Topic > A history of the study of classical conditioning and its use

Every day people are conditioned without even realizing it. This may include being productive at work to avoid losing a job or associating a gas station with anger because it's right next to that light that never turns green. Whatever it is, what people have been conditioned to think and do affects them every day. One form of conditioning is known as classical conditioning. This form of conditioning includes an unconditioned stimulus combined with a conditioned stimulus to create a conditioned response. Through classical conditioning, people find themselves automatically responding in ways that are not natural to them due to the stimuli they have been conditioned to respond to. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Classical conditioning began in the early 1900s when Ivan Pavlov observed that dogs salivate when they see food. This was an unconditional response. He decided to test it by ringing a bell, a conditioned stimulus, every time he brought food, an unconditioned stimulus, to the dogs. At first, when he rang the bell without food, the dogs had no reaction. However, after ringing the bell before giving the dogs food, the dogs began to associate the bell with food. As a result, the dogs were conditioned to respond to the bell by salivating, even if no food arrived afterwards (Myers, 2013, p. 269). Within classical conditioning there are two types of learning: signal and evaluative. In signal learning, there is an “if-then” relationship between the unconditioned stimulus and the conditioned stimulus. In classical conditioning where evaluative learning is used, the subject is not aware of the unconditioned and conditioned stimulus and the subject unconsciously connotes positive and negative feelings with the stimuli (Pornpitakpan, 2012, p. 282). Classical conditioning is seen in practice almost every day. For example, at my grandfather's funeral we sang the hymn “Nearer, My God, to Thee.” While before his funeral this hymn was just another church song, now every time I hear the song I feel sad because it reminds me of my grandfather's absence. The unconditioned stimulus was that my grandfather had died and this created the unconditioned response of sadness. The neutral stimulus, the song, when paired with the unconditioned stimulus created the same unconditioned response. Soon, the neutral stimulus of the hymn became a conditioned stimulus and created the conditioned response of sadness. This situation is an example of evaluative learning. I wasn't aware of the conditioning that was happening, instead I felt a response to a related stimulus. Another example of classical conditioning in my life is from my freshman year of high school. I had a concussion that year, and a tutor came to my house every day to help me handle my schoolwork. After I recovered, every time I saw that tutor around town or at school I started to get headaches, just like when I had a concussion. The unconditioned stimulus, my concussion, created the unconditioned response of my headache. A neutral stimulus, my guardian, became associated with the unconditioned stimulus of my concussion, and I was soon conditioned to respond with a headache whenever I saw my guardian, or the conditioned stimulus. This is an example of signal learning as it led to the situation where if I saw my tutor I would get a headache. Please note: this is just an example...