Classical Conditioning

Question 1

Who created the theory of classical conditioning?

Answer 1

Pavlov

Question 2

What does this theory claim?

Answer 2

That behaviour is learnt through stimulus association
(a neutral stimulus + unconditioned stimulus causing a conditioned response)

Question 3

What is a unconditioned stimulus?

Answer 3

A stimulus that causes an automatic or reflex response

E.g - balloon busting

Question 4

What is an unconditioned response?

Answer 4

An automatic reflex response to an unconditioned stimulus

E.g fear

Question 5

What is a neutral stimulus?

Answer 5

A stimulus that causes no natural/reflex response

E.g dogs

Question 6

What is a conditioned stimulus?

Answer 6

A stimulus after being paired with an unconditional stimulus causes a learnt conditioned response

E.g the previous neutral stimulus

Question 7

What is a conditioned response?

Answer 7

A learnt reflex response to a condition stimulus

E.g - fear

Question 8

What is extinction?

Answer 8

When the condition stimulus gradually loses its association with the original unconditioned stimulus and revert back to a neutral stimulus causing no response

Question 9

What is spontaneous recovery?

Answer 9

AFTER EXTINCTION where ‘out of the blue’ the neutral stimulus triggers the conditioned response again

Question 10

What is stimulus generalisation?

Answer 10

Once the condition response is learned sometimes it will appear in response to other stimuli that are similar to the condition stimuli

E.g - fear of German shepherds —> fear of all dogs —> fear of other animals

Question 11

What causes the neutral stimulus to turn into a conditioned stimulus?

Answer 11

Association with the unconditional stimulus
Multiple times over a long period
Or
One traumatic event

Question 12

Strengths of classical conditioning

Answer 12

• Pavlov’s experiment
  Where he had food with the noise of a bell, and dogs were conditioned to salivate to the sound of a bell - highly reliable and high internal validity experiment
• Capafons et al (1998)
  Used systematic desensitisation to successfully treat patients who had a phobia of flying - SD is based on CC therefore offers an accurate explanation (also offers credibility)

Question 13

Weaknesses of classical conditioning

Answer 13

• Animal evidence
  Supporting evidence such as Pavlov offers low ecological validity and is limited in its generalisability as animals have much simpler cognitive processes in humans
• Systematic desensitisation lacks application to real life situations
  It only asks the participant to imagine each situation rather than actually being in the situation so lacks validity to real life situations - we don’t know if the CC treatment will work when they face a real fear