operant conditioning. Asyou’ll see in the next section, classical conditioning explainshow certain stimuli can trigger an automatic response, as theattic now triggers mild anxiety in Erv. And, as you’ll see in alater section, operant conditioning is useful in understandinghow we acquire new, voluntary actions, such as Erv’s postinghis sign whenever he climbs into the attic. Finally, toward the end of the chapter,we’ll consider the process of observational learning, or how we acquire new behaviorsby observing the actions of others.Classical ConditioningAssociating StimuliKey Theme• Classical conditioning is a process of learning associations between stimuli.Key Questions• How did Pavlov discover and investigate classical conditioning?• How does classical conditioning occur?• What factors can affect the strength of a classically conditioned response?Conditioning, Learning, and BehaviorThrough different kinds of experiences,people and animals acquire enduringchanges in their behaviors. Psychologistshave identified general principles of learningthat explain how we acquire newbehaviors. These principles apply tosimple responses, but they can also helpexplain how we learn complex skills, likethe traditional style of drumming thatthese children are learning in an afterschoolclass in Bungwe, Rwanda.One of the major contributors to the study of learning was not a psychologist buta Russian physiologist who was awarded a Nobel Prize for his work on digestion.Ivan Pavlov was a brilliant scientist who directed several research laboratories inSt. Petersburg, Russia, at the turn of the twentieth century. Pavlov’s involvementwith psychology began as a result of an observation he made while investigating therole of saliva in digestion, using dogs as his experimental subjects.In order to get a dog to produce saliva, Pavlov (1904) put food on the dog’stongue. After he had worked with the same dog for several days in a row, Pavlovnoticed something curious. The dog began salivating before Pavlov put the food onits tongue. In fact, the dog began salivating when Pavlov entered the room or evenat the sound of his approaching footsteps. But salivating is a reflex—a largely involuntary,automatic response to an external stimulus. (As we’ve noted in previouschapters, a stimulus is anything perceptible to the senses, such as a sight, sound,smell, touch, or taste.) The dog should salivate only after the food is presented, notbefore. Why would the reflex occur before the stimulus was presented? What wascausing this unexpected behavior?If you own a dog, you’ve probably observed the same basic phenomenon. Yourdog gets excited and begins to slobber when you shake a box of dog biscuits, evenbefore you’ve given him a doggie treat. In everyday language, your pet has learnedto anticipate food in association with some signal—namely, the sound of dog biscuitsrattling in a box.Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936) In his laboratory,Pavlov was known for his meticulousorganization, keen memory, and attentionto details (Windholz, 1990). But outsidehis lab, Pavlov was absentminded, forgetful,and impractical, especially regardingmoney. He often forgot to pick up his paycheck,and he sometimes lent money topeople with hard luck stories who couldn’tpossibly pay him back (Fancher, 1996). Ona trip to New York City, Pavlov carried hismoney so carelessly that he had his pocketpicked in the subway, and his Americanhosts had to take up a collection to payhis expenses (Skinner, 1966).