Hockenbury Discovering Psychology 5th txtbk

Classical Conditioning187bell as a neutral stimulus—neutral because dogs don’t normally salivate to the soundof a ringing bell. Pavlov first rang the bell and then gave the dog food. After thisprocedure was repeated several times, the dog began to salivate when the bell wasrung, before the food was put in its mouth. At that point, the dog was classicallyconditioned to salivate to the sound of a bell alone. That is, the dog had learned anew association between the sound of the bell and the presentation of food.Pavlov called the sound of the bell the conditioned stimulus. The conditionedstimulus (or CS) is the stimulus that is originally neutral but comes to elicit areflexive response. He called the dog’s salivation to the sound of the bell theconditioned response (or CR), which is the learned reflexive response to a previouslyneutral stimulus. The steps of Pavlov’s conditioning process are outlined inFigure 5.1.Classical conditioning terminology can be confusing. You may find it helpfulto think of the word conditioned as having the same meaning as “learned.” Thus,the “conditioned stimulus” refers to the “learned stimulus,” the “unconditionedresponse” refers to the “unlearned response,” and so forth.It’s also important to note that in this case the unconditioned response and theconditioned response describe essentially the same behavior—the dog’s salivating.Which label is applied depends on which stimulus elicits the response. If the dog issalivating in response to a natural stimulus that was not acquired through learning,the salivation is an unconditioned response. If, however, the dog has learned to salivateto a neutral stimulus that doesn’t normally produce the automatic response,the salivation is a conditioned response.Before Conditioning:Prior to conditioning, the dognotices the bell ringing, but doesnot salivate. Here, the bell is aneutral stimulus. Food placed inthe dog’s mouth (the UCS)naturally produces the salivationreflex (the UCR).Neutral stimulus(ringing bell)No salivationFigure 5.1 The Process ofClassical Conditioning Thediagram shows Pavlov’s classicalconditioning procedure. As youcan see, classical conditioninginvolves the learning of an associationbetween a neutral stimulus(the ringing bell) and a naturalstimulus (food).Natural reflexUCS(food in mouth)UCR(salivation)During Conditioning:In the conditioning phase, theneutral stimulus (the ringingbell) is repeatedly soundedimmediately before food isplaced in the dog’s mouth(the UCS), which producesthe natural reflex of salivation(the UCR).Neutral stimulus(ringing bell)+UCS(food in mouth)NaturalreflexUCR(salivation)After Conditioning:The ringing bell is no longerneutral. It is now called aCS because, when the bell isrung, the dog reacts with aconditioned reflex: It salivateseven though no food is present.The salivation response iscalled a CR.CS(ringing bell)Conditioned reflexCR(salivation)