Hockenbury Discovering Psychology 5th txtbk

194 CHAPTER 5 LearningFigure 5.4 Classically Conditioned DrugEffects: Does Just the Smell of a StarbucksEspresso Perk You Up? If it does, classicalconditioning is at work! Pavlov (1927) suggestedthat administering a drug could beviewed as a conditioning trial. Just likepairing the sound of a bell with the presentationof food, if specific environmentalcues are repeatedly paired with a drug’sadministration, they can become conditionedstimuli that eventually elicit thedrug’s effect. For a regular coffee drinker,the sight, smell, and taste of freshlybrewed coffee are the original neutralstimuli that, after being repeatedly pairedwith caffeine (the UCS), eventually becomeconditioned stimuli, producing the CS:increased arousal and alertness.During Conditioning:Neutralstimulus+ Unconditionedstimulus (UCS)Smell, tasteof coffee+After Conditioning:Conditionedstimulus (CS)Smell, tasteof coffeecaffeineelicitselicitsnatural reflexconditioned reflexUnconditionedresponse (UCR)Increased arousal,alertnessConditionedresponse (CR)Increased arousal,alertnessClassical conditioning can also influence drug responses. For example, if youare a regular coffee drinker like both of your authors, you may have noticed that youbegin to feel more awake and alert after just a few groggy sips of your first cup ofcoffee in the morning. However, it takes at least 20 minutes for the caffeine from thecoffee to reach significant levels in your bloodstream. If you’re feeling more awakebefore blood levels of caffeine rise, it’s probably because you’ve developed a classicallyconditioned response to the sight, smell, and taste of coffee (see Figure 5.4). Confirmingthat everyday experience, such conditioned responses to caffeine-associatedstimuli have also been demonstrated experimentally (e.g., Flaten & Blumenthal,1999; Mikalsen & others, 2001).Once this classically conditioned drug effect becomes well established, the smellor taste of coffee—even decaffeinated coffee—can trigger the conditioned responseof increased arousal and alertness (A. W. Smith & others, 1997).Conditioned drug effects seem to be involved in at least some instances ofplacebo response (Stewart-Williams & Podd, 2004). Also called placebo effect, aplacebo response occurs when an individual has a psychological and physiologicalreaction to what is actually a fake treatment or drug. We’ll discuss this phenomenonin more detail in Chapter 12.Contemporary Views of Classical ConditioningKey Theme• Contemporary learning researchers acknowledge the importance of bothcognitive factors and evolutionary influences in classical conditioning.Key Questions• How has the involvement of cognitive processes in classical conditioningbeen demonstrated experimentally?• What is meant by the phrase “the animal behaves like a scientist” in classicalconditioning?• How do taste aversions challenge the basic conditioning principles, andwhat is biological preparedness?placebo responseAn individual’s psychological and physiologicalresponse to what is actually a fake treatmentor drug; also called placebo effect.The traditional behavioral perspective holds that classical conditioning results froma simple association of the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus.According to the behaviorists, mental or cognitive processes such as thinking, anticipating,or deciding were not needed to explain the conditioning process.However, not all psychologists were convinced that mental processes were souninvolved in learning. Some wondered whether conditioning procedures did morethan simply change how an organism responded. Could conditioning procedureschange what the organism knows as well as what it does? According to the cognitive